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Dear Editor,
I don't know if you've seen the Community Well Being and Safety 'Plan that is coming before Midland council at Wednesday's meeting.
The problem I have with it is that is not a plan. It's a very nice looking report [1], but there are no action plans (other than within the next three years study how to make a plan for mental health and addictions piece, and measure success). There are not short-term concerns with short-term actions outlines. There is only the one mentioned medium-term action, and there are no long-term plans. There is no indication that courses of action have been considered and the social and monetary costs of each evaluated.
What I see being presented as the town's (and all of North Simcoe)'s provincially mandated plan is a background report. It will pretty much have to be accepted by council because the province set a deadline of July 2021 for the development and passing by resolution of a CWBSP, so there is no time to correct the glaring deficiencies.
This is frustrating (probably for the councillors that care as well), and demonstrates the problem with the timeline that set out the creation of the report. It should have appeared before council six months ago IMO. Now it will pass because there is no real choice. So much for democracy and council as 'governance.'
We need short-term actions sooner rather than later. What we don't need is reports that won't have any plan for even one major piece for another three to four years, minimum.
We need to "Get 'er done"[2]
Yes, I do think I could have done a better job myself.
Daniel Dickinson
A Concerned Midland Resident.
1. That I think think I could have done a better job with the same budget and access
2. That by action plans I mean concrete actions not aspirational 'strategic goals'
(Editor's note: Since writing this letter, the author has received correspondence that leads him to be more hopeful that there will be real action as a result of the plan.)
