There is no denying St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston is an upbeat kinda person, no matter the situation confronting him.
It would be a safe bet to say he could be branded Jovial Joe without a whole lot of pushback from the mayor’s corner.
For example, Preston and a city delegation, including councillors Tara McCaulley and Steve Wookey along with city manager Sandra Datars Bere attended this year’s Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference earlier this week in London and we caught up with him at the culmination of the gathering and his exuberance was palpable.
According to a release prior to the conference, the city advocacy work was to “focus around resources to create new and augment existing community mental health supports, support for capital investments in affordable housing, increased support for inter-community transportation connections and initiatives, capital funding for new childcare spaces, investments in social assistance programs and administration, and support for legislative changes and funding to alleviate pressures faced by St. Thomas Police.”
Category Archives: St. Thomas-Elgin Ontario Works
Safe consumption sites: ‘This is a very complex issue that requires solutions that consider many aspects of support’ – St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston
Exactly three months ago Southwestern Public Health (SWPH) warned the rate of opioid-related harms has been on an upward trend in St. Thomas over the past several years.
In 2021, the rate of opioid-related St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital emergency department visits was 126.1 per 100,000 population as compared to 114.0 per 100,000 province-wide.
That same year, the rate of opioid-related hospitalizations in St. Thomas was 72.4 per 100,000 population, far above the provincial average of 16.3 per 100,000.
Those alarming numbers prompted the health unit to undertake a study into the feasibility of drug treatment and consumption services in the region.
This study (undertaken between January and March of this year) defines feasibility as a combination of community support, political buy-in, and the likelihood of people with lived or living experience of substance use (PWLE) using these services in the health unit’s region.
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The elimination of long-term homelessness is a key goal of the St. Thomas housing plan
How do you determine what market value rent is? And, who determines that?
It was a good question from Coun. Jim Herbert at the Aug. 9 city council meeting and was prompted by the 2020 Progress Report on the city’s 10-year Housing and Homelessness Plan.
It’s a question that has been raised in comments from readers of this corner.
Danielle Neilson is the city’s Homelessness and Housing Supervisor and the report in question noted the city owns and manages 558 units of housing, including 512 units of rent-geared-to-income housing.
That’s a significant number and it’s part of the role of the St. Thomas-Elgin Social Services Department to administer and/or deliver “a range of housing and homelessness programs including existing social housing, new affordable housing, rent supplements, housing allowances, portable housing benefits, home repair assistance, homeownership down-payment assistance, funding for emergency shelters and transitional housing, and other homelessness prevention programs including the Housing Links for People (HeLP) program.
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From ‘beyond broken’ to a transit system St. Thomas can be proud of
Transit was a prominent talking point leading up to last year’s municipal vote and now, thanks to provincial funding, city residents may soon be standing at a bus stop of “a transit system we can all be proud of.”
At an announcement Thursday (Aug. 8) in front of city hall, Elgin-Middlesex-London MPP Jeff Yurek indicated the provincial government is committing $1.8 million for transit projects in St. Thomas.
The money will be used for fleet upgrades – including the purchase of 10 new buses with an additional four vehicles for future expansion – and transit technology, including priority signalling for buses at designated intersections.
In addition, the transit projects are being nominated for federal funding under the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP), a $30 billion, 10-year infrastructure initiative cost-shared between federal, provincial and municipal governments.
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For Steve Peters, his focus is on city hall (once again)
Standing at the front of his house, he has a clear view of the city hall tower. And now, Steve Peters is seriously contemplating a return to the council chamber at that very same building where he first cut his teeth on municipal politics, 30 years ago this fall.
A former city alderman, mayor, Elgin-Middlesex-London Liberal MPP and Speaker of the Ontario Legislature, Peters has so far remained coy about his intentions once the nomination period opens May 1, other than to insist he is not interested in again donning the mayor’s chain of office.
An in-depth conversation this week, however, did shed considerable light on whether the political will to serve the populace still burns within Peters.
“Someone said you’re sitting on the fence. But I’ve been there and I’ve done that. And people say why are you going to go back?” Continue reading
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No islands in these streams, just a series of HR obstacles
Congratulations are in order to Elizabeth Sebestyen, confirmed this week as the Director of Social Services for St. Thomas and Elgin county.
She has been acting director since 2013 and has worked for the department since 2001.
And why did it take so long to announce the permanent appointment?
Well you won’t get any answers at city hall, because it involved a protracted labour relations tribunal dealing with a wrongful dismissal claim by former director Barbara Arbuckle, hired in 2011.
A conversation a year ago with city manager Wendell Graves revealed the following.
“I can’t say a lot but she’s (Sebestyen) still the acting director and Barbara is still on leave.” Continue reading
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Answers needed on dealing with Ascent long-term debt
With a 322-page agenda plus several deputations and presentations to deal with, members of council won’t be putting the wraps on Monday’s council meeting in 45 minutes or less, as is often the case.
Especially if they do what they are paid to do and represent St. Thomas ratepayers. Forget lobbing softballs and ask the tough questions. Forget the platitudes to staff about a job well done on this report or that. Of course the report is exceptional, that’s the job of staff at city hall and they do it well.
Start probing.
For instance, how about the city’s consolidated financial report for 2016. We’ll point you in the right direction at Page 275. Continue reading
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In-camera report might reveal true cost of renovating Colin McGregor Justice Building
A confusing few moments at Monday’s council meeting so this corner thought it wise to confer with Ald. Jeff Kohler on what he is attempting to uncover.To briefly summarize, Kohler was seeking to have a report brought out into open session, but the majority of council had difficulty establishing just what document he was referring to and the matter was deferred to the August meeting.
By way of explanation, Kohler noted the report – dealt with during a 2015 in-camera meeting of council – presented different location options for Elgin-St. Thomas Ontario Works, whose lease in the Mickleborough Building on Talbot Street expires this year.
Several sites for a new home for Ontario Works were catalogued, including the Colin McGregor Justice Building, vacated this month by the St. Thomas Police Service.
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What’s in a name? In this case, $2.7 million
The city this week locked in place two more pieces of the Talbot Street West redevelopment puzzle with announcement of the purchase of two properties from London developer Shmuel Farhi.The acquisitions are the Mickleborough Building at 423 Talbot Street – the home of Ontario Works since 2000 – and a parcel of land on the south side of Talbot St., between William and Queen streets, and stretching south to Centre Street.
While a conditional offer was announced last April the delay, according to city manager Wendell Graves, revolved around environmental issues.
“We have done due diligence over and above so we know exactly what we are facing,” stressed Graves. “In our approved city budget this year we have funds allocated there to begin some cleanup. Because we are looking to use pieces of that site for residential, under the Ministry of the Environment regs, that is the highest order of cleanup that will be required.”
