Saturday, October 29, 2011

Joint Police Service Turned Down by Penentanguishene.

Media Release
Town of Midland
Last evening in a vote of 9-0  Penetanguishene chose to continue their contract with the OPP, and turned aside an opportunity to join with Midland in the creation of a new joint police service.
This outcome is a disappointment for the Town of Midland.  When Midland responded to Penetanguishene’s Request for Bid some nine months ago, we made it clear that we wanted to talk with them about a new form of policing - a joint service to be shared equally by the two municipalities of Penetanguishene and Midland. We were told that before such discussions could happen that we had to bid on a pre-defined service requirement – to bid as if Midland was providing an arms-length service to Penetanguishene. We reluctantly agreed. When the numbers were in the OPP had bid $xx and Midland $1.6 million. In addition we advised that if we could just sit down and talk about a joint service that there were further savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars that could be shared between the two communities. That discussion will now not happen.
Some two years ago the Towns of Penentguishene and Midland joined forces to petition the Province to become a “joint urban growth node”.  The citizens of both communities have since worked together to define what that means - to find opportunities for cooperation, to reduce municipal costs while improving the service efficiencies for both communities. It is sad to realize that a major opportunity to make this optimism a reality has been lost.
We remain neighbours – good neighbours. But we go forward with the realization that the path will be longer and costlier than we had hoped. 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

while a cost saving measure would've been a practical effort to amalgamate both communities......there is more at stake than simply creating a joint policing service for both penetang and midland.

i have lived in this area for a long time, but as an "outsider" i understand the local differences that exist ............there are cultural differences.......there are municipal differences..........there are different policing issues for each town..........there are different images, different but equally important values that each town embraces that neither town's core values and services is equally yet separately unique....

to recognize the differences is essential when planning to create a joint venture in policing or any other essential service........

obviously in the end small but mighty penetang wanted to stay independant of thier municipal shadow known as midland.

if you believe in the old saying:
never say never.....then who knows?
future municipal councils may work harder to create a joint policing service......and other joint services that benefit both towns without each town giving anything up........

change scares some municipalities.....just as change scares some people; the very people whom asked for change.... but in the end....they decided not to embrace change. instead they embraced and retained thier individuality even if it cost them more money..........who's right?
who can say? can you if you are not from the area?

it was suggested, discussed, voted on and finally rejected!
which is how a democracy works!!

let's accept the outcome, move on and possibly re-examine the issue years from now instead of dwelling on what could have been?