A $1.3 billion investment by the province for new schools is welcome news for St. Thomas.
Included in Monday’s (Jan. 27) announcement was word that the city would get a second London District Catholic School Board high school, thanks to $41 million in funding.
The Ontario government is investing the funds to build 30 new schools and 15 school expansions across the province, creating more than 25,000 new student spaces and more than 1,600 new, licensed childcare spaces.
The Ministry of Education’s Capital Priorities program provides school boards across the province with an opportunity to identify their most urgent and pressing pupil accommodation needs.
Tag Archives: Chris Herridge
‘It’s oxymoronic to think you can have growth without expense under public safety’ – St. Thomas Police Service Board chair Dan Reith
It’s a simple premise if we agree to use it as a starting point.
The presence of police acts as a deterrent.
To put this into context, St. Thomas department heads are now preparing draft proposals to present to council in November as the basis for the 2025 capital and operating budgets.
With the explosive population growth projected in the coming decades – nearly doubling by 2050 – one critical area will be ensuring the well-being of newcomers to St. Thomas.
You do not attract new industries – and with it, workers to fill those jobs – when they will potentially be located in crime-ridden neighbourhoods.
So, this past week we sat down with Dan Reith, chair of the Police Service Board to discuss what is expected to be a budget ask representing a 14 per cent increase over the 2024 budget.
At first glance, that might seem like an aggressive ask by Chief Marc Roskamp and the Police Service Board.
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St. Thomas Police Service five-year collective agreement “meets the modern moment” – Chief Marc Roskamp
It’s being deemed a “groundbreaking” contract with its commitment to resources to support the wellness of uniform and civilian members of the St. Thomas Police Service. A contract likely to be emulated across the province.
The five-year deal was negotiated over the summer with the current agreements set to expire at the end of this year.
Wage increases of three per cent are included in the first three years of the deal, increasing to four per cent in the fourth year and five per cent in the final year (2028).
Other highlights include the updating of maternity and parental leave provisions as well as sick and family leave provisions.
Specialty unit remuneration has been adjusted and this would include role positions like breath technicians.
We sat down this week with St. Thomas Police Services Board chair Dan Reith to delve into the deal.
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VW considers the St. Thomas EV battery gigafactory ‘a high-security plant.’ However, Mayor Joe Preston says, ‘I don’t believe so.’
We learned this week that policing services at the Volkswagen EV battery plant scheduled to begin production in 2027 will be provided by an OPP tactical unit.
The decision was made at a meeting in Toronto attended by St. Thomas Mayor and police board vice-chairman Joe Preston, former St. Thomas Police Chief Chris Herridge and current Police Chief Marc Roskamp.
We can assume Preston was representing the city in his capacity as mayor as the police board was not formally invited to the meeting.
Why would they have been?
This policing directive was a foregone conclusion administered at the provincial level.
Although initially hesitant to confirm, Preston stressed the OPP policing request came from the German auto manufacturer.
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Hospice of Elgin – ‘No longer is hospice a place for just final moments’
Following Monday’s (May 15) council session, there was a public meeting to deal with draft official plan and zoning bylaw amendments.
Now normally these are pretty cut-and-dried affairs, usually devoid of colour.
Not in this case.
The meeting dealt with amendments required at the site of Hospice of Elgin, located at the top of the hill overlooking Waterworks Park.
Part of the meeting was devoted to a short presentation from Laura Sherwood, representing Hospice of Elgin.
Through several visuals, we were able to get a first look at what the facility will look like, with construction expected to begin later this summer.
Sherwood described it as follows.
“Hospice will be quite unique in our community. We have an incredible site at Waterworks Park and hospice will be tucked in the woods and have a cottage-like feel.”
What will the facility look like?
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Land-locked STEGH at the crossroads: Rebuild or relocate?
In a deputation to city council this past Monday, members were updated on capacity issues at St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital. President and CEO Karen Davies stressed that ahead of the pandemic, hospital staff and administration were already struggling as they dealt with capacity issues.
She adds it was not abnormal for the hospital to be at 100 per cent occupancy or beyond.
As noted during the presentation, there were close to 7,800 admissions last year. The hospital has 179 beds, with 30 to 40 of those beds occupied by patients who, the belief is, should have outside care.
Davies points out, with the announcement of the EV gigaplant coming to the city – and with it significant population growth – that will only exacerbate matters.
“We’ve got a great story to tell,” reminds Davies. “We were at capacity ahead of the pandemic.
“We did well throughout the pandemic but again, as we talked about the other night (at the council meeting), we’re maximized in our space here and that’s with our current population base.
“And we know it’s growing and we know we’ve got some significant investments coming to Elgin county that are going to put more pressure on that.”
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Former Elgin MP Ken Monteith was cut from a special kind of cloth
He is remembered as the consummate politician and a mentor to those considering tossing their hat in the political ring.
Former Elgin MP and Southwold resident Ken Monteith died on Feb. 3 at the age of 84.
City councillor Steve Peters recalls Monteith not only was a well-respected politician, but he also continued to give back to the community after he left politics.
“Ken was the consummate public servant. He started in the 1970s on Southwold council. Served as the warden in 1981, and went on to become the MP in 1988.
Monteith served as Elgin MP until 1993.
“But even after his defeat, he continued to give back to the community, whether it was supporting the hospital or the plowing match.”
Most recently he helped fundraise for Hospice of Elgin.
“Ken really had a life-long commitment to helping others in the community. He’s the type of person that is going to be really difficult to replace because a lot of times people will retire, but Ken stayed active until the end.”
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Mayor Joe Preston is starting to feel ‘very comfortable’ about the prospect of a regional transit pilot project for St. Thomas
The Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA) conference wrapped up Tuesday in Toronto. The city sent a delegation to the event with Mayor Joe Preston, Coun. Gary Clarke and city manager Sandra Datars Bere in attendance.
The city’s delegation had confirmed meetings with the Ministry of Transportation and the Ministry of the Attorney General.
We’ll deal with the former off the top as it was to address regional transit and accessible transit options, priorities for the city with the opening of the Amazon facility and the Maple Leaf Foods processing plant this year.
In a conversation with Preston following the conference, he indicated he felt “very comfortable” with the time spent with Associate Minister of Transportation Stan Cho.
Sitting in on the discussion was Elgin-Middlesex-London MPP Rob Flack.
Preston zeroed in on the city’s pilot project which would see some form of transit between St. Thomas and the regional hub in the south end of London at White Oaks Mall.
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Leaving ‘bookmarks as to how we can move forward’ – St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston
After a much-enjoyed two-week Christmas hiatus, City Scope returns eager to document what transpires in the new year and what got us to this point over the past 365 days.
When looking back at 2022 – the fourth and final year for the previous municipal council – St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston lists housing as the top story. And Preston is quick to add growth in the city is not going to stop any time soon.
“We’re excited with what we’ve been able to accomplish on housing and have left bookmarks as to how we can move forward.
“Yes, it’s probably the Number 1 story across Ontario and we feel very comfortable with St. Thomas at all ranges, from the homeless side to the single-family homes side, have made incredible progress.”
Preston goes on to note the work undertaken in the past four years paves the way for what needs to be accomplished on the housing front by the recently elected council.
In reflecting on other accomplishments of city council in the past year, Preston turns to the acquisition of 800 acres of farmland east of Highbury Avenue.
