Report To: Manitoulin-Sudbury District Services Board
From: Paul Myre, Chief of Paramedic Services
Donna Stewart, Associate Chief Administrative Officer (A)
Date: April 22, 2021
Re: Community Safety and Well-Being Plans
To provide the Board with an update on legislatively mandated Community Safety and Well-Being Plans (CSWBP) and the July 1, 2021 deadline established by the Ministry of Solicitor General.
As part of legislation, municipalities are required to develop and adopt Community Safety and Well-being Plans working in partnership with a multi-sectoral advisory committee comprised of representation from the police service board and other local service providers in health/mental health, education, community/social services, and children/youth services. The mandatory development of a Community Safety and Well- Being Plan for each municipality was passed into law effective January 2019 as part of the Safer Ontario Act, under Schedule 1. The thrust behind this legislation was the notion that community safety and well-being cannot rest solely on the shoulders of the police. It should be a shared responsibility by all members of the community and requires an integrated approach to bring municipalities, First Nations, and community partners together to address a collective goal. The deadline date for plans to be adopted and posted publicly was January 1, 2021.
In mid-2019, then Chief of Paramedic Services, Robert Smith along with then Director of Integrated Social Services, Donna Stewart began reaching out to the Municipalities within the DSB service area to discuss the mandated Community Safety and Wellbeing Plans. The purpose of those early discussions was to first, educate members on what exactly the CSWBP were and second, to solicit interest in combining eighteen (18) possible plans into four (4) joint plans so as to limit duplication and enable active participation by not having several plans under development at once. Chief Smith then gave four (4) separate presentations beginning in June 2019 for the Manitoulin group; October 2019 for the Sudbury East Municipal Association followed by two (2) December sessions for LaCloche and Chapleau, respectively. During these presentations, Chief Smith explained the requirements of the plans along with the framework to be utilized when drafting commenced. Chief Smith was explicit that while Paramedic Services were not among the required agencies, his involvement in the four (4) plans would involve drafting a Terms of Reference for the Planning Committees and creating a community engagement survey that could be posted on member websites as a means to collect information from the general public. Once the Steering Committees were assembled and all of the necessary elements and measurable performance outcomes were identified, Chief Smith would then offer to “assist in the facilitation of the Community Safety and Wellness Plan design and development as deemed necessary by the Planning Committee”.
A Terms of Reference document was circulated to all 4 groups and the survey was drafted and deployed to collect data. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic derailed the planning process and the assembling of committee members. On December 24th, 2020, the Solicitor General circulated a memo with a deadline revision to July 1, 2021. This essentially created a situation where the CSWBPs were shelved and inevitably fell off everyone’s collective radars. This was further compounded by the departure of Rob Smith due to a secondment project that required him to leave on very short notice. An email reminder was sent in early January to remind the groups of the revised deadline and the requirement to have a planning/steering committee in place. In this same email was a request to meet with all 4 groups to discuss the trajectory to each plan and to assist in navigating any issues in moving the plan forward. On March 31st, 2021, a follow up email was sent as the January email had only garnered two responses which led the DSB staff to believe that each group was proceeding without any need of DSB support.
The Manitoulin-Sudbury DSB staff will continue to support the process that Municipalities are required to adhere to so that plans can be submitted by the deadline of July 1, 2021. The Chief of Paramedic Services and the Associate Chief Administrative Officer are willing to attend the meetings to assist the municipal staff with the collection of data and provide any input required for the plan.
