Perhaps the main news to emerge from Herb Sutton’s latest community safety report to council is simply the fact that the safety efforts are still going strong.
While council and city administration had to take a knife to a number of initiatives during council’s most recent budget revisions in April, safety initiatives were spared the axe.
Sutton, the city’s community safety co-ordinator, was mindful of that Tuesday, May 23, as he expressed his gratitude to council for their continued support for community safety initiatives.
“Thank you for keeping community safety a priority during these challenging budget deliberations,” said Sutton.
He also thanked Mayor Ryan Bater “for your positive comments around community safety at the State of the City address on May 16.”
Sutton said it was “really reassuring to know” that council and administration understood that “creating a safer community is a process, and it takes time and concerted effort.”
“Too often we look for quick fixes in things like this, and some of those will help in the short term but they don’t have the long lasting impact that we’re looking for. So we really appreciate council and administration embracing and keeping this community safety initiative as a priority, so we thank you for that.”
At Tuesday’s meeting Sutton introduced a couple of people who had been active in an open house hosted May 9 at the RCMP.
One was Ramona Maraj of Macro Properties, whose organization was one of two involved in the Crime Free Multi Housing initiative.
Maraj had spoken at the May 9 event where she highlighted the benefits of the initiative, and she shared her thoughts before council.
Sutton noted that efforts are under way to try and expand the program and include more landlords.
RCMP Cst. Jane Kenny was also introduced at the meeting, and she was the organizer of the open house event. She also spoke about the initiative as well.
Sutton also gave an update on the SAGE Phase 2 proposal to the federal government for funding. They are seeking funding to be able to create a regional steering committee bringing together the four levels of government – federal, provincial, municipal and First Nations. A letter was sent by Mayor Ryan Bater and Chief Lori Whitecalf to Minister of Public Safety Ralph Goodale asking for resourcing for this initiative.
So far, though, there is still no confirmation of funding and resourcing. Sutton made clear the importance of following up and being persistent in efforts to “get this proposal moving forward.”
Sutton said the letter from Bater and Whitecalf “got the attention of people and got things moving.” Now it was important to follow up, he said.
In response, Bater offered to meet with Sutton later on in the week on the issue, in advance of a planned trip to Ottawa by the mayor and civic officials. The hope was they might be able to schedule a meeting with Goodale during that trip.
