Here are highlights from the monthly monitoring report provided at Monday’s North Battleford city council meeting by community safety coordinator Herb Sutton:
On the heels of the news last month that a reboot is coming to the HUB, Sutton shared news that the chair of the HUB is leaving.
Tonya Browarny has been the HUB table chair since 2016. Sutton called it “sad news” and credited her with keeping the HUB going and moving it forward.
“From my perspective at least, Tonya has really shown incredible leadership in bringing the table as far as it is today,” said Sutton.
But, he added, she was “wearing out from the difficulties of leading that initiative.” Sutton particularly pointed out that the HUB chair position is a volunteer position, on top of a regular job.
Sutton also noted the new chair would have to continue the work already done to challenge the HUB table to get better. The indication from Sutton was that they would look to find a replacement that week.
Related to that is the planned reboot of the HUB Steering Committee, with that meeting happening on March 22. Sutton says that is “coming at a really crucial time as we’re looking for a new HUB table chair, and thinking about where the current chair has taken the HUB in North Battleford and where it needs to go.”
On the topic of their SAGE - Safety Acceptance Guidance Empowerment - group, a two-day workshop was due to begin Tuesday, Feb. 27 in the city.
This workshop is focused around coalition work with Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada. The purpose is to bring partners together to design a multi-government steering committee to oversee the work of SAGE and the community safety plan.
In his remarks to council Sutton stressed the need for other levels of government to get involved so that the root causes of crime can be addressed: issues pertaining to health, poverty and housing security in the community.
“We really believe, and I know that folks around the table believe, that this is the only way we are going to move our community safety initiatives forward,” said Sutton.
“The city, up to this point, has really been shouldering much of this work on its own. I think it’s time for us to engage in those conversations with other orders of government to see if they can help us.”
The other SAGE initiative planned is the two-day workshop May 2-3 of this year, in conjunction with Public Safety Canada as part of the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Collaborative Approach. Sutton says a key focus there will be on how to get resources into the hands of the people in most vulnerable circumstances.
