Rotary Club of Bowmanville Address 2023

On March 30, 2023, Regional Chair and CEO, John Henry spoke at the Rotary Club of Bowmanville.

 

Good evening everyone,

I’m thrilled to be here with you all today, in person.

It’s hard to believe that April is right around the corner. 2023 is moving quickly, and we have a lot of exciting initiatives on the go this year in Durham Region.

Before I provide an update from the Region, I’d like to thank the Rotary Club of Bowmanville for making this event possible.

I am inspired by the amazing work that you do for our community. I have witnessed first-hand your passion for community involvement. 

Each of you recognize the value of establishing relationships and strengthening collaboration within our local communities.

As we emerge from the pandemic, the importance of community involvement and being of service in our local neighbourhoods cannot be understated. And I thank you all for your commitment.

Now, it is my pleasure to provide you with an update from the Region today—both on the past year and the year ahead.

As you may know, last October we held a municipal election where a new Regional Council was elected.

Our new council is committed to working on behalf our residents and doing what is best for the communities, people, businesses and organizations of Durham Region.

Together, it is our responsibility to uphold the public’s trust and confidence over the next four years, as guided by our Strategic Plan.

The past few years have been tough for us all. COVID-19 is the single biggest challenge that we have faced as a Region.

But, we continue to meet these challenges head on and there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic, thanks to the hard work of our staff and community.

We’re focused on modernizing to create a more responsive municipal government. One that puts public interest at the forefront and adapts to meet the evolving needs of our communities.

In December, Durham Region accepted the TECHNATION Ingenious Award for our Smart Home Device Voice Service—an innovative platform where Durham Region residents can interact with their Google Home or Amazon Echo device to find out information about Regional services.

This new service is part of the larger myDurham 311 initiative, aimed at improving Durham’s customer service by creating a consistent, convenient and personalized experience, beginning with a clear point of contact–regardless of how customers choose to interact with the Region.

In December, we launched the 311 phone service—making it easier and more convenient for people to get the information they need, when they need it.

Customers can now call one number, 311, for answers to questions about services like roads and traffic, transit, waste and recycling, water and sewer, and more.

This is down from the 60 publicly listed phone numbers we had before we launched 311, making it much easier for our customers to get answers to their questions quickly and accurately.

And I am delighted to share with you, that earlier this month, we took another step forward in enhancing our customer experience with the launch of an online self-service portal.

This portal – accessible by visiting myDurham311.ca – enables residents to submit and track requests for many Regional services such as waste and recycling, water and sewer, and traffic inquiries, as well as easily report any issue to the Region.  

Accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week, this new self-service portal is transforming how our residents connect with us and access the services they need, when it’s convenient for them.

I’m very proud of the myDurham 311 enterprise initiative and look forward to sharing more exciting updates as we move toward achieving our vision for a smart, connected and accessible region.

And we’re well on our way toward that vision.

In 2022, Durham Region was recognized as one of the Top Smart21 Communities of the Year,—a wonderful recognition of the important work being done to create the Durham of tomorrow. And even more exciting, Durham Region was recently named one of the Top Smart21 Communities of the Year for 2023 – for the third year in a row.

We ranked in the top 15 of North American communities’ Most Open Cities via Open Data Initiative.

And most recently, we were recognized as one of the top seven Intelligent Communities in the world alongside cities from Australia, Brazil, Canada (New Brunswick), Taiwan and Vietnam.

In partnership with technology provider Visual Defence, we won a Smart 50 Award for using Artificial Intelligence to optimize road maintenance—a first of its kind in Canada.

We also worked with our partner to develop an app called ROVER, which can be installed on a smartphone that is mounted to the windshield of a Region’s road patrol vehicle, to automatically detect, identify and capture images of potholes using AI, so that we can fix them more efficiently.

Our commitment to innovation allows us to address the biggest challenges we face, while ensuring we remain successful in our current areas of strength.

This includes responsibly managing tax dollars to support all of the great work our departments do.

I’m proud to say that the Region has maintained its Triple A credit rating from Moody’s, an important recognition that reflects Regional Council’s long-standing commitment to long-term financial planning, fiscal sustainability and taxpayer affordability.

We are currently one of only eight Canadian municipalities to have been awarded the Triple A rating by this agency. In addition, the Region has continued to maintain its Triple A credit rating from S&P.  

These accreditations support Durham’s reputation as a leader in fiscal management and give our stakeholders confidence that we are managing their tax dollars responsibly. This is important, especially during times of  economic uncertainty.

And this type of transparency – one echoed by reputable external agencies – leads to increased trust in government from the public. 

We also know that Durham is one of the most in-demand regions to live, within one of the most in-demand countries in the world.

We are seeing that love of our community translate into fantastic support for locally owned and operated businesses.

We continue to support the local business community through many successful initiatives, including the award-winning Downtowns of Durham campaign, which saw more than 61,000 visits last year from people wanting to learn more about the businesses in their communities.

Our great collaboration with the Clarington Board of Trade will continue, in support of Clarington’s vibrant local business community. Throughout last year, we jointly delivered a program called “Shop Where You Live” – encouraging residents and visitors to shop at locally owned and operated businesses.

Through our strong partnerships with the chambers and boards throughout Durham, that promotional campaign achieved a 61 per cent increase in engagement online over the prior year.

Through an economic development lens, we are seeing strong demand for commercial and industrial investment into our communities, with a high volume from both international and domestic developers.

The Region’s new Economic Development and Tourism strategy (Ready, Set, Future) was recently released, setting bold aspirations for the future for: People, Location, Acceleration, and Creativity.

Our long term vision for the Region is a talented workforce, vibrant downtowns, a reputation for business innovation and a distinct creative identity – a place of economic prosperity that provides a great quality of life for residents.

And, the Region of Durham is moving forward with its new five-year Growing Agri-food in Durham Plan – created with consultation from partners including the Agriculture Advisory Committee of Clarington – to deliver new economic development projects, programs and approaches to grow its agri-food industry.

The Region and Municipality of Clarington continue to work together to help support the economy and attract new businesses.

Clarington has just hired a new Manager of Economic Development, and is planning to ramp up some exciting local economic development programming.

The Region’s economic development team is already working closely with the new manager to build upon major economic successes in Clarington and leverage the great economic assets and strengths of the municipality.

We are looking forward to building economic growth around major innovative projects, like North America’s first Small Modular Reactor, or ‘SMR’.

Combined with some exciting growth potential throughout the clean energy sector, agri-food sector and tourism industries, we’re looking forward to working with Clarington to create new jobs and new opportunities for employees and entrepreneurs alike.

It will reflect the place that people call home. And as our communities grow, more services are needed.

The Bowmanville Hospital is redeveloping and expanding. And to help keep our community healthy, Clarington is putting the call out for more doctors.

By using $100,000 from its economic development budget, Clarington is taking key steps toward improving access to local primary healthcare through physician recruitment. Our local physicians spoke about the need. Clarington council listened.

These actions are a true reflection of our core belief—people should be able to live, work and grow right here, within their home community. 

Durham’s top growth areas—energy, electric vehicles and advanced mobility technology—are strong industries, and there are many career opportunities in Durham as a result of these growing sectors.

Durham is the clean energy capital of Canada and is leading the way in the research and development of electric vehicles.

We’re confident that the booming growth Durham has seen over the last number of years will continue, with even more companies recognizing that Durham Region is an ideal place to start, grow, relocate or build a business.

Much like supporting local businesses, we continued our work to support the most vulnerable residents in Durham.

Over the course of the pandemic, we’ve seen some of our most vulnerable residents face hardship and challenges—struggles with mental health, addictions and affordable housing.

The pandemic has had sweeping effects on the complex social issues that lead to homelessness, and it’s an issue that we don’t take lightly.

We continue to work to implement At Home in Durham—the Durham Region Housing Plan— while responding to the community’s needs.

During the winter months, we provided warmth and shelter to vulnerable populations through Durham’s Winter Warming Plan.

Durham Region Health Department and Durham Region Social Services are also expanding the Primary Care Outreach Program (PCOP) to include two teams who provide support seven days a week. This mobile unit provides outreach services, including medical and mental health support, to vulnerable populations including individuals who are homeless or at-risk of homelessness in the community.

The Region’s By-Name List (BNL)—a list of people experiencing homelessness in our community who have consented to receiving support—continues to help people on their journey from homelessness to housing.

And Durham funds and works with Street Outreach Teams to ensure unsheltered residents have access to the supports and services they need, including access to housing-focused shelter programs.

Homelessness is a housing status; it’s not someone’s identity and everyone deserves a place to call home. We are working diligently to ensure all residents feel safe and supported.

We continued to advance housing initiatives such as the Oshawa Micro-Homes Pilot and Beaverton Supportive Housing project.

I’m happy to say that the proposed design for the Beaverton Supportive Housing Project earned a Canadian Architect Award of Excellence last April.

This is the first time a Region of Durham facility has received this honour.

We believe that everyone deserves access to affordable housing and the care they need to live a happy and healthy life. We will continue to work toward our ultimate goal of ending homelessness in Durham Region.

Another one of our goals is Environmental Sustainability, which we made great strides in over the past year.

We have several projects to prioritize this goal, including the LEAF Backyard Tree Planting Program.

To date, we’ve seen more than 1,700 trees and shrubs planted on both public and private lands through subsidized tree planting that boosts the Region’s efforts to combat climate change.

And we continue to add to that number each year.

Last July, we were pleased to welcome the Municipality of Clarington to the LEAF program, strengthening the partnership that will help the environment and our communities today and in the future.

We’re continuing to advance low-carbon fleet transitions, including Durham Region Transit’s first battery electric buses and the development of a long-term fleet transition road map.

We have a plan that is focused on rebuilding ridership in a post-pandemic world.

Our work continues on making the GO Lakeshore East Extension a reality, after many years of planning.

We are so pleased that the GO Lakeshore East extension to Bowmanville was included in the provincial budget and is moving ahead.

The Region of Durham has worked closely with the City of Oshawa, Municipality of Clarington, Metrolinx and the Ministry of Transportation to make this transit option a reality for convenient travel within Durham, across the GTHA and beyond.

As we focus on recovery from the pandemic, this project has the potential for major economic impacts.

It will support the development of transit-oriented communities, increase housing supply, create jobs and play a key role in investment attraction.

Residents and visitors will have access to frequent, reliable and accessible transit that will help them optimize their time; spending less time travelling and more time with family and friends.

It marks a significant milestone for the eastern municipalities in Durham—one that will help to transform the way we connect with each other for decades to come.

We’ve also updated the Regional Cycling Plan to support the increased demand for trails and cycling infrastructure; and advanced several sustainability initiatives.

We’ve also begun implementation of Durham’s Nuclear Sector Strategy.

Durham – and Clarington specifically – has always been a proud nuclear host community at the forefront of nuclear innovation, producing low-cost electricity safely, reliably and virtually without carbon emissions.

This strategy will play an important role in the Region meeting its goal of achieving Net Zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The Region also plays a significant role in the provincial Energy Sector, producing 30 percent of Ontario’s electricity.

Our existing economic cluster of Nuclear Supply chain companies, and our post-secondary institutions are continuing to drive advancements in energy innovation not just for Canada, but for the world.

Durham has been accelerating energy innovation through advancements in micro-grids, electric-vehicle infrastructure, geothermal energy, fuel cells and smart technology.

Electrification projects with Durham Region Transit and partners like Oshawa Power, Ontario Tech University, and Ontario Power Generation, are already underway.

These projects highlight how our region is becoming a test bed for clean and smart technologies of the future.

I’ve touched on our accomplishments and priorities from 2022 and now I’d like to share our vision for the year ahead.

As always, we remain focused on the future to ensure a safe and prosperous tomorrow for our great communities.

A key priority for the organization in 2023 is continuing to bring Diversity, Equity and Inclusion into our very core.

Working across the organization and with the community, our recently established DEI office provides a dedicated focus on our efforts to address systemic racism, promote community development and advocate for equity for all residents.

This February, we celebrated Black History Month, in partnership with Durham Regional Police Service, the City of Pickering, Municipality of Clarington, Canadian Jamaican Club of Oshawa, The Power to Be International, Congress of Black Women and DurhamOne at an in-person event on February 2 at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa.

The incredible evening showcased Black excellence through the arts; displaying talent from local artists, engaging the community in discussion and celebrating Canada’s Black communities.

We are a region that is committed to creating welcoming communities that provide equal opportunities for people of all abilities.

From February 3 to 5, Durham Region proudly hosted the 2023 Ontario Parasport Games, for a second time.

More than 300 athletes competed in 11 parasports in front of thousands of cheering fans at nine accessible venues.

In the lead up to hosting the Games, Durham Region partnered with AccessNow—an App that allows users to discover accessible locations in 35 countries around the world.

All nine venues were added to the App prior to the start of the Games to increase inclusion confidence for residents and visitors.

Hosting these Games amplifies our community pride, provides athletes with a stepping-stone to national or international experience, and grows accessible sport opportunities and participation in our region.

The anticipated local economic impact of the Games was between $500,000 and $1 million. It’s another direct and positive impact for Durham’s economic future, and an exciting event to showcase our region.

We remain committed to improving accessibility of our services, programs and facilities which is outlined in our 2022-2025 Multi-Year Accessibility Plan.

We will continue to reach out to the community and rely on advice from our Accessibility Advisory Committee to support our ongoing accessibility efforts with this plan.

Fostering an inclusive environment is central to the Region’s strategic plan, which aims to build a healthy, inclusive, age friendly community where everyone feels a sense of belonging and prioritizes service excellence.

This push for equity is seen in many different areas of the Region, including Durham Region Transit through the Transit Assistance Program, or TAP.

TAP aims to improve transit access and affordability for customers currently receiving Social Assistance in Durham Region.

Through TAP, residents can pay as they go, or pay monthly, and have unlimited access to DRT services for the month.

We’ve also worked to improve service on Durham Region Transit this year, including the addition of new routes, overnight service, new connections and the award-winning Durham Transit OnDemand service, recognized with the P.J. Marshall Municipal Innovation Award this past summer.

We’re committed to improving our services, and that goes hand-in-hand with listening and engaging with our residents.

This is highlighted in another one of our main priorities for this year: Community engagement.

We remain committed to service excellence for our communities in 2023 and beyond.

In November 2022, we hosted the 2023 Budget Town Hall to listen to residents’ questions and feedback on the Region’s budget.

We had more than 14,000 participants at the event by phone, online and in person to provide feedback on priority areas, ask questions and learn about the Region’s 2023 business plans and budgets.

And, these numbers continue to grow each year.

The 2023 Business Plans and Budgets are an important step in bringing critical investments forward and incorporating the excellent feedback we have received.

Another significant way that we’re committed to engaging with the community is with the recent relaunch of Your Durham, the Region’s online engagement platform meant to inspire conversation and encourage community participation anytime, anywhere.

Your Durham is a digital platform where residents can share their opinions, provide feedback, exchange ideas, and stay up-to-date on Regional programs, services and events.

One of the challenges that we face when thinking about community engagement is how in Durham—like many Canadian municipalities—our broadband connectivity is not equally shared.

We all know, broadband access is vital infrastructure that is essential for communication, education and economic competitiveness.

It’s a challenge that we continue to address through our Broadband Strategy and ongoing work to ensure our residents, businesses and institutions, have access to fast, reliable and affordable broadband services.

In 2021, we began work to expand broadband infrastructure in north Durham.

In the region’s urban areas, Internet Service Providers are keeping pace by deploying the latest fibre-optic broadband technologies.

Use of these technologies include ongoing programs to build fibre to the premises for close to 90,000 households in Oshawa and Clarington.

Through Durham OneNet Inc.,  work is underway to create the underground backbone infrastructure necessary to facilitate high-speed broadband to underserved areas and bring the region in line with some of the best-connected communities in the world.

We will continue to look to the provincial and federal governments to work with us to fund further development of critical broadband infrastructure in Durham.

While we aim for improvements in community engagement, we also continue to be committed to improving community safety.

Each and every resident deserves to feel a sense of belonging.

The Community Safety and Well-Being Plan continues our work in ensuring that the needs of Durham Region residents are met.

By coming together and working with our community partners, we can share best practices, collaborate and continue our work on community safety and well-being.

We put this into practice this past June, when we came together with York Region, Halton Region, Peel Region, the City of Hamilton and the City of Toronto to host a Community Safety and Well-Being Symposium.

It was a chance to work collaboratively, to raise awareness about priority risk areas, share best practices, discuss the escalation of violence and gun violence across the GTHA and identify action items.

These conversations will help inform the implementation of the Region’s Plan and make Durham Region a safer place for everyone.

In February, the federal government announced the launch of the Building Safer Communities Fund— funding to support local initiatives that prevent gun and gang violence.

Through this fund, Durham Region will receive up to $4.3 million to prevent gun crime and gang violence in the region.

We are grateful to the Ministry of Public Safety for this significant funding, which will help maximize the impact of the community safety and well-being efforts in Durham Region.

Along with fostering safe and welcoming communities, comes the Region’s responsibility to manage growth, including supporting affordable housing and planning for major infrastructure on a regional basis.

Durham Region shares the provincial goal of increasing housing supply. However, the More Homes Built Faster Act, 2022 (Bill 23) is concerning.

Durham Regional Council, local area municipalities and Indigenous communities were not consulted on changes to land use planning activities, development charges, conservation authorities or other items relevant to municipal governments.

Regional governments play a critical role in infrastructure planning and delivery; helping to support growing communities.

One of the concerns with Bill 23 is that it reduces the development charges we can recover for new infrastructure like water and sewer pipes, transit, roads and more.

In fact, we estimate the Region will have about $281 million less in revenue over five years.

Given critical projects we are already planning for through our long-range capital plan, funds in reserve cannot absorb the cost impacts of Bill 23.

This means that existing property taxpayers and ratepayers of Durham Region will now be asked to fund future infrastructure to support new homes in our community.

Or, the Region may have to reduce service levels.

Despite this, we’re working with the province to identify solutions; including how to work together to increase the supply of different types of housing for all residents and income levels.

If you’re interested in learning more, I encourage you to visit Durham DOT ca SLASH Bill 23.

We know that successful urban planning requires a vision—a bigger picture. It’s about shaping communities that balance growth with services, while protecting the environment for our residents.

It’s the foundation of our Regional Official Plan, and the basis for Envision Durham—our vision for growth to 2051.

As our region continues to grow, it’s important that for us to maintain strong, responsive and sustainable services, and that is especially important for waste management.

Our Long-Term Waste Management Plan will help us to achieve our waste goals by reducing the amount of waste we create, and managing generated waste as a resource, balancing financial needs and environmental sustainability.

We will build innovative systems in collaboration with our residents and stakeholders to ensure a healthy, safe and happy community for all.

I am so pleased to share with you that Durham Region was recently named by Call2Recycle® Canada, Inc. as a 2022 Leader in Sustainability. The Leader in Sustainability Award is granted each year to organizations that display exceptional commitment to battery recycling.

We also remain committed to making our roads a safer place for motorists and pedestrians through Vision Zero, a plan with an end goal of zero road fatalities in Durham Region across all modes of transportation.

Our immediate goal is a minimum 10 per cent reduction of fatal and injury collisions by the end of this year.

I’d like to close by saying thank you for the opportunity to share some of our successes and priorities with you today.

We’ve achieved so much over the past year and know that there is much more vital work to be done.

I could not be prouder of the work our staff have accomplished and the dedication all employees have shown.

It’s about working together to deliver service excellence through leadership, collaboration, innovation and environmental stewardship.

I’m looking forward to continuing this work throughout the rest of 2023 and beyond.

Thank you.