Councillor: South Oshawa plan could fall through the cracks
By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express
Councillors agree – there needs to be a plan for the south end of Oshawa.
However, who should take the lead on developing it is still up in the air.
The idea to start a community improvement plan (CIP) for South Oshawa has been in the works since a damning report from the Fraser Institute showed elementary schools in that part of the city were behind their counterparts in other areas of the city.
And that’s not the only issue that needs to be addressed, with the city’s own Health Neighbourhoods mapping system depicting alarming trends in parts of the city stretching between Lake Ontario and Highway 401.
A city survey of local institutions in June 2014 found the area was lacking in several basic social services, including food banks, family care services and youth programming. Concerns were also raised about the lack of access to education and knowledge resources, in addition to proper health and mental health services.
These concerns, along with jobs, transportation and housing, were all detailed by the 21 institutions as obstacles to any growth occurring in the south end.
Now, a staff recommendation will see the creation of a plan to fix these problems, passed to the Region of Durham, where much of the social service expertise to address these issues is located.
“We are certainly a key stakeholder…but I don’t think we should be taking the lead role in a project such as this,” said Paul Ralph, the city’s commissioner of development services.
However, Councillor Amy England, who is member of the region’s health and social service committee, says it is the city’s responsibility.
“I think there are a lot of things happening in south Oshawa that need attention,” she said during Monday’s meeting of the development services committee. “I think it should be us taking the lead with the help of regional staff.”
The city’s Health Neighbourhood mapping paints a detailed picture of the south end’s struggles.
When compared to the rest of Durham, Oshawa’s Lakeview neighbourhood has lower population growth, lower life expectancy and higher rates of health problems such as asthma, cardiovascular disease and chlamydia. As well, the rate of Hepatitis C is more than three times higher than the region with 96.9 people per 100,000 being infected in Lakeview, as opposed to 27.9 through the region.
Levels of education and income are much lower in the south end. As well, the unemployment rate is nearly double, hitting 14 per cent – well above the region’s 8.6 per cent.
Lakeview also scores much higher in almost every category for early childhood development indicators, inidicating that children are more vulnerable in physical, social and emotional health and face more difficulties for language and cognitive development and communication skills than kids in other parts of the region.
England says she feels the report may not get the attention it deserves at the regional level and could fall through the cracks.
“I just don’t think it will get the same sort of weight,” she said. “I think we have an opportunity to really focus on the south end and make sure our development and investment is equally distributed across the city. I think this would have been part of it.
“Even though there is a regional responsibility to some of these things, we have a moral obligation as a city to deal with them,” she said.
However, Councillor Dan Carter, who also sits on the region’s health and social services committee, says he’s not concerned about the report moving to the region, or it getting overlooked.
“It’s not a concern to me because it’s a priority to me,” he said of the south Oshawa CIP. “I think the big thing is to utilize the best resources from the region to be able to move the file forward, but city members have to be the ones to advocate, educate and empower this file to move forward.”
“There’s no possible way I’m going to let this, personally, not move forward,” Carter added.