Rationalization of Six Existing Committees

and the Task Force on Community Safety.

The Emergency and Protective Services Committee recommends the adoption of the following report (January 26, 1999) from Councillor Rob Davis and Councillor Brad Duguid, Co-Chairs of the Task Force on Community Safety, subject to amending Recommendation No. (3) to read as follows:

"(3)the functions of the Etobicoke and East York Safety Councils be transferred to the Cycling and Pedestrian Committees to promote traffic safety issues in the City of Toronto;":

Purpose:

This report responds to the request for the Task Force on Community Safety to review the financial implications of continuing several committees and to discuss the rationalizations of these committees based on the work undertaken by the Task Force. It is intended as a companion piece to the Final Report of the Task Force on Community Safety.

Recommendations:

It is recommended that:

(1)TaxiWatch (formerly Taxis on Patrol) continue to receive staff support for its work in organizing taxi drivers to report suspicious activities to the police and other authorities;

(2)the Emergency Planning Unit (formerly the Emergency Planning Advisory Committee) continue as a staff committee;

(3)members of the Etobicoke and East York Safety Councils be encouraged to work with the Cycling and Pedestrian Committees to promote traffic safety issues in the City of Toronto;

(4)members of the Safe City Committee and Etobicoke Crime Scope be encouraged to work with existing City-funded initiatives to promote community safety, including Crime Concern, METRAC (the Metro Action Committee on Violence Against Women and Children) and any new initiatives that arise from the adoption of the Final Report of the Task Force on Community Safety.

Council Reference:

At the first meeting of Emergency and Protective Services for the new City of Toronto on January13,1998, Councillor Layton identified six committees that should "be encouraged to meet and carry on their important work, pending the outcome and implementation of Council's review of the Transition Team report". These six committees are:

East York Safety Council;

Emergency Planning Advisory Committee (of the former Metropolitan Toronto government);

Etobicoke Crime Scope;

Safe City Committee (of the former City of Toronto government);

Safety Council (of the former Etobicoke government); and

Taxis on Patrol Committee (of the former Metropolitan Toronto government).

In a report dated January 27, 1998, the Acting Commissioner of Works and Emergency Services recommended that "when the terms of reference for the new Task Force on Community Safety have been prepared, [that] they be sent to the six existing committees, together with a copy of this report, and that each of the six committees be asked to comment on the ongoing need for their work, if any, on their relationship to the Task Force, and on their ongoing staff needs."

This recommendation was adopted by the Emergency and Protective Services Committee at its meeting of February 10, 1998, which further requested the Task Force on Community Safety to "review the financial implications of continuing" these committees.

In a report dated March 23, 1998, the Task Force responded to the Emergency and Protective Services Committee that it would respond to these questions as part of the final report of the Task Force on Community Safety, in January of 1999.

Also, at its meeting of April 3, 1998, the Special Committee to Review the Final Report of the Toronto Transition Team requested the Task Force on Community Safety to "identify other community-based organizations that provide similar activities as those to be undertaken by the Task Force with a view to co-ordinating all activities related to community safety."

Comments:

There are two important points to note at the onset:

(1)the six committees noted in the original communication deal with very different safety issues; and

(2)these six committees are very different in terms of structure and support from local government.

A brief description of each of these six committees, in terms of mandate, structure, support from local government, status, and financial implications of continuing these committees is as follows:

East York Safety Council:

The East York Safety Council has been in existence since 1967. It was a volunteer advisory committee to the former East York Council. It dealt with injury prevention issues such as children's safety in going to and from school, bike safety, and traffic safety, especially for seniors. It has not involved itself in crime prevention issues. It did receive secretarial support for minute taking and mailing from the former Borough of East York, with total staff hours estimated as 250 per year in February of this year. It has not had quorum for a meeting in several months.

Emergency Planning Unit (formerly the Emergency Planning Advisory Committee):

Emergency Planning Advisory Committee was a staff committee of the former Metropolitan Toronto government, which continues to meet in the new City of Toronto. It consists of staff from the Fire Service, Sanitation, Ambulance Services, Transportation, and Hydro, who meet on an ad hoc basis to develop plans so that the City can respond to catastrophic events such as an ice storm or major flood. It does not deal with crime prevention issues, and its scope is well beyond the purview of the Task Force on Community Safety.

Etobicoke Crime Scope:

Etobicoke Crime Scope consists of volunteers from the Etobicoke community, with a part-time paid staff person supported by federal and provincial grants. They receive in-kind support from the Parks and Recreation Division, in the form of an office at Etobicoke Civic Centre, the use of office equipment (computer, phone, fax), and approximately 100 hours a year of assistance from City staff.

The organization works on crime prevention issues, especially those issues arising from recommendations contained in the Final Report of the Etobicoke Mayor's Task Force on Community Safety (1996). There are four sub-committees: Youth Issues, Police Issues, Community Standards, and Community Harmonization.

Crime Scope did apply for a small grant from the City of Toronto in 1998. It was requested to work with the Etobicoke Crime Prevention Association (now the Toronto Crime Prevention Association) to co-ordinate crime prevention work in the Etobicoke area. To this date, this co-ordination has not occurred, and the two organizations continue to work at cross purposes. For instance, Crime Scope worked on a "Neighbours Night Out" event on June 16, 1998, while the Etobicoke Crime Prevention Association held a completely separate "National Night Out" event on August 4, 1998.

There are some concerns about the ongoing viability of this organization, since its contracts with senior levels of government have ended. The Youth Issues Sub-Committee, which has not met for several months, might be a good fit with the Youth Council for the Children and Youth Action Committee.

Safe City Committee:

The Safe City Committee consisted of representatives from community organizations and members of City Council for the former City of Toronto. The Committee was created in 1989 to monitor the implementation of the Safe City Report (1988) and to develop further policy aimed at the prevention of violence. The Committee reported to Toronto City Council.

The Safe City Committee does not at present receive any staff or financial support from the new City of Toronto, and has not met since the beginning of 1998. Several former members of the Safe City Committee sit on the Task Force on Community Safety.

Etobicoke Safety Council:

The Etobicoke Safety Council has been in existence since 1967. It deals with bicycle safety, car safety, fire safety, and injury prevention education in schools and in the community. While it was a member of the Etobicoke Mayor's Task Force on Community Safety, it does not focus on crime prevention.

The Council received a grant of $3,650.00 in 1998 from the City of Toronto, and approximately 72hours a year of clerical support from City staff for meetings and mailings. The Council continues to meet.

TaxiWatch:

TaxiWatch, as the former Taxis on Patrol Committee is presently known, was created by the former Metropolitan Council in 1983 to support the taxi industry's contribution to community safety. It supports taxi drivers in their attempts to report and, in some cases, personally assist where individuals are at risk or in need of help from emergency response units. The Committee distributes decals which identify the taxi as part of this volunteer program and arranges an annual award ceremony. TaxiWatch meets approximately five times per year. The City of Toronto provides a part-time co-ordinator through the Urban Planning and Development Services Department, Municipal Licensing and Standards Division. In structure and support, it is similar to the Transit Community Watch program run by the Toronto Transit Commission.

Other Community Safety-related Committees Supported by the City of Toronto.

There are many neighbourhood and community-based committees that address safety concerns which receive staff support. For instance, the Park Watch program in High Park receives staff support from the Parks and Recreation Division, Public Health staff work with the Partners in Prevention project in North York, and Social Development staff assisted in the Lakeshore Community Audit which included some community safety indicators work.

The City of Toronto also supports hundreds of community organizations that address community safety concerns through its grants programs, including Breaking the Cycle of Violence, Drug Abuse Prevention, Recreation and Access and Equity. Several of these organizations were created by former municipalities, such as the Woman Abuse Council, the Child Abuse Centre, and the Metro Action Committee on Public Violence Against Women and Children, which all developed out of Task Forces in the former Metropolitan Toronto during the 1980s. Crime Concern developed out of a task force in the former City of North York in the 1980s, and continues to be funded by the City of Toronto.

There are, however, no City-wide committees that overlap with the Task Force on Community Safety's mandate, which is to "develop a comprehensive and co-ordinated plan for the City of Toronto that will make our City a world leader in community-based crime prevention." Now that the Task Force has accomplished its mandate, there are no citizen advisory committees that exist on a City-wide basis to monitor the implementation of the Task Force's recommendations, or develop further policy aimed at promoting community safety or preventing crime.

Future of These Committees:

The January 27, 1998, report from the Acting Commissioner of Works and Emergency Services asked:

(1)Does the new City need all six of above committees as well as its Task Force?

(2)Does the new City have the staff resources to continue supporting both the committees and the Task Force?

As can be seen from the descriptions above, these six committees deal with very different "safety issues".

The East York and Etobicoke Safety Councils address an "injury prevention" model of "safety", which stresses traffic safety and educating young children on being safe cyclists and pedestrians. The Emergency Planning Advisory Committee develops corporate responses to catastrophic events, such as ice storms and major floods. TaxiWatch supports taxi drivers in their attempts to report, and in some cases, personally assist where individuals are at risk or in need of help from emergency response units. Etobicoke Crime Scope and the Toronto Safe City Committee focus on community safety and crime prevention. Only three of the six committees discussed deal directly or indirectly with crime prevention (Etobicoke Crime Scope, the Toronto Safe City Committee, and, to a lesser extent, TaxiWatch). This was noted in the January 27, 1998, report from the Acting Commissioner of Works and Emergency Services, which noted that the new Task Force on Community Safety's "areas of overlap... appear to be minimal except for Toronto's Safe City Committee and Etobicoke's Crime Scope."

At the same time, a certain natural "sorting out" of committees has occurred in the past year. The Safe City Committee and the East York Safety Council have not met for several months. Etobicoke Crime Scope has been requested by the Municipal Grants Review Committee to work with the Etobicoke Crime Prevention Association.

There are new avenues of involvement on safety-related issues. In the new City of Toronto, there is at present a Pedestrian Committee which advises Public Works and Environment on traffic safety issues. There is also a Cycling Committee which is very active in bicycle safety issues. It is suggested that members of the East York and Etobicoke Safety Councils work with these groups to promote pedestrian and bicycle safety.

The staff resources necessary to continue TaxiWatch and Emergency Planning Unit are minimal, and these two initiatives would seem to provide good "value for money", although neither has undergone a formal evaluation for effectiveness. The Emergency Planning Unit is clearly a core initiative for the City of Toronto.

Conclusions:

None of the six groups identified are special committees, reporting to City Council through a standing committee. Only two of the six groups identified deal with community safety and crime prevention issues covered by the Task Force on Community Safety. Of these two groups, only one is still meeting, and the future of this group is in doubt, based on lack of funding.

With the exception of the Emergency Planning Unit, which is an internal staff group with no special committee status or funding needs beyond staff time, all of the groups mentioned have very modest costs to the City of Toronto.

The Etobicoke and East York Safety Committees should work with Pedestrian and Cycling Committees on traffic safety issues. The Youth Issues Sub-Committee of Etobicoke Crime Scope should work with the Children and Youth Action Committee on issues of concern to youth.

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The Emergency and Protective Services Committee reports, for the information of Council, also having had before it during consideration of the foregoing matter a communication (February 9, 1999) from Ms. Connie Micallef, Chair, Crime S.C.O.P.E., Etobicoke, commenting on a number of issues and clarifying a few incorrect statements referred to in the report of the Task Force on Community Safety.