Safe Communities Wellington County Leadership Table Meeting Wellington County Museum and Archives

9:30 a.m. – November 19, 2015

In Attendance

Gary Williamson, County Councillor and Co-ChairDoug Smith, Puslinch COPSGlenna Smith, Puslinch COPSDon Senek, Minto Safe Community CommitteeChristine Veit, Safe Communities Wellington CountyLinda Dickson, Wellington County Emergency ServicesBrad de St.Aubyn, Public HealthHeather Lawson, Wellington County Emergency ServicesGregg Davidson, Wellington County CouncilBarry King, Parachute CanadaPasquale Costanzo, County of WellingtonColleen Brunelle, County of WellingtonRobbin Wood, Safe Communities/Guelph-Eramosa TwpJennifer McCorriston, WDG Public HealthMary Lloyd, C.W. Township CouncillorHeather Glenister, Suicide Awareness CouncilChris White, Mayor, Guelph/Eramosa TwpKaren Harding, Puslinch COPS

1. Call to Order – Co-Chair Gary Williamson called the meeting to order.2. Approval of Minutes – September 17, 2015 - It was Moved by Don Senek and Seconded by

Linda Dickson that the minutes of the meeting held September 17, 2015 be approved as presented. CARRIED

3. Approval to change Agenda to move “Motion to receive PAG’s strategies and goals” under Reports by Gary Williamson – It was moved by Mary Lloyd and Seconded by Coleen Brunelle to amend the agenda to move the line item.

4. Old Business – i) Safe Communities Day Wrap Up- Christine brought forward the discussion.

I. A special thank you from Christine to everyone who participated in Safe Communities Day. It was a wonderful success.

II. Wellington Catholic District School Board Grade’s 5 and 6 students attended and had a great time per feedback from principal’s, teachers and parents.

III. Certificates will be handed out to St. John Arthur, St. Mary’s Mount Forest, and St. Joseph Fergus

IV. Royal Distributing Athletic Performance Centre is the ideal location for our Safe Communities Day event and will remain as the venue for 2016. Since October 1, 2016, lands on a Saturday, the event will happen on either September 29 or September 30 – TBD.

V. Royal Distributing Athletic Performance Centre will not be able to accommodate 1200 students using the same format as 2015. Discussion about separating Wellington County year to year to accommodate approximately 600 each year with some formatting changes.

VI. Further discussion on bringing UGDSB exclusively for 2016 and then resuming both boards for years following.

VII. Volunteers are necessary – Having an informed person in charge of each group will be ideal. The suggestion to bring in Officer’s to be group leaders. Christine to send out an email in January requesting help.

VIII. Krista Miller extending a special thank you to Christine Veit for an excellent job.

ii) Red Thumb Reminder Banners – Christine brought forward the discussion. I. Red Thumb Reminder Banners have been delivered and are being used at Centre

Wellington District, Erin District, Norwell District and Wellington Heights. Schools have appointed a group to champion the RedThumbReminder campaign.

II. Christine had the opportunity to paint thumbnail’s red at Shopper’s Drugmart Fergus to raise awareness about Safe Communities Wellington County and our goal to eliminate texting and driving.

III. Goal is to paint more thumbnail’s red in the new year at Pharmacy’s within the County and further engaging private and public organizations throughout the year, not just during Teen Driver Safety Week.

IV. Teen Driver Safety Week was a success as usual with even more organization’s learning about Safe Communities Wellington County.

iii) New Meeting Dates for 2016 – I. Leadership table meetings will be changed from Thursday’s to Wednesday’s

II. Discussion about time change was tabled, but the 9:30 start time will remain to give time for PAG’s meeting before the Leadership Table.

III. Linda Dickson confirmed availability for the following dates in 2016 – Wednesday, January 20, Wednesday, March 23, Wednesday, May 18, 2016, Wednesday, September 21, and Wednesday, November 16.

4. Reportsiv. Falls PAG – Strategic Planning Goals

Leveraging existing SMART Program from VON in Centre Wellington Working on existing media relationships to get the word out as well, utilize

existing videos about Falls Prevention to the public. How do we get those videos out to the public?

Self-Screening Tool. Targeted toward people who work with seniors – Slips, Trips and Falls.

Reminder about the Falls Prevention Workshop that will bring Leaders in the community together who work with the older population.

Christine to resend poster to Leadership Table. Gary was concerned that Safe Communities Wellington County was not on the

poster. Brad mentioned because it wasn’t a PAG Priority the workshop was not placed

on the poster. Brad mentioned he would keep this in mind for future events.

II. Motor Vehicle PAG - Strategic Planning Goals Baseline data received from Public Health Goal is to target ages 5 – 10 throughout Wellington County to foster a learning

point and rules of the road through bike rodeo’s Decrease ER Visits of children between the ages of 5 and 14 Waiting for further statistics to digest and move forward with bike rodeo’s

iii. Intentional Self Harm PAG - Strategic Planning Goals Heather Glennister, chair of the ISH PAG presented Strategies for 2016. Target Group – Grades 4, 5 and 6 Idea of a family dinner and then breakout sessions after dinner with focusing on

recognizing mental health in their children and the kids learning ways to harness resilience.

“What’s in your Toolbox?” An additional project for ISH PAG. More details to be brought forward in January

Krista suggested Heather contact Kelly Krpan about the school program for grade 6’s that focus on ISH

The $1000 allocated to the PAG will not be enough for the lofty goals of the PAG. Heather requested permission to seek donations for the projects

Gary Williamson said this was a great idea, but with our current status on not being able to issue tax receipts, it may be difficult to receive donations.

Barry King suggested partnering with another organization in the area. Glenna questioned where donation would be directed. Christine said the donation would flow through me and I would direct it

specifically to the ISH PAG. Safe Talk Workshops a success – ran 3 throughout the county and had 42 in

attendance

iv. Motion to receive the PAG’s strategies and goals to be accepted and approved for budget purposes – Moved by Linda Dickson, Seconded by Gregg Davidson - CARRIED

v. Program Coordinator (Christine) Continuing with social media campaign and building awareness about Safe

Communities Wellington County Outside of Red Thumb Reminder and building awareness, focussing on attaining

charitable status for Safe Communities Wellington County Heather Glenister offered her expertise in helping. Christine will be on Cogeco Television with Barb Lustgarten Evoy talking about

Safe Communities Wellington County Currently taped a television spot through the Mount Forest Chamber of

Commerce on Wightman TV. Will run in December.

5. Community Groups – ii. Minto Safe Communities (Don Senek)

Youth dance was successful – 165 kids attended Constable Todd Pridham has been a fixture at the dances since the beginning.

Don Senek believes if the kids get into trouble they are comfortable telling Todd about it, which is great.

Event - Safe Kids Day – Bike Rodeo Event - Touch a Truck – Harriston Motors Masonic Chip program will continue to keep our kids safe. Seniors for Excellence Palmerston and Harriston was successful. Will continue

the program. Booth at Fall Fair promoting Vial of Life – doing follow up every 6 months

Christine to send advertising information to Wellington Advertiser to remind people to update their Vial of Life and File of Life.

Gary said that we decided to do an advertisement in the paper to remind everyone to update for both File of Life and Vial of Life

Gary mentioned that is was EMS who started File of Life. Don asked Krista what is happening with Road Watch. Don reminded the group to “like” the Minto Safe Communities Facebook Page Minto Safe Communities will be doing the Santa Claus Parade for 2015 Krista mentioned Todd Pridham is in charge of the Road Watch – good idea to

talk to Todd about the status.

iii. Puslinch COPS (Glenna Smith) Glenna mentioned the articles in the Pioneer are reaching even more people Display at Fall Fair had people answering “How many OPP officers work in

Wellington County. Krista – 167 Puslinch COPS will be in the Santa Claus Parade focusing on driving safely and

respect for others Still working on the amount of complaints about speeding. The group is

working with The County and building awareness.

iv. Guelph/Eramosa Safe Communities Mushroom Festival was a success Don’t forget to visit the Guelph/Eramosa Safe Communities Facebook site Starting Snow Angels for the season – doing a mailout to Rockwood proper. Robbin will also be going door-to-door to see if there is interest in volunteering

as a Snow Angel in person’s neighbourhood. File of Life is being distributed in Pharmacies’ and waiting rooms Still working on putting a stop light in at the east end of Rockwood Continuing with the Read Program to protect your belongings. Supported by

the Chief’s of Police of Ontario. Gregg Davidson ran a similar program – unfortunately does not work until

someone has been victimized.

v. Wellington North (Gary) Wellington North not doing very well – Lost roughly 10 people and are

currently down to 3 Looks like the sign is continuing to do its job.

Still working on the secondary driveway at the No Frills on Main Street Gary is the last man standing with the Wellington North Safe Communities and

is discouraged that there is no interest in joining. Robbin Wood suggested contacting Bob Bortolato about a fellow in Elora who

is interested in starting a Neighbourhood Watch Program

6. New Businessa. Thoughts from the Floor

i. Barry King wrote a News Release focusing on Safe Communities Wellington County for Pan Pacific.

ii. Jennifer McCorriston spoke about all alcohol related accidents. Public Health is focusing on this topic. They are currently compiling data from a telephone survey. She questioned whether there would be some interest in someone coming in to talk about the results with the Leadership Table.

iii. Krista mentioned OPP received invite – Alcohol can often be a contributing factor.

iv. Mary Lloyd mentioned beer available in corner stores will increase access, but will also increase alcohol related harm

v. Barrie King concurs that alcohol purchased at corner stores is not the greatest idea.

vi. A discussion about the harms of accessibility will have increased noise and property damage.

vii. Brad said his group would be interested in listening to a presentation about alcohol related accidents

viii. Pasquale addressed the upcoming legislation to decriminalize marijuana. Are we going to do anything about it?

ix. Jennifer mentioned that there are very clear health effects on young people with using Marijuana.

x. Pasquale further discussed tongue strip testing and whether it is available in Wellington County.

xi. Const. Jody Bigger said the tongue strip testing is currently being tested. Wellington County is also looking into roadside testing.

xii. Barrie discussed the issues that Colorado and Seattle are having after they decriminalized Marijuana. It is great that we are going to tax, but will the disadvantages outweigh the advantages.

xiii. Jody mentioned that Colorado is in talks with Canada and is suggesting delaying the decriminalization. Disadvantages are truly outweighing benefits in Colorado

xiv. Jennifer McCorriston will send a paper from CAMHxv. Jodie mentioned on roadside pull over’s, the message isn’t clear about

drugs. People don’t realize that you can lose your car if you refuse testing.

xvi. Krista is even surprised at the amount of people pulled over smell of Pot.

xvii. The legislation is very ambiguous on what will happen. It will be decriminalized, not legalized

xviii. Gary announced that there are now 50 Safe Communities Wellington County road signs on County Roads. The last bunch were just put up.

xix. Gary also mentioned the Ploughing match for 2016 is in Wellington County. It would be great to have one big Wellington County tent – One strong force.

xx. Linda Dickson mentioned it is very difficult to say how big the Wellington County booth will be.

xxi. Krista mentioned that Safe Communities Wellington County would, definitely, be interested in being part of the tent.

xxii. Krista will further explore what is available1. Barrie mentioned the Presentation tent2. Tailgate Talks – Safe Communities Wellington County3. Gary wants a united voice for Safe Communities- maybe have

representation from the PAG’s on each day of the ploughing match.

4. Mary suggested the Tailgate talk can either be Krista or Christine

b. Safe Communities Meetingi. Krista mentioned that we are going to rejuvenate the COPS meeting

that was held for the COPS Committee’s ii. This meeting will not just focus on police, but will focus on priority

areas for Safe Communities.iii. Christine and Krista to work together – the meeting will be open to all

Safe Communities and COPS Committee’siv. Jennifer asked, what did the group’s get out of the meetings?v. Glenna – Really enjoyed the drug topic

vi. Don – Really enjoyed the Burglary and Drug talks

vii. Mary – Suggest a new topic that would be relevant in their community. Project LifeSaver – Very comforting knowing that is available.

viii. Interested topics should be submitted to Christine and Krista at January meeting if we are going to have the COPS/Safe Communities Meeting in April.

c. Donation Request Processi. Gary suggested a process needs to be put in place for Donation

Requestsii. Meeting between Chair’s, PAG Chair’s and County Finance (Susan

Aram) need to take place – meeting will take place at the Wellington County Offices in Guelph

iii. Gary spoke with CAO – someone will be appointed to sit on the not-for-profit Board of Safe Communities Wellington County once we are a registered charity.

d. Farewell to Gary Williamson as Co-Chairi. At the beginning Jack Hunjan was “Voluntold” to Chair Safe

Communities Wellington County, at that point Gary volunteered to help him.

ii. Safe Communities Wellington County has come very far because of Gary’s dedication.

iii. Presentation of Safe Communities Wellington County Pen to Gary Williamson

iv. Thank you from Gary – Leaving SCWC in very capable hands - Gregg Davidson and Krista Miller. We need to keep the consistency of a County Councillor and an OPP Officer as Co-chairs.

e. Motion to appoint Councillor Gregg Davidson to Co-Chair of Safe Communities Wellington County – Moved by Gary Williamson – First – Pasquale, Second – Robbin – CARRIED

7. Adjournment

The group was adjourned at 11:30 p.m.. The Next Leadership Table meeting is scheduled for January 20, 2015 at 8 a.m. (Priority Advisory Groups) and 9:30 a.m. (Leadership Table) at the Wellington County Museum & Archives.