**CITY OF TIMMINS NEWS RELEASE**

The Province made legislative changes to the Police Services Act, 1990 requiring that communities develop and enact a Community Safety and Well-Being Plan by January 1, 2021.

This legislation was introduced by the Province in recognition of the changing nature of our society and the evolution of the Police role in providing a safe environment in this dynamic environment. This role includes all the traditional elements of Policing but integrates to a greater degree the partnerships of the Police within the community and between the community partners themselves.

“In Timmins we are seeing changes in our community that are making people feel less safe – the growing opioid problem, street homelessness and increasing levels of mental health issues,” stated Mayor George Pirie.

“The focus of the Community Safety and Well-Being Plan will be to engage the community in taking direct action to make Timmins a safer and healthier community. In response to the legislative changes and in complete recognition of the urgency to begin this process within our community, Timmins City Council on October 22, 2019 enlisted the services of Trimeda Consulting Inc. to prepare, coordinate and assist in the development and implementation of the Timmins Community Safety and Well-Being Plan. The Trimeda Team and its multi-sector collaborators will be working with community members over the next year towards to this end.”

Collaborators, who form the advisory committee, will be planning various stakeholder engagement sessions and surveys throughout the development process.

“A Community Safety and Well-Being Plan, by definition, has to be owned by all citizens of Timmins,” explained Mayor Pirie.

“It has to be a working, living, evolving plan with defined objectives and actionable on the ground. Siloes will be broken down as we move from being reactionary in nature to a system which is focused on up-stream early preventative multi-sector collaborative initiatives to make our city a safe and healthy place to live for all our citizens.
Trimeda President Melanie Verreault went on to explain the four main areas that must be addressed in order to ensure the plan will be as efficient and effective as possible”

1- Social development – Promoting and maintaining community safety and well-being
2- Prevention – Proactively reducing identified risks
3- Risk intervention – Mitigating elevated risk situations
4- Incident response – Immediate response to urgent incident

A number of initiatives have already been implemented or are in the process of being implemented that fit well into the scope of this plan. This includes the partnership between the Porcupine Health Unit (PHU), the City of Timmins, Living Space, Timmins Police Service and the Downtown Timmins BIA, which has seen the development of a Central Sharp Reporting Process. The public can now call 705-531-7233 or email communityfeedback@livingspacehub.org to notify outreach workers of the location where the sharps were found. The sharps will be picked up and disposed of safely and appropriately by Living Space or PHU outreach workers. Living Space and PHU have also been working to increase outreach services in the community and encourage needle safety.

Filed under: Local News