Remarks at PROBUS Club of Whitby Brooklin Virtual Meeting

On September 23, 2020, Regional Chair and CEO John Henry delivered a keynote address to the PROBUS Club of Whitby Brooklin

Check against delivery.

Good morning everyone. It’s great to be speaking with you all today.

I know you are group of people with diverse interests. Everything from books, bridge, bicycling and brewing, to golf and gardening, to photography, pickleball and wine. So, I appreciate you taking time to hear from me today on the important—and I hope—fascinating topic of Durham Region. I’m excited to tell you a bit about what the Region does and what we have planned for the next few years.

When I speak to residents, I get a sense that the “Regional Government” level is still not well understood, though we have existed for 46 years.

And you, know, we may be partially to blame for this lack of awareness. We are great at getting the work done, and we need to better publicize our accomplishments.

For example, did you know that Durham Region is a leading municipality in areas such as climate change, accessibility and waste management? In fact, our Community Climate Adaptation Plan won the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ 2018 award in the climate change category.

I would also be remiss not to mention up front how COVID-19 has dramatically changed the way we do business, we well as how we are planning for the future. After all, we are meeting virtually here today—something I don’t think any of us predicted becoming the norm earlier this year.

But today is a great opportunity to get the word out about our great region and everything we do to support it. I also hope there will be some time at the end for questions and to hear from you about your hopes for Durham Region. So, let’s jump right in.

Durham Region is among the fastest growing communities in Ontario. Those of us who have lived here for a couple of decades or more can attest to the rapid expansion of our lakeshore communities. There are new neighbourhoods being created every year, and access to our region is increasing with things like the GO Lakeshore East Extension in Bowmanville.  

When the Region was created in 1974, the headquarters on Rossland Road in Whitby was surrounded by farms. Brooklin was still a tiny hamlet. The population of the entire Region was 228,000.

A lot has changed since then. Our urban areas have grown, our economy has become more diverse and so has our population. Over the years, Durham has welcomed people from all over the world. Our residents enjoy the benefits of a beautiful natural environment, as well as exciting educational opportunities and a thriving cultural scene. If you ask me, this is the best place in Ontario to work, live, raise a family, start a business, and enjoy a great quality of life.

Durham now has more than 700,000 residents, and we continue to grow: we expect to reach 1 million in the next decade. Supporting growth was one reason Regional government was created in the first place.

A larger tax base was needed to support building, operating and maintaining important infrastructure such as major roads, and water and sewer systems.

It also enabled consistent delivery of specialized services that could not be appropriately resourced by smaller communities. Important things such as modern policing, public health and social services, child-care and long-term care homes are much better managed at a Regional government level.

Over the years, the range of Regional services has expanded. Paramedic services, Provincial Offences courts and funding of social housing were downloaded from the provincial government in the year 2000. Transit and waste management migrated up from the local level. The Region also delivers land use planning, source water protection, emergency management, economic development and tourism functions. All the things that help our community continue to grow successfully.

The Region leads—and works with our partners— to address issues like climate change, newcomer supports and aging populations. Our services support residents from the day they are born, throughout their entire lives.

Geographically, Durham is the largest Region in the GTA at more than 2,500 square kilometres. It stretches from the shores of Lake Simcoe in the north to Lake Ontario in the south, and from the Rouge River in the west, to Northumberland County in the east. While Regional Headquarters is here in Whitby, we have more than 50 satellite offices.

These include health clinics, works depots, police and paramedic stations, long-term care facilities, and water and wastewater plants, located across all eight of our area municipalities.

And while our Regional facilities span the entire geographical footprint of Durham, did you know that while 80 per cent of our land mass is in the Greenbelt, over 80 per cent of our population lives in the five lakeshore communities?

That makes for a lot of sparsely populated rural areas.

Balancing serving our dense urban areas with large rural zones presents its challenges. For example, designing policing or transit services to meet the needs of both, requires outside-of-the-box thinking. It’s a challenge that’s unique for municipalities in Ontario, but it’s one that I think we’ve done a great job at while growing at such a rapid pace.

In the past couple of years there have been major leadership changes at the Region. Our first female Regional Chair, Gerri Lynn O’Connor, took office after the late Chair Roger Anderson passed away—my friend Roger served as Regional Chair for more than 20 years, and left a great legacy, and big shoes to fill. In 2018, I was elected Regional Chair, and we swore in a Regional Council with 50 per cent new members. Also around this time, the Region appointed a new CAO, new Commissioner of Finance and Commissioner of Social Services (all women), and a new General Manager of Transit. So, with lots of fresh ideas and energy, deep and diverse experience and gender balance around the staff leadership table, we are setting new directions and ambitious goals.

After implementing these big internal changes, no one could have predicted or prepared us for the biggest, ever change and challenge for our Regional government: COVID-19.

Since the beginning of the pandemic in March, Durham Region has radically and swiftly adapted to meet the challenges that these unprecedented times have placed before us.

Since declaring a State of Emergency on March 24, most of our staff are working remotely from home, and we have fast-tracked initiatives that allow our residents to be served online, to ensure public safety.

Our Economic Development team have partnered with local agencies to help better equip local business for e-commerce with an initiative called Digital Main Street. They have worked with local partners to source PPE equipment for businesses. They also created Downtowns of Durham, an initiative that supports our vibrant urban downtowns, as business has suffered during this pandemic.

Our Social Services staff partnered with local agencies to create and run the In and Out of the Crisis program at Camp Samac, where unsheltered residents could have a roof over their head while maintaining their public health and receiving the support they need. They offered emergency child care to healthcare and frontline workers in Durham Region. They also recently announced that WiFi is being installed in all Durham shelters. During a state of emergency, it was more important than ever not to let anyone fall through the cracks, and ensure all residents have access to shelter. I am extremely proud of the work we’ve done to help people find housing during these extraordinary times.

Our Health Department team has been essential in the fight against COVID-19. From their guidance on best health practices and guidelines, to their contact tracing and case management, they have done remarkable work in keep us as safe as possible. They also did an excellent job on creating the COVID data tracker, which allows the public to stay up to date on the latest COVID-19 information, with just the click of a button.

The Works Department has continued to provide the excellent service our residents have come to expect everyday, such as waste collection, water, road construction and traffic safety.

Durham Region Transit has continued service—offering free rides during the initial spike of the crisis. Since then, they have continued to adapt their service model to best serve residents during a pandemic. Sanitization and cleaning protocols have been consistently updated to ensure the safety of our passengers and Transit staff.

And our often overlooked internal departments such as Finance, Communications, Human Resources, IT, Legal, and the CAO’s Office have been doing excellent work behind the scenes to continue supporting residents.

That sounds like a lot, but truthfully these are just a few examples of the remarkable work our organization has been a part of over the past few months. To say I am proud of the commitment and hard work of our staff at the Region is a massive understatement. They have truly exemplified Durham Region’s core values of being innovative and embracing new challenges.      

Our staff are using this radical time of change to further innovate, by redesigning and streamlining work processes and public facing services, such as our contact centres. We are engaging our residents more often using new online tools to get input on our strategic plan, official plan and other key initiatives.

We are working to optimize our use of office space, recognizing that the world has been forever changed due to COVID-19, and that our technology needs will never be the same.

Developing and engaging in new partnerships with our area municipalities and with post-secondary institutions is also a key focus.

Formal collaborations allow us to advance research and resolve challenges together.

For example, the Region is working with our local post-secondary institutions on a program called CityStudio Durham. It’s a program that pairs local university and college students with Regional projects to allow students to gain working experience, while also providing us with new and innovative solutions to projects such as the COVID-19 wastewater surveillance. This initiative involves collecting and testing untreated sewage samples from water pollution control plants to check for traces of the virus. With this data, we can develop a model for predicting new cases for identifying new coronavirus hot spots in the area.

It’s all part of our mission of working together to deliver service excellence through leadership, collaboration, innovation and environmental stewardship.

That mission was endorsed by Council this past March as the guiding principle of our new five-year strategic plan.

Our strategic plan is our road map to success—it articulates our priorities and planned actions.

For example, the strategic plan consists of five areas for action:

Environmental sustainability, economic prosperity, community vitality, social investment and service excellence.

In terms of environmentally sustainability, I am happy to say that Durham already is a leader on addressing climate change, so we have a great foundation—but more action is needed and will be addressed in the future.

Regional Council established the Durham Region Roundtable on Climate Change in 2009. Since then, we have assembled climate forecasts and energy data, and assessed climate risks and set greenhouse gas reduction targets. The climate data suggest that Durham’s future climate will be warmer, wetter and wilder.

To address this, we worked with community partners to develop an award-winning plan to help us protect people and property, reduce risks, and to be more resilient. Actions to adapt to extreme weather are underway - from tree planting programs, heat and cold alerts, to the way we design bridges and culverts. There is much more to do, so the work continues.

An exciting example of this continued work is the approval of a new Mixed Waste Pre-Sort and Anaerobic Digestion—or AD—facility.

The Mixed Waste Pre-sort AD facility with an Energy from Waste plant, will be a first-of-its-kind fully integrated waste management initiative in North America. This system will convert food scraps into renewable natural gas and will use the residuals to generate electrical energy that can be used in a variety of applications. The proposed AD process will be odour and emissions free thanks to some remarkable technological advancements.

AD is a natural process that uses microbes found in the environment to create a renewable natural gas. AD is a safe, proven technology used across North America and Europe.

The new facility will be located next to the Durham York Energy Centre (DYEC) in the Energy Park and will only accept waste from Durham Region and will delay the need to expand the DYEC facility. As I mentioned before, Durham Region’s population is growing and expected to be more than 1 million people in the next decade. More residents will mean more garbage created for the Region to manage. The Mixed Waste Pre-sort facility will remove non-combustible material and recyclables to further increase diversion from landfill and extend the life of the DYEC.

Many more projects of this scale and innovation will be needed in the future to combat climate change and ensure our environmental sustainability—and we are ready for that challenge.

Planning for economic prosperity is another major theme of our strategic plan. We all want to see more jobs created in Durham. People want to work closer to home and replace the losses we have seen due to the wide-reaching effects of COVID-19. We want the graduates of our post-secondary institutions to have great career options in Durham, rather than moving away.

Local jobs are a top priority for Regional Council. However, job creation is a matter over which we have some influence but limited control. We strive to create an environment that is attractive to business by providing good road, water and sewer infrastructure.  We support jobs and the growth of the Durham economy by keeping taxes competitive and providing strong services that businesses and entrepreneurs depend upon. We continually attract investment through our economic development plan.

The goal is to make Durham Region a “location of choice” for business.

A great success story of this goal coming to fruition is the announcement earlier this month from Amazon. They have committed to building a one million-square-foot distribution facility with 1,000 new jobs in the Town of Ajax and a 354,000-square-foot facility in the Town of Whitby, with hundreds of full and part-time jobs. These are both solid investments in our region.

But most importantly, this announcement is a direct reflection of the collaboration that exists between Durham Region’s economic development team and those within the local area municipalities. Together, these teams are showcasing why Durham Region is the right choice for a bright future.

We also assist local start-ups and existing businesses to grow and flourish. Working with partners like the Business Advisory Centre Durham, the SPARK Centre, our post-secondary institutions and the Durham Innovation Tech Hive (D-Hive for short), the Region is encouraging our emerging technology sector.

Durham now has a network of local innovation hubs and technology accelerator sites. These hubs attract the people who are writing the code, creating the software applications, designing autonomous vehicles, and building the robots that will drive the economy of the next decade and beyond. We are also celebrating 50 years of BIAs.  It’s a very exciting time for Durham.

Another way we help develop the Durham economy is by enhancing our existing infrastructure.

Building the right transportation infrastructure in the right place is essential to our economic growth. With this in mind, we worked with Whitby, Oshawa and Clarington, to make GO Lakeshore East Extension a reality, after many years of planning.

It’s been more than 30 years since Durham Region first heard about a train extension into Clarington. And almost a decade since an approved environmental assessment confirmed a preferred route north of Highway 401.

These stations—located at Thornton’s Corners, on the east side of Thornton Road South in Oshawa, a central station just south of downtown Oshawa, and GO stations in both Courtice and Bowmanville—will drive economic revitalization in several key areas, while supporting active transportation within our communities. This investment is expected to have a positive economic impact on our communities for the next 50 years.

The GO East project will provide direct access to our local post-secondary campuses. It will also connect to and help strengthen the existing transit hub in downtown Oshawa. In Clarington, the new stations offer opportunities for transit-oriented development. It’s the type of development we know people are looking for: walkable, compact, pedestrian-oriented places where people can work and find entertainment.

These days, infrastructure is not just about physically moving people and things, it is also about virtual highways and connectivity. It is now almost impossible for any business to operate without a reliable, fast internet connection. Most households are also demanding web connectivity to receive bills, news, and entertainment. Students, from grade school to graduate school, depend the internet to do research, work on group projects, take online courses, and communicate with classmates, professors and the school administration.

Many of us use Facebook and Instagram to keep up with the kids or grandkids, or an organization that we belong to. Twitter and news apps keep us constantly updated on global and local events. We can barely imagine life without the internet now.

So, you may be surprised to know that within Durham Region, in the heart of modern Ontario, there are areas with no reliable internet service. Rural zones have major connectivity issues, but some of our urban areas are also suffering with old, slow connections. Because the private sector creates the broadband infrastructure, it is not universally available. They build it where it is profitable and demand is high, leaving some areas without adequate service. Connecting can also be expensive.

The result is that some Durham residents, students and businesses are being left out.

To remedy this situation, the Region has developed a broadband strategy, called Connecting our Communities, to improve internet services across Durham. We currently have a survey running to hear feedback from residents all over Durham. The information gained will provide insight into broadband needs in Durham, while helping to determine next steps.

A healthy economy supports community vitality. Durham residents told us they want a community with a high quality of life. They also want a community where no one is left behind, where people have access to the services they need throughout their lifespan.

The Region plays a significant role in building that kind of community.

We have developed an age-friendly strategy that will ensure we are taking care of our residents, no matter their age.

Land use planning is another important pillar of community vitality. In consultation with the public and area municipalities, the Region develops and updates Regional scale plans. These plans must comply with layers of rules provided by the Province.

“Scale plans” direct how much population and employment we should be planning for, where development can happen, how dense it should be, and how the supporting infrastructure can be financed. While the Region develops the high-level plan, the area municipality, in your case Whitby, creates the more detailed neighbourhood, subdivision and site-level plans. They will work closely with developers to ensure that the planned structures fit the town’s vision for that area of the community outlined in plans and zoning bylaws.

We have a good idea what the community wants when it thinks of community vitality – green, walkable communities with a range of affordable housing options, good transit, and easy access to services and local jobs. Planning to meet these needs is not always easy, but we are up for the challenge.

Policing is a critical element of community vitality and safety. I could spend an entire hour talking about the work our officers and civilian staff do to keep our community safe. As Regional Chair, I am a member of the police services board so, I keep up on the wide variety of initiatives underway. These range from the annual RIDE program, traffic enforcement and community policing to the efforts targeting gun and gang violence and human trafficking.

Policing today is complex and is always adapting to our modern times. It relies on science, data analytics, digital investigation tools and even robots, used by highly skilled humans. There are also some pretty amazing dogs on the team. So, if you are interested, I recommend you invite a speaker from the Durham Regional Police Service to give you a full presentation, as there have been some recent changes with the retirement of Police Chief Paul Martin.

Durham Region is working to create safer roads for drivers, pedestrians and cyclists through the Durham Vision Zero Strategic Road Safety Action Plan.

When a resident suddenly dies on our roadways, it isn’t just a traffic inconvenience. The community member we lose—the hockey coach, the teacher, the friendly neighbour who shovels your driveway—has needlessly been denied the right to celebrate their next birthday, to be at their kids’ graduation, to feel the warm summer breeze as they cycle the waterfront. That’s why the guiding principle of Durham Vision Zero is that no loss of life on our roads is acceptable.

Through Durham Vision Zero, Durham Region has chosen to endorse preventing collisions from happening in the first place, instead of spending money responding to them. By investing in public education, new road safety technologies, increased law enforcement and more—the investment will pay off endlessly for our community, because the cost of community health and safety is priceless.

Speaking of health and safety, the Region’s health and social services programs also play a key role in supporting a safe, healthy and inclusive community. Many of these programs are carried out in partnership with agencies in our non-profit sector, with area municipalities, and with the Province.

When I said earlier that Regional services cover you form the day you are born all the way through your lifetime, I was not exaggerating. Our public health programs include pre-natal advice and breast-feeding clinics.

We operate child-care centers and ensure that school kids receive their immunizations. We have programs that support healthy eating, active living, smoking cessation and infectious disease control—a group that has been extremely vital these past few months. Our Social Services include housing for families and seniors. Our long-term care homes often support frail residents approaching the end of life. We are there for residents at every age, and every stage, of life.

Most people in Durham enjoy a very good quality of life but that is not universally true. Part of our job at the Region is to ensure that no one is left behind. This is integral for Durham Region’s social investment. Making housing affordable and attainable for more of our residents is critical to this effort.

The average market rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Durham is now more than $1,500 per month. It would cost a single person working 40 hours a week at minimum wage more than half of their income to afford that. Less than half the rental households in Durham can afford that rent.

The housing affordability problem is most acute for single adults who aren’t yet seniors. They are increasingly using emergency shelters.

The Region, along with our local non-profit and affordable housing partners, provides thousands of social housing units and administers provincial rent subsidies for hundreds of households.

But we have a very long waiting list for social housing. Depending on whether the applicant is a family or a single person, the wait can be years long.

We need more purpose-built rental housing. Private sector supply is not keeping up with demand and hasn’t been for many years. Intervention is required!

Durham Region has a ten-year housing plan called “At Home in Durham”. We have has set an ambitious target of creating 1,000 new affordable units in the next five years, and making sure our development policies support that goal.

A major milestone in support of this plan is the new modular housing development coming to Beaverton, providing approximately 50 supportive housing units, and offering much needed community services to northern Durham.

In addition to providing safety and shelter, this location will provide space for needed community resources to serve all residents in northern Durham. Services such as counselling and mental health resources, medical services and social services. The Region will be inviting the community to provide input on all the services that will be on site during a community engagement session this fall.

The Region exists to serve the community and we aim to do that with excellence.

When people tell me that government should run more like a business, I remind them that government does not exist to make a profit. We exist to serve the public. We have many bottom-lines, including safety, sustainability, meeting provincial standards for services and meeting community expectations of transparency, accountability, affordability, care, and compassion. It’s a complex balancing act.

The Region delivers a diverse suite of services mandated by legislation, regulation and policy. We can be “business-like”, if that means efficient and effective. But unlike a business, we can’t just stop delivering safe water or ambulance service because it is too expensive. We must always find a way to continue to deliver those services, regardless of resources at our disposal.

The Region’s measure of success is whether our work supports a prosperous and sustainable community. A community where all residents feel safe and included, where business can thrive and where everyone, regardless of age, ability or income, can live decent, dignified lives.

How can we achieve that? We will be engaging with citizens more often to track their needs. We will be using data and analytics to help us design and target our response and make needed changes.

We will be as transparent and accountable as possible. We will use mechanisms like our newly planned contact centre to provide modern service solutions.  

We will strive for efficiency, evaluate outcomes and continuously improve and innovate to keep our operations affordable and effective.

The Region is just one important contributor to a very complicated endeavour that we call a “community”. So, working collaboratively with all the other players in the system - the federal government, the Province, area municipalities, the private sector and non-profit agencies, the education and health care sectors – is essential. None of us can do it alone. Partnership is vital to everyone’s success.

We’re here to make life better for Durham residents. It’s a big challenge but we are fortunate to have a passionate and innovative team at the Region.

From Regional Councillors to front-line staff, we are dedicated to making a difference in Durham. Thanks for listening and I hope you have some questions for me, that I’ll be happy to answer.