Something I agree with the Oshawa Mayor on! I am very glad he has come out and said this in his latest Opinion piece in the newspaper: "the number of needles being distributed by agencies supported by the Durham Region Health Department, such as the John Howard Society and the AIDS Committee of Durham Region, has grown from 6,000 in 1997 to 600,000 needles in 2019. The return rate of used needles is approximately 80 per cent, resulting in thousands of unaccounted for needles in our community."
He wrote "as Mayor I will be requesting that the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care review and modify its Needle Exchange Program with the goal of eliminating the amount of non-returned used needles in our city". Kind of reassuring he's on it now!
I've written on social media a few times imo the program should be an actual 'needle exchange' as it was first promoted. It was somewhat surprising to read this in the paper today, when at yesterday's 11 hour long City Council meeting the Mayor didn't mention to his colleagues that he would be requesting the Province to do this. When requesting the Province "as the Mayor" of Oshawa, it would have been nice to apprise the City's 10 Councillors.
He did say he has been meeting with the police regularly when Councillor Gray made a motion in response to three letters written by three downtown business owners who wrote to Council calling attention to concerning issues in the downtown.
Councillor Gray's motion is below. The words highlighted in yellow are the amendment I moved to be added to the motion. The amendment would have made it a PUBLIC CITY COUNCIL meeting. But the amendment was not approved by the Mayor or enough other Councillors. To see the motion that was approved, just take out the words in yellow highlight and add back in the three words with the black strikeout line "organize a meeting'.
Although the City will be posting a notice with details when the meeting will be held (soon I believe), the fact remains, what was approved was not a City Council meeting where Council members could ask questions to draw out more information and move motions. Imo this is very unfortunate. After all, I thought that was our role.
It is not clear who will chair the meeting, but unfortunately now the City's elected who represent the people of Oshawa are neither front and centre or involved. In fact I was informed today that Council members cannot be linked into the meeting but will be given a tape to listen to after the meeting. It seems it could be considered an ILLEGAL meeting of Council if Council members are given access to 'listen in' to the live meeting, but it would not be an illegal meeting if we were to listen in later to the tape of the meeting. Go Figure!
He wrote "as Mayor I will be requesting that the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care review and modify its Needle Exchange Program with the goal of eliminating the amount of non-returned used needles in our city". Kind of reassuring he's on it now!
I've written on social media a few times imo the program should be an actual 'needle exchange' as it was first promoted. It was somewhat surprising to read this in the paper today, when at yesterday's 11 hour long City Council meeting the Mayor didn't mention to his colleagues that he would be requesting the Province to do this. When requesting the Province "as the Mayor" of Oshawa, it would have been nice to apprise the City's 10 Councillors.
He did say he has been meeting with the police regularly when Councillor Gray made a motion in response to three letters written by three downtown business owners who wrote to Council calling attention to concerning issues in the downtown.
Councillor Gray's motion is below. The words highlighted in yellow are the amendment I moved to be added to the motion. The amendment would have made it a PUBLIC CITY COUNCIL meeting. But the amendment was not approved by the Mayor or enough other Councillors. To see the motion that was approved, just take out the words in yellow highlight and add back in the three words with the black strikeout line "organize a meeting'.
Although the City will be posting a notice with details when the meeting will be held (soon I believe), the fact remains, what was approved was not a City Council meeting where Council members could ask questions to draw out more information and move motions. Imo this is very unfortunate. After all, I thought that was our role.
It is not clear who will chair the meeting, but unfortunately now the City's elected who represent the people of Oshawa are neither front and centre or involved. In fact I was informed today that Council members cannot be linked into the meeting but will be given a tape to listen to after the meeting. It seems it could be considered an ILLEGAL meeting of Council if Council members are given access to 'listen in' to the live meeting, but it would not be an illegal meeting if we were to listen in later to the tape of the meeting. Go Figure!
