1) Should the City support senior housing initiatives?
I would agree that senior housing is in short supply be that rental, assisted living, supportive care or PCH beds. Developers are addressing the rental component with some success with recent constructions including both apartment blocks as well as condos. Some lower income residents of such units might well be eligible for housing subsidizes via the Province of Manitoba.
Our greatest lack of housing would likely thus fall into the latter three areas being assisted living, supportive care and PCH beds. These remain largely the responsibility of the Province of Manitoba and the RHA.
Assisted Living provides residents with a range of health related support services to allow them to continue to live independently. These support services might well include meals, housekeeping, laundry, bathing/grooming services, and 24-hour emergency medical, as well as social and recreational activities. It is oft times viewed as the first step in the aging process as individuals move from their life long homes to a community focused environment.
Supportive Care and PCH beds are largely an extension of the local RHA who are directly involved in the assessments and paneling of individuals needing additional levels of care for their own safety and well being.
The Cities role hear is thus not without some ambiguity and as I speak with the citizen’s of Steinbach I hear that they too have many questions that need to be need to be addressed including:
• should Council move beyond its prescribed mandate
• does the City provide direct grants and if so to what levels. Is there an expiry date to the program and should income tests be present. I.e. are we targeting lower income individuals, rentals, condos, and/or life lease facilities?
• do the citizen’s of Steinbach want their property taxes to be used in such a manner
• should we be further subsidizing these types of properties when the Provincial and Federal Governments are already contributing your tax dollars
• how much do we look to contribute to each project and will this have any significant impact on the further construction of either assisted living or PCH beds.
• should this be a regional initiative with the local RM’s also contributing as their citizen’s will also be needing and using these accommodations
• do we contribute to both private and public operated facilities
• do we look to have donor’s match the Cities contribution to ensure public buy-in and then double the supports available
I am open to these discussions but a great deal more information will be required in order to make an informed decision as to possible financial commitments being made on behalf of the citizens of Steinbach. Our role might be better suited to lobby the various levels of Government to have them take up their responsibility to ensure these types of accommodation are also supported in the City of Steinbach as they are in other communities in Manitoba.
2) Steinbach RCMP has asked city council to provide funding for three more RCMP officers so that a general investigation unit can be created.
The RCMP makes annual requests of Council which primarily include a request for increased staffing. The latest such request included the establishment of a 3 person Criminal Investigation Unit, commonly referred to as CIS. Such a unit would indeed free up other officers to do more front line policing. The effectiveness of such a unit is not in question as it was evidenced this past year on a trial basis.
Funding for such an imitative however might be better provided for by:
• lobbying the Province of Manitoba who promised 30 additional rural police officers in recent budget’s and have not yet delivered on this promise. This type of CIS unit should be established across the province for the benefit of all citizen’s as their targeted area will certainly not be limited to urban centre’s like Steinbach only but also the rural neighboring RM’s.
• failing this the City of Steinbach should look to collaborate with our towns as well as rural RM’s to jointly fund this CIS unit for the Region’s overall benefit.
We must continue to support the local RCMP office:
• in adding Officer’s on a mirrored basis to our population growth
• in their continued effort to become more community focused via their Community liaison Officer
• in promoting programs such as their DARE student programming, the Citizen’s on Patrol Program (COPP) which requires further community volunteers
• in making them accountable to the priorities set by Council annually
• in having the local detachment provide regular quarterly updates to Council and monthly reports in our local newspaper for the benefit all citizen’s
We all share in making this a safe community. Let us be respectful of our RCMP officers and assist them in whatever manner possible in their work. Have you considered becoming involved as a volunteer in the COPP?
