The Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) annual conference begins tomorrow (Sunday) and runs through Aug. 21 in Ottawa.
At the beginning of June, we spoke with St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston regarding which provincial ministers were a priority for the city’s delegation.
At that time, the key meetings would be with the Minister of Transportation, Prabmeet Sarkaria to discuss regional transportation; Attorney General Doug Downey to address concerns facing the St. Thomas Police Service; and the new Minister of Education, Jill Dunlop.
The latter was appointed yesterday (Friday) afternoon after the resignation of Todd Smith, in the portfolio for less than three months after a June cabinet shuffle.
And, as of this week, the city’s meeting with Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Paul Calandra assumes added importance.
AMO reported municipalities across the province advised of at least 1,400 homeless encampments in their communities last year.
As such, AMO is asking the province for guidance and to let people receiving welfare or disability payments collect shelter benefits as well. A spokesperson for Calandra says the province is spending $700 million a year on community and supportive housing.
That AMO advisory prompted a phone call yesterday to Preston to get a sense of the message the city’s delegation would have for Calandra.
He pointed out many municipalities in the province – and, indeed, across the country “are in much more dire straits than us.”
Preston continued, “I’m not going to say we have solved it, but we sure have taken some pretty good steps to move forward, with the help of the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.
“We’re moving, we’re doing things. We are not just studying it some more. And we’re not really trying to truly fix blame, we’re trying to fix the problem.”
“Because we kind of knew what we wanted and went ahead and did it. I get it, each municipality that is currently sitting with visible homelessness, be it people camping in their public parks and such, which we are truly not seeing.
“Many communities are saying we can’t continue to take on jobs that aren’t ours. We recognize housing is ours (responsibility) and this council has been great in moving it forward through the help of Indwell and others, including Eastwood (Housing Corp.)”
Progress is visible in St. Thomas, stressed Preston.
“We’re moving, we’re doing things. We are not just studying it some more. And we’re not really trying to truly fix blame, we’re trying to fix the problem.
“And, part of fixing the problem is identifying things we can start today and other things we will need help with in another half year, year, two years, five years.
“And, that’s the conversation we’re having with the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. To make sure cities can afford to move forward.
“We’re working hard to make sure we don’t ever step backward on the geared-to-income and assisted housing lists. We’ve got a lot to do on those and we can’t ever step backwards.”
“But, we recognize there are certain things that are in our lane and housing is one of them. And that is why we have been working so well with Indwell and trying to use up our by-names list (homeless individuals who have identified themselves to the city by name) for a noticeable difference in St. Thomas from just two years ago.”
Preston noted, “I get calls and conversations and I’m meeting with the deputy mayor of London (Shawn Lewis) while I’m at AMO to talk about this problem.
“How did we get as far as we have and what are we doing next steps to make sure it doesn’t continue to get worse because it has the opportunity to do so.”
In referencing the AMO advisory on housing Preston suggested, “Whenever you can find an issue that covers almost all municipalities, certainly the medium and larger municipalities, then they need to be grouping together and trying to come with a much better overall solution.
“And, in each of these cases, the overall solution is dollars.”
Money in the form of government grants, something St. Thomas has benefitted from of late, reminds Preston.
“We’ve gotten some recent federal grants that let us renovate our existing (city-owned) housing in a smart and accurate way.
“We’re working hard to make sure we don’t ever step backward on the geared-to-income and assisted housing lists.
“We’ve got a lot to do on those and we can’t ever step backwards.”
We’ll be in touch with Preston early in the week for AMO updates.
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A BRIGHTER FUTURE
In February of this year, city council endorsed the 2024-27 Strategic Plan titled Brighter Future.
According to a report presented to council this past Monday, “The Strategic Plan provides a road map for the current term of council, and consists of a Vision and Mission statement, six Guiding Values, two broad Strategic Pillars, and eleven Strategic Priorities.”
Once the plan was endorsed, city staff began to outline existing activities aligned with the strategic plan and new actions to help the city toward its new vision.
“The development of a Community Heritage Master Plan to help manage, conserve, and enhance cultural heritage resources and programming within the municipality is proposed.”
At a special meeting on June 24, members received a draft Action Plan document and they provided their views, suggested revisions, and additions.
Responses to those items identified were presented at Monday’s meeting and let’s look at some of the key issues in that report.
On the matter of community heritage, the report advises, “The update of the city’s Official Plan will include a robust section on the preservation and enhancement of the city’s built heritage.
“The development of a Community Heritage Master Plan to help manage, conserve, and enhance cultural heritage resources and programming within the municipality is proposed.”
Turning to healthcare and physician recruitment the Action Plan will, “Undertake a facilitated Physician Recruitment Symposium with the Health Recruitment Partnership (HRP) and community service partners to develop a proactive and comprehensive strategy to attract and recruit doctors to Elgin-St. Thomas, which may include enhancements and expansion of the HRP.”
Looking at the future needs of St. Thomas Public Library, under the Action Plan, a comprehensive feasibility study and planning assessment will be undertaken “to evaluate the needs and options for a future library branch in St. Thomas.”
Focussing on arts and culture the Action Plan will include the development of “An Arts and Culture Strategy to guide priorities, programming, investments, and support for arts and culture focused community initiatives.”
To engage youth in the community the Action Plan will, ” Champion the development and implementation of the Planet Youth/Icelandic Model in St. Thomas-Elgin to proactively support youth in reaching their full potential and proactively seek opportunities to engage with and support the City’s youth”
We touched on the Icelandic Prevention Model last September and you can read about it here.
And finally, the issue of food security where the Action Plan will, “Provide enhancements, resources, and support for the development and continued use of community gardens, including regular review of the promotion for the Community Gardens Policy, to increase access to healthy and sustainable foods across the community.
“And promote and enhance our local food sector in cooperation with and supported by the St. Thomas Elgin Food Bank and Food Providers Network and Southwestern Public Health.”
FORGET PARKING AT THE WEST END OF CENTRE STREET
At the Aug. 12 council meeting, Daniel Koppert, Manager of Capital Works presented members with a design report on Phase 3 of the reconstruction of Centre Street.
This portion of the work covers Elgin Street to Stanley Street and will extend “the east-west connection of the city’s multi-use path network across the downtown.”
His report reiterates, “The city has an objective to connect a multi-use trail east and west across the downtown, as part of the city’s Strategic Goals to support wellness, active living and mobility for everyone.
“Centre Street provides a great connection of the downtown core to the Whistlestop Trail and larger city-wide trail network.”
It will come at a significant cost to motorists, however, with the loss of 48 parking spaces currently available on Centre Street.
There will be no on-street parking between Queen Street and William Street (see diagram below).
The report explains, “Parking is limited by available right-of-way width, intersection sight lines, hydro poles and other utilities. The existing roadway right-of-way in Phase 3 is narrower than in Phase 1 and Phase 2, and the existing hydro pole line locations restrict the available space for parking.”
The report concludes, “a surplus of available parking exists within a two-block radius of the Centre Street project limits and parking utilization is expected to be within acceptable limits following construction.
“Further study and monitoring of parking utilization is recommended following construction to determine if further optimization of city parking lots is required.”
A public information centre will be held later this year with work to begin in 2025.
MEETING BY ACCIDENT
Want to increase your chances of avoiding a collision on city roads? Do your running around from 8 until 9 p.m. on a Monday.
According to second-quarter stats from St. Thomas Police, that’s the time slot with the least number of collisions.
The report was released Friday and noted over the three months, 106 collisions were reported to police, involving 199 vehicles.
In 21 of those collisions, injuries were reported and, fortunately, there were no deaths.
For whatever reason, most collisions occurred on a Thursday (23) with the peak time for a crash being 1 p.m.
Also, motorists should be extra cautious entering the intersections of First Avenue and Talbot Street along with Elm Street and Fairview Avenue as they are magnets for impromptu vehicle encounters.
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And a reminder, I can be heard weekday afternoons as news anchor and reporter on 94.1 myFM in St. Thomas. As always, your comments and input are appreciated.
