Remarks at virtual BILD Panel: Construction to Kick-start the Economy and Providing Housing Supply Together

On June 22, 2020, Regional Chair and CEO John Henry participated in a virtual panel with BILD GTA.

Check against delivery.

Thank you for inviting me. It’s a pleasure to be here today alongside Mayor Thompson. I was looking forward to participating at BILD’s March 13 panel event, which of course had to be cancelled due to the global pandemic.

As we all remember: March 13 was the Friday before March Break. It was a turning point in our society. That was the day the Province of Ontario ordered all schools and child care centres to close. And, while the Novel Coronavirus had been on our radar, that Friday the 13th was the day we realized this virus was going to impact us in a major way.

Within the next week we saw the order for all non-essential businesses to close. In Durham Region, I declared a State of Emergency on March 24. Around the same time, all eight of the area municipalities in Durham Region made this same declaration.

Geographically, Durham is the largest municipal region in Ontario, made up of eight local-tier municipalities: the Cities of Oshawa, Whitby and Pickering; the Municipality of Clarington; the Town of Ajax and the Townships of Brock, Scugog and Uxbridge.

Throughout this pandemic, the services we provide as a Regional municipality have been more critical than ever. We deliver essential services, such as public health, long-term care in four homes, land ambulance services, policing, safe drinking water, and safely disposing of the waste we collect at the curb—just to name a few. Throughout this situation, our Health Department staff has literally worked around the clock. They were asked for advice and guidance about how to mitigate the risk of COVID-19. In the first two months, this team helped to develop an online COVID-19 data tracker; had over 69,000 phone interactions with residents and community partners; managed 26 outbreaks in long-term care and retirement homes; and prepared 7,400 testing kits.

The emergency response meant we had to quickly shift resources to where they were needed most.

Our police and paramedics, nurses and personal support workers continue to be on the frontlines of the battle against COVID-19 in the community, and in our four long-term care homes. One of our homes experienced a COVID outbreak very early in the pandemic, when there was still a lot of uncertainty. Staff had to adapt very quickly as new information and direction became available. I am pleased to share that all our homes are currently COVID-free.

Our biggest revenue loss has been in Transit. To ensure the health and safety of both our passengers and operators, we stopped collecting fares and asked people to board using the rear doors. Throughout the pandemic, we adjusted service levels and routes to meet harshly reduced demand. To add to losses already incurred, we are facing a lot of uncertainty about the future. For example, will our student customers return to physical campuses this fall? We are looking to the provincial and federal governments for help.

We also provide social housing and manage homelessness response. Long before the pandemic, we knew that we had a housing crisis in the GTA. During the pandemic, to slow community spread, it became urgent and essential to fund support for homeless residents who needed shelter. Working with community partners, the Region responded by creating about 25 safe spaces at Camp Samac in Oshawa—a facility lent to us for temporary use by Scouts Canada.

In our Durham Region Housing Plan, during thenext five years, the Region is committed to reducing chronic homelessness to zero; increasing the supply of affordable rental housing units and regenerating community housing. COVID-19 has reinforced that these initiatives can’t wait.

Early in the pandemic, we recognized that our local business community needed urgent support. We quickly formed The Durham Economic Task Force–a collaborative response team made up of Durham Region’s Economic Development and Tourism team; Business Advisory Centre Durham; all of Durham’s chambers of commerce and boards of trade; local municipal economic development teams; and our local business improvement areas (BIAs).

It is an understatement to say that these are challenging times for many small business owners. Working together, this Economic Task Force is making sure that businesses have access to the resources available to help them face the unique challenges presented by COVID-19. But we are very conscious that even as the Province reopens, the “new normal” will continue to be a difficult operating environment for some sectors. That’s why we are stepping up our focus on supporting local business with efforts like the Downtowns of Durham, a specialized campaign to support small businesses in our 13 distinct downtown areas.

When we think about Durham’s post-pandemic economic recovery, we understand that we may have a once in a lifetime opportunity to build back better—with low-carbon and climate-resilient housing development that supports our climate change strategy. We are prioritizing the development of a home energy renovation program in partnership with local utilities, credit unions, skilled trades, and post-secondary institutions that will create opportunities for Durham homeowners to invest in energy efficient upgrades to their homes. These upgrades will reduce costs for homeowners and create new jobs, while lowering the Region’s carbon footprint.

We are proud that Durham Region has a reputation as an innovative community; known for its ability to adapt and solve big problems. We will continue to showcase these strengths, long after this situation is over, while keeping our tax base intact.

As we begin to shift our efforts to recovery, we have created the Regional Recovery Task Force. This team of experts is guiding the development of our recovery action plan. Led by our Region’s CAO, this group is made up of representatives from key stakeholder groups including Regional senior leadership, health care, emergency services, community agencies and the business community.

Our Recovery Framework is centred on four pillars: Social, Built, Economic and Municipal. A recovery lens has been applied to address our key priorities—job creation, community health and safety, restoring and remodelling services, business supports, supports to vulnerable residents, and sustainability. COVID-19 will continue to impact us for months, perhaps years—every decision we make will require a COVID lens.

Navigating a global pandemic has been a first for all of us. Now we must use these experiences to help guide the decisions of tomorrow.

In Durham Region, this crisis put a spotlight on our community’s strength and resiliency; but it has also shown the cracks in our system—specifically social housing—so it’s an important conversation we are having here today.  I’m excited to talk more about this and how we can work together to develop more partnerships take will take our current challenges and turn them into opportunities. Thank you.