I recently attended a community policing and networking forum at the McEwen School of Architecture.
There were presentations from the Greater Sudbury Police Service, Bylaw and social agencies. The purpose of the forum was to learn more about the community policing model and the role that business owners, politicians, citizens and social service agencies can play in helping to create safer and welcoming communities something that I am prepared to champion for Greater Sudbury.
The issues discussed around drug use, safe injection sites, mental health and other social disorders are not strictly downtown issues. These are issues that affect the community as whole including parts of ward 11.
It was a good opportunity to learn and identify opportunities to collectively deal with social disorder.
Many of the business owners appeared to be frustrated and at their wits' end and were pleading for help and looking for solutions.
The debate is not about downtown versus The Kingsway, casino or no casino. We are now at a very critical point where politicians, civic leaders, community organizations and agencies, etc., must come together to collectively end the talk and provide real solutions to immediately address these concerns which affect all Greater Sudbury communities.
Some of the solutions will be simple while others might be more complex and require more work. At the end of the day, it is also important to understand the root causes of this type of social disorder.
Later in the day, I took a walk through some of the problem areas that were identified. We are well aware of where these areas are, however, if they are not in the system, they are not on the radar. More work must be done to collectively repair these high-risk areas that were once enjoyable places to live, work, and play.
During my walk, I saw used needles and caps on walking trails and bike paths, as well as garbage, caps and waste on the ground in front of a bio-hazard bin. I know there are organizations doing good work to clean up the needles, however, this became a bigger issue when the needle exchange program was taken over by Public Health.
Users and vulnerable people must feel comfortable in their space and now have no place to go, and they definitely would not be going to the Public Health Unit inside a shopping centre to exchange their needles.
Police enforcement does not work and is only a temporary solution. We must continue to mobilize to deal with the issues, their dynamics and the provision of service.
Interestingly, on the other side of the creek, on my walk there were no needles and beautifully painted murals at the Louis Street Housing complex. A hand-painted sign read "REACH, (Revitalize, Advocate, Educate, Hope, Collaborate). Louis Street has it right, which proves that a collective approach to dealing with this social disorder works.
There is hope.
Derek Young
Candidate for Ward 11