Latest / Kvetch & Release / AM800 Roundtable with MPP Dowie, Councillor Tonial, & Rino Bortolin

Transcript

AM800 Roundtable with MPP Dowie, Councillor Tonial, & Rino Bortolin · Kvetch & Release

0:09
Hey everyone, Good morning John Lidkey filling in for Dan McDonald here on Am
0:15
eight hundred c k l W. You just heard the smooth stylings of Dan
0:20
on in the Morning Drive with Lisa Williams. We're doing a bit of a
0:24
musical chairs round table thing today show swap. It's fun. It's a big
0:29
day too, with some breaking news being revealed on the Morning Drive by Mayor
0:33
Dilkins that we're gonna dive right into regarding the H four hub, but first
0:37
I'm gonna set up the round table right now. I'm so glad to be
0:39
joined around the table by Winter to come see MPP Andrew Dowie. How you
0:44
doing, rach On. I'm so always a great day when I get to
0:47
come home. Oh absolute, I thought you're gonna say, its always greatday
0:49
when you get to see me one and then swinging a mess, but that's
0:53
okay. Thank you also have joining me right now Ward three counselor and to
0:57
come see Rico Tony. How you doing doing very well? Very well?
1:00
Thank you really appreciate having your time here. And last but not least,
1:03
former Windsor Ward three counselor and owner of the soon to be opening up Patrella's
1:10
Italian street food. Reno bortel enjoins me, how you doing, Reno,
1:12
Good, Good morning, Johan, good morning. Well, as you just
1:17
heard we were mentioning and if you're listening a bit earlier on, we've got
1:21
news about the H four hub. That is right this new housing hub.
1:26
We finally have a location. Mayor Dilkins was on the Morning Drive this morning
1:32
and he said that seven hundred Wellington was chosen by council to meet the needs
1:38
of the community. Today we'll actually announce the official site. So it's just
1:42
off of Wellington in Windsor and it's the site that was reviewed. We looked
1:49
at over two hundred sites. We asked the community and the public, you
1:52
know, who had property or who wanted to identify sites within two kilometers of
1:56
the downtown. Let us know what you think would work for what we're trying
1:59
to do. And that's the permanent home for the H four which is currently
2:01
at water World. And we received a lot of different submissions and then we
2:07
narrowed it down to four. It went to City Council and ultimately, with
2:10
some back and forth, city Council chose this property at seven hundred Wellington seven
2:16
hundred Wellington. There is the location. Mary Dilkin says that this location is
2:21
the best to meet the growing needs of our community. When you look at
2:24
the size and the location, it's really best equipped to meet the growing needs
2:29
of our community. And what we're talking about here is relocating some of the
2:35
supports and the homeless services in our community to one site and having sixty four
2:42
one bedroom sort of permanent support of transitional housing units built at that site with
2:47
the supports around it, and working with partners. We have been working pretty
2:52
heavily behind the scenes to align with a lot of the partners that all of
2:55
whom you know, that deliver services to this population that would be better served
3:00
if we all work together on one site. And I really think we've got
3:04
a good plan. And Mary Dolgan says that at this point the timeline is
3:08
not certain and he expects it to be a fifty million dollar project, but
3:12
says it's going to require coordination with upper levels of government. Timeline. We
3:17
need to all align federal and provincial funding to get it out of the ground.
3:21
It's probably a fifty million dollar project. So we've got our part ready
3:24
to go in terms of budget and land acquisition. So we'll work very diligently
3:29
and we have behind the scenes, so we will try and get this out
3:32
of the ground as soon as possible. So let's start things off here the
3:38
conversation. Andrew, I'll bring your voice in as the MPP for Windsor to
3:42
come see. Obviously we're hearing from the mayor that we're going to be needing
3:44
to see some funding flowing down from upper levels of government. And as the
3:49
representative of one of our upper levels of government sitting around the table right now,
3:52
what's your perspective, How is this relationship going to work? What do
3:54
you see as how this unfolds? Oh? Absolutely, the province of Ontarious
4:00
social supports and healthcare services and this is no different. So the City Council,
4:06
to its credit, has been working on these for a long long time
4:11
and has brought forward some really some a great package and I've taken the opportunity
4:15
already to bring that forward to the different ministry officials and they're pretty encouraged by
4:19
what they see. I think all that's left now is the business case.
4:23
What are the specifics. The concept is something that I think is very attractive.
4:28
Now it's a matter of how will the operations go, what is the
4:31
actual ask of the province in terms of the funding, what services would be
4:36
delivered, and then trying to put together that envelope of where you know where
4:42
the different pockets of funding would come from. And not everything is in one
4:45
unified ministry, as I learned day in and day out, so we have
4:48
to figure out the back end of it. But no, I think it's
4:51
an attractive project for the community, and I say that where we need it.
4:57
We need supports for mental health. It's the top priority for the Ontario
5:01
Health Team, which is the call it the cornating body for all of our
5:05
local healthcare service providers. But also it's when we hear timetime again as the
5:11
top issue for the residents of Ontario. I've been on the budget committee for
5:15
two years now and I've heard it repeatedly. So the investments are needed and
5:20
I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next. Rena, I'll bring you in
5:25
on this one just to start things off. We're gonna have to take a
5:28
quick break, but I want to get your perspective right off the bat.
5:30
Obviously, you know you were word three counselor. This is located about as
5:34
much as in ward three as possible without it going over the line. I
5:38
feel like it's like price's right rules almost right now. Quite frankly, we
5:43
know that they looked at two hundred different properties and four specific expression expressions of
5:47
interest. Are you surprised by where the location was chosen knowing what was available
5:54
within the area that was being looked at. No, not at all.
5:57
This is a property that's been talked about for a while for these types of
6:00
services and for other medical services in the Core. I think this is a
6:04
great announcement today. I think the you know, the key here is how
6:09
fast we can move on it. The H four Center as an entity,
6:14
you know, was needed yesterday, and the temporary one is doing as much
6:18
as it can. But there have been issues. It is very difficult because
6:25
you know, people will talk. I've already heard a couple of comments about
6:28
this not being sort of downtown or close enough. And we have to get
6:31
away from this sort of clustering or this sort of over concentration of services.
6:38
And that's been part of the problem in the Core is that when there are
6:41
too many services where to the point where the people taking advantage of the services
6:46
available are actually outnumbering the number of people who work and go to those areas
6:51
that becomes a problem. And so this is actually a great location and great
6:56
step forward. I would add to Andrew's comments that we need addictions funding as
7:02
well, because to go with that mental health. Not to say that everybody
7:06
that's homeless is experiencing addictions and mental health issues, but it is a trifecta
7:12
that is very important in sort of moving past all this. So the you
7:16
know, I think the good the good thing here is that the model of
7:21
coming together with all the multiple partners makes it very easy for Andrew to sell
7:27
this at the provincial level. This is not something that you know, we're
7:30
coming out of nowhere. We've been doing this, we've been piloting it for
7:33
a few years. The partners are all on board, The partners are talking
7:36
about the successes, and so we need to continue that and actually lead on
7:41
the issue to show that the funding isn't just a big ask, but it's
7:46
a big ask with outcomes that are there to actually show both the community and
7:50
show the province that this is a good move. Rick, hoping you're in
7:56
really quickly on this one as well. Obviously, homelessness is not an issue
7:59
that is isolated to just Windsor Or to the downtown core. There's homelessness experience
8:03
throughout all of our municipalities and towns throughout the region. Here when you look
8:09
at the fact that we're going to have one big hub like this and we
8:11
know that there are other services offered throughout the community and the region as a
8:15
whole, is this a good first step. Yes, I think any anything
8:18
that we can do to help the social issues. You know, over the
8:22
twenty years of my last twenty years of policing, I noticed the officers are
8:26
doing more social occurrence is not criminal occurrences. So I think that you know,
8:31
the governments all need to work together and find the remedy not a band
8:37
aid, but an actual remedy to the homelessness, including addiction, including mental
8:41
health issues. Windsor has a concentration of it because they have the services,
8:46
So people are going to come from the county to stay there because the services
8:50
are next to them. Decompsy has been experiencing some homelessness. People have been
8:54
hanging out in our foyers of banks and things like that. So yes,
8:56
it is coming to DECOMPSI and it's a it's a problem for everybody. Even
9:01
though Windsor is building this, it is helping the county with homelessness too.
9:07
Nobody's isolated from the societal problems that we are, of course facing here.
9:11
We're gonna take a quick break right now. When we get back on the
9:13
side, I do want to dive more into the timeline of what we're going
9:16
to expect here. As we were talking about Reno, you said, you
9:20
know this was needed to open yesterday years ago. Quite frankly, I always
9:24
get concerned when I hear a number like fifty million dollars and start to think,
9:26
like, well, that timeline's got to be at least five years,
9:30
probably more than that. What does that say about where we're at and where
9:33
we're going. We'll find out from the round table when we get back.
9:35
John Lydkey here on AM eight hundred CKLW. I'm joined by Windsor to Comcy
9:39
MPP, Andrew Dowie, Word three counselor to Comsy Rictonio and Patrella's Italian street
9:46
food owner and former Windsor Word three councilor, Reno Bordolin. Don't go away,
9:50
folks, We'll be back right here on AM eight hundred CKLW. After
9:52
this, Hey everyone, we're back. John Lydkey here on am eight hundred
9:56
CKLW. It is the round table, joined by Windsor to come, cy
10:01
MPP, Andrew Dowie to come, Seeward three Councilor, Rictonial and Patrella's Italian
10:05
street food owner and former Windsor Word three Councilor Reno Bortolin. We're talking about
10:09
how the City of Windsor has identified the location for the new housing hub.
10:13
After two hundred properties and four specific expressions of interest by property owners, seven
10:18
hundred Wellington Avenue has been determined and approved by City Council as a location for
10:24
the new housing hub following council direction. Administration did initially attempt to negotiate the
10:30
purchase of this site, but was unsuccessful and will be using their powers of
10:35
exp creation expropriation to wrestle it away from the property owner. We were just
10:41
going to talk about the timeline of these things, but I do want to
10:43
actually go into this conversation right now about this idea that the city went forward
10:48
and asked people like, hey, do you want to be involved in this?
10:50
Would you be interested in potentially selling your land to US went into negotiations
10:54
with four of them and obviously weren't able to break through with any of those
10:56
four, and now they're using the the strong reach of the law to take
11:03
it away from them. Reno, you were just expressing some thoughts about your
11:07
opposition to expropriation. Why, well, I generally, I generally am not
11:13
a fan of expropriation. Of forcing someone to hand over their land is to
11:16
me a last last ditch effort. I mean, I'm hoping and obviously they've
11:24
done their diligence as far as having you know, wanting to negotiate and having
11:28
to get to this point. I think it's a good sign that the city
11:31
is serious and that if they're coming out announcing this, that they are moving
11:35
ahead and they will be you know, buying the property. So I think
11:39
from that side of it, going to your timeline comment, this will move
11:43
as quick as possible. Obviously there will be legal issues with an exporporation.
11:48
Hopefully throughout the process they can come to an agreement. That's sometimes what happens
11:54
once you start expropriation. People say okay, okay, let's just settle on
11:56
a price. But it will take a couple of years to put everything together.
12:03
I think in that time though, the business case can and should be
12:05
made to be presenting to the various ministries that will be being asked to fund
12:11
this. If we're looking at capital expenses, we'll probably be asking the federal
12:16
government for funding as well, so it'll take the time to get it set
12:20
up. You know, your five year timeline that you mentioned is probably realistic.
12:26
Ideally we see something shorter in the three year timeline where by the time
12:30
all the legal issues are done, there's shovels in the ground immediately. But
12:35
you know, the idea of excorporating is in my mind, it just shows
12:41
how serious the city is on this and that it's a good thing that we're
12:45
moving forward on this. Again, I would prefer it to be something where
12:48
the landowner was willing a willing partner in it. But to me, this
12:54
is a worthwhile project to be moving ahead on, absolutely, and we know
12:58
it's necessary. Andrew will bring your voice in on this. You know,
13:01
we were talking about what kind of services need to be offered and how that's
13:03
not just something that's going to be you know, shoved down from the province
13:07
to the city to deal with. It's got to be an inclusive process where
13:11
both parties are coming together and recognizing this as what's needed. How does that
13:13
actually work though, for like the average lay person listening, Well, there's
13:18
a belief system why that the local communities know what's best for them. The
13:22
demands are different from place to place. You'll see different sets of data on
13:28
different types of behaviors. For example, at different centers these in the East
13:35
there are a lot i'll call it more cases of addiction on record than in
13:39
the West. Who knows why that is. But ultimately that we see some
13:43
regional variations. So with that, it's important that we have some degree of
13:50
coordination here. And so I mentioned earlier the Ontario Health Team, something that's
13:52
relatively new. It used to be done through the Local Health Integration Network.
13:56
Really the goal is always to have everybody talk to one another and decide who
14:01
monks themselves is best suited to lead a certain portfolio. But instead of having
14:07
kind of the transition for that is, whereas the Local Health Integration Network was
14:13
its own entity, now the Ontario Health Team is really more of a voluntary
14:18
sort of organization. It's got some staff, but predominantly the heads of the
14:22
organizations decide amongst themselves who will be the chair. We have two great co
14:26
chairs, Kristen Kennedy and Nancy Brockenshire, who are leading that. They among
14:33
the fifty something local healthcare providers, they decide what their collective priorities are and
14:39
who will take charge of a given service. And so we are still someone
14:46
in the infancy of that. There's still some time to that will pass before
14:50
we'll have everything figured out. Maybe we'll never have everything figured out, but
14:54
we're certainly trying, and we'll get a better sense of who will operate the
14:58
services, what's the best provider, what's the best service delivererty model? And
15:01
this will change from place to place, So it's it's just dependent on the
15:05
data, what you see on the ground, and with that you can only
15:11
only from there will you know where to go next. And sorry, John,
15:15
if I can just add to that, if you think about what you
15:16
know, like I hate to use this term about sort of the chain of
15:20
custody. Let's say, if so or so somebody that comes into the to
15:24
the to the center. Sometimes they're brought it. They're brought there either by
15:28
police or suggested to go there. They have already worked and touched the homeless
15:33
shelters. They are then looking at health services, so the health services and
15:39
the health ministries are involved. They may be looking for addictions treatments, which
15:43
is another subsect of the health sector. But then they're also moving into supportive
15:46
housing then potentially long term housing or housing with supports, which is joy suck
15:50
locally at family services it does that, so that's a different ministry housing,
15:56
permanent housing becomes a different ministry again, so you can see how it's not
16:02
just complicated. The coordination and the ask for funding is not simply we need
16:07
ten dollars, we need we need ten dollars split eight different ways, and
16:10
this is how we need to do it. So and from our end of
16:14
it, the partners have been fantastic. I mean I've always had a great
16:17
working relationship with those social agencies, but now more than ever they see the
16:21
coordination working. And Rick, I'll come to you lastly on this. You
16:25
know, when we talk about what the actual social impacts of not doing this
16:30
would be, you know, we see the spill on effects. We know
16:33
that when people aren't housed that we see greater instances of addiction, of needs
16:37
for mental health, supports of needs for greater community intervention. You're a retired
16:41
opp staff sergeant, so you know crime is your beat where you come from.
16:45
What happens if we don't do this, it's definitely a spin off of
16:49
to crime. We're going to have more crime. There's a necessity. I
16:55
always say crime are three things. Stupidity, you know, kids just doing
16:57
the wrong thing, Opportunity, unity you leave out something, or necessity you
17:03
know what I mean. And we could teach the first two, but the
17:04
third one is a social problem. They're doing it out of necessity, not
17:08
because they want to steal your property. They need money for their thing.
17:12
So we need to fix as I said earlier, if we can work on
17:15
the social issues, and maybe the province needs to spearhead a committee because it
17:21
sounds like every city has this problem. Big city has this problem. Therefore
17:25
it can't be something we delay and delay and delay. Maybe it's something we
17:29
need to spear ahead and move this faster than anything else. You or what
17:32
I'm saying, because everybody's experiencing it has so much spin off to our community
17:37
as in crime and other social issues. We want these people healthy, back
17:41
in our community and being proproductive and I'm sure they want to be too.
17:45
That's the goal that everyone has around the table. There's no doubt about that.
17:48
We got to take a break right now. We've got the nine to
17:51
thirty Information Update coming up next and then after that we're going to get back
17:53
into the round table with Andrew Dowie, Ricktonio and Reno Bordel and don't go
17:57
anywhere, folks. John Lydkey here on a I'm eight hundred CKLW. We're
18:00
back after this. Hey, folks, good morning. We're back on the
18:04
Daan McDonald show. John lid Keith filling in today nine thirty five. Hope
18:08
you are all doing well. We're keeping our roundtable going Windsor to come see
18:12
MPP. Andrew Dowie joins me, as does to come see Ward three counselor
18:18
and retired opp staff sergeant Rick Tonial and Patrell's Italian street food owner soon to
18:22
open, and former Windsor Ward three councilor Reno Bordolin joins us. Right now,
18:27
we had some news out of the province with a new announcement of a
18:33
province wide cell phone ban. Ontario Education Minister Stephen lecche announced the strict crackdown
18:40
on devices for the twenty twenty four to twenty twenty five school year forbidding them
18:45
in use, saying it's about focusing during instructional time. Now, this is
18:49
already the rule at the Greater Essex County District School Board and the Windsor Essex
18:53
Catholic District school Board, so it's gonna be status quo for the most part
18:57
here in terms of how we operate. But there is a little bit more
19:00
teeth to this policy as well as the fact that it is now uniform across
19:06
the entire province. Apt for us to allow for when comes the MPP Andrew
19:11
Dowie to come in to discuss first about this. As you're with the government
19:14
that's introduced this, I don't think you'd be surprised to hear that the local
19:18
president of the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario called this a distraction, said that
19:23
this is just simply trying to change the channel on the real issue, which
19:27
is the need for more funding. You know, Andrew, I wasn't surprised
19:30
to see that the ETFO would come out immediately knee jerk with a criticism of
19:37
it. What I do find really interesting though, is the fact that they're
19:38
criticizing it and saying it's a distraction when we already do have this in place,
19:42
but it's being expanded across the province. It's not a distraction if it's
19:45
going to places that it's never been before. Oh exactly. You know what,
19:52
it's always a good day when the policy's not criticized, right, And
19:56
that's the case here. This is something that even I was asked to have
20:02
a petition in my office on this couple of months ago, and so people
20:07
come into my office and they'll they'll they'll look at and say what is this
20:10
and give a description. And I had the most signatures on that petition out
20:15
of anything that I've had before. So there's a sense from parents that there
20:21
are distractions in the classroom. We you know, say, I'd say we
20:26
collectively those of my generation did not have cell phones in the class. Cell
20:30
phones existed, but they weren't as prevalent, and if parents needed to reach
20:33
us, they would call the principal's office. So it hasn't been too long
20:37
ago that we had a system where you didn't have a cell phone in the
20:41
classroom and that there was still an effective way for parents to reach their kids.
20:48
I mean, the rule here is truly just no cell phones in class.
20:51
It doesn't mean to give them up, it means they just have to
20:53
be out of sight. We've seen four school boards I think you mentioned this
20:59
yesterday on that they're they're suing the social media giants for bringing forward these distractions
21:04
and they're being used in the classrooms. So I guess I'm disheartened a bit
21:08
to see an inconsistency between the boards and the employees of the boards on how
21:14
important the distractions of social media are. I am of the mind that ultimately
21:22
I'm on the phone all the time. I don't know what I would do
21:23
in the legislature without having technology, because I want to be productive. I
21:27
understand very much that cell phones can be a tool, but at the end
21:33
of the day, if it's if the tool is not the right tool to
21:36
learn, if there's a lesson being delivered and there isn't a need for the
21:41
tool, then the tool should be put away for until such a time as
21:45
it's needed, and an educator has a discretion to allow the tool to be
21:49
used when it's appropriate to use it. So I'm pretty heartened by this and
21:55
I also would tie it into what I feedback I've heard from students in the
21:59
last couple of years. Vaping was number one. That was also part of
22:03
the challenge, But cyber bullying had come has come up multiple times, and
22:07
that the prevalence of it and the speed of it within the classroom was a
22:15
big chunk of the concern that was put forward. So if no one's looking
22:19
at their phone and no one's able to type into their phone and engage in
22:23
that cyber bullying in the classroom, then it's not going to stop it from
22:27
happening, but it certainly going to reduce its frequency, and at least it's
22:30
a path to a better, better start ahead. And so I unless there's
22:37
some sort of reduction in the amount of education being offered because of this removal
22:42
of the cell phones, I don't see how this could be anything but a
22:47
positive going forward. You know, I feel like I'm an old man right
22:51
now yelling at the clouds on a front porch because when I was a kid,
22:53
I had a cell phone in grade eleven, grade twelve. It was
22:56
pretty well at paperweight back then. It could play brick breaker and snake for
23:00
the most part, and God blessed that there wasn't social media, because I
23:03
don't know what it would have been like to have been a kid with social
23:04
media the way that exists today. But I'm from a generation where the teacher
23:08
was like, you can't pass notes in class, you can't keep a calculator
23:14
in your pocket because you're never going to actually just always have one. It
23:18
just seems to me like things got a lot more lax inside schools since I
23:22
graduated a high school, it seems. And I get technology changes, Rick,
23:26
when you hear about this one here and the change, are you on
23:30
board? Yeah? I don't think phones need to be in our schools.
23:36
My wife's a retired teacher. A lot of my friends are retired teachers,
23:38
and they're there to teach, not discipline. A cell phone not discipline these
23:42
social issues. They want to teach the ABC's and one two threes, and
23:47
that's what they should for. As Andrew indicated, if it's a tool to
23:51
help the kids learn, yeah, the teachers could acknowledge, okay, time
23:53
take your phone out to look up something, that kind of thing. There's
23:56
a learning process of how to use a phone to all that kind of stuff.
24:00
But I don't think They're a total distraction. If I had them in
24:03
the phone in school, I would just be on my phone the whole time.
24:06
We would not be paying it. I had enough trouble discipline in myself
24:10
to pay attention in school. If I had a phone, I would be
24:12
a lost cause for sure. I would never have graduated to tell youth.
24:15
Honestly, I'd be watching the squirrels all day long out the window. Like
24:18
I said, But there's also a social issue with that school brings. And
24:23
my wife was a JK teacher, and she says it all the time.
24:26
You teach structure, you teach how to communicate with each other. You talk,
24:29
I listen, vice versa. That kind of thing. With cell phones,
24:32
we've lost that. So do we want to continue that in a school
24:34
setting now where kids don't even socialize at recess anymore. At lunch time,
24:38
they're not playing with a ball, they're playing with a phone, you know,
24:41
those kind of things. I think it's a total distraction to have a
24:45
phone. On the emergency side, I was called down the office many times
24:48
for injuries or being a bad person, I guess, or doing the wrong
24:53
things. And my parents were found every time, and they were able to
24:56
come and pick me up on an old landline phone calling the bank where my
25:00
mom worked at. So it's possible for emergencies to take care of people.
25:06
And I don't think cell phone should be in a school at all. Don't
25:08
even bring them. You don't need them at school at all. You know,
25:11
I don't like the term helicopter parent. I think it does too much
25:15
negativity with it. But I think there is a sense of parents saying like,
25:18
look, I want my kid to have a phone at all times.
25:21
That way I'm able to always be in contact with them. But again,
25:23
flip side to what you just said, the office still works. There's still
25:26
a secretary who sits at the front desk who can get in touch with you
25:30
over the PA system, John Contna, the principal's office immediately place. It
25:36
must be that many times. It must be difficult. You know. I
25:40
know you've got three kids, right, so the issue of cell phone usage
25:44
must come up, and stuff like how do you, as a parent,
25:47
you know, deal with this dichotomy of wanting to reach out to them but
25:52
also recognizing like these probably aren't the best things in a class, or if
25:56
I'm putting words in your mouth, tell me that I'm wrong and let us
25:57
know what you think. Well, we never My kids didn't have cell phones
26:03
until high school and they didn't have service until they could pay for it.
26:07
So if they had free Wi Fi places, fine, but they were never.
26:10
We never paid for sell service. There was just no issue. They
26:14
walked to school. They walked to high school and grade school. There's you
26:17
know, the issues are overblown when it comes you still got them. Well,
26:22
they have their own cell phones now, the older ones, they're still
26:25
around. They're not like wandering still right exactly? Okay. I mean they
26:26
found their way home and all emergencies they were able to get in touch with
26:30
us. I think the issue here though, is that, like I'll agree
26:34
on all that's been said about the importance of getting off your phone to teach,
26:40
I will go back two steps and think of why is the government doing
26:42
this now? And I will agree with the unions that I don't often agree
26:47
with that this is a distraction. In my opinion, we had a bill
26:52
in twenty nineteen that did the exact same thing. It didn't have the teeth.
26:56
We also vaping. They came out and just said it's but it's illegal
26:59
to ape on any school property because it's illegal. It's actually against the law
27:03
except if you're eighteen, which is very few people that go to high school.
27:08
So these are odd issues to come up, and then to spend thirty
27:14
million dollars on the now we're going to enforce these issues stronger. It's sort
27:21
of it's sort of tough to swallow when you look at you know, spec
27:23
ed classrooms being underfunded and woefully a need of funding, and we're spending thirty
27:29
million dollars to follow up on cell phones in the classroom, especially when this
27:33
is the same government that's been pushing a huge amount of interactive in online learning
27:40
and a lot of teachers have integrated cell phones and devices as part of their
27:44
classroom work and using them to do online work. So it's it's it's something
27:52
we can all agree on. I think, you know, to Rick's point,
27:55
I think if you polled ten parents, nine out of ten parents would
27:59
say, yeah, we need to control cell phones. So this looks good
28:02
from the outside, but there's been restrictions in place. That was a very
28:07
similar bill by this exact same government in twenty nineteen. It didn't have quite
28:11
the teeth that this one does. You just needed to moderate that and work
28:17
with the local boards to make sure that the teeth and that it was being
28:19
dealt with better. It's still going to be up to that teacher. If
28:22
a teacher doesn't care and doesn't care that everybody's on on their cell phone in
28:26
that classroom, nothing will really change. So at the end of the day,
28:30
it really does come down to the fact that these are things that local
28:33
boards, local teachers, local schools are technically making those decisions based on their
28:38
actions, and so the funding of thirty million dollars, in my opinion,
28:42
could have been much better spent on spec ed classrooms that are woefully underfunded right
28:48
now. So we are running short on time. But I have to give
28:52
Andrew an opportunity to respond to that. So I've got some good news.
28:55
It's not thirty million dollars being vest It's only seventeen and a half. So
28:57
the raining twelve and a half that you're contemplating, Okay, take seventeen and
29:03
a half in spec ed class YEAD. So the seventeen and a half because
29:06
Wrap Round supports for student mental health to deal with addictions and difficulties, partnering
29:10
with school mental health on TARO to develop problems by webmars for parents and separate
29:14
products for teachers, and funding for parent involvement committees run local awareness and prevention
29:18
campaigns. Spec ED has increased in funding for especially for our local boards consistently
29:25
throughout the last number of years, and our government will continue to fund special
29:30
education. Thank you for that clarification. Much appreciated. There, we're gonna
29:37
take a quick break right now. We've still got a bit more of the
29:38
roundtable to get to, so don't go anywhere. We'll be back with Andrew
29:41
Dowie, Rick Tonial and Reno Bortlin right after the break. John Lidkey here
29:45
on AM eight hundred. Hey folks, we're back. John Lidkey here filling
29:48
in for Dan McDonald on AM eight hundred c k LW. It is nine
29:55
to fifty one. I hope you're all having a great start to the day.
29:56
I know, I am. It's because it is a round I'm joined
30:00
by Windsor Tecomcy MPP, Andrew Dowie Ward three to Comcy counselor and retired OPP
30:06
staff sergeant, Rick Tonial and Patrella's Italian street food owner and former Windsor Ward
30:11
three councilor Reno Bordolin joins me right now on the round table. We've been
30:15
having a lot of fun talking about the H four hub location having been chosen,
30:21
also discussing the ban on cell phones in school classrooms, which will be
30:26
starting this Stember. And it's amazing how quickly the round table goes by,
30:32
sometimes because we have plans for like four or five topics and then we only
30:34
actually get to two of them. But one that we always do get to
30:37
is our plugged in segment, where we allow everyone around the table to shout
30:41
out something that they think needs some attention in their community or in their own
30:47
lives. Rick, what needs some attention? What needs a spotlight? Thank
30:51
you very much. The town of Dacompsy is starting a new initiative in the
30:55
Stinklaer Beach Community Center next to Saint Andre's School, will be starting the Senior
31:00
Active Living Center. It's going to be starting on May thirteenth and it's going
31:04
to be Monday to Friday. Full gamut of senior programming, yoga's, crafts,
31:08
meditation, cooking, everything you could think of for seniors is now going
31:14
to be into Compsy. We've partnered with the Community Support Center of Essa's County
31:18
over in Puce there, they've been doing it for thirty something years, so
31:22
we partnered with them. They're bringing all their services that we currently provide.
31:26
I work there at Meals and Wheels also, and we're going to bring that
31:29
servicing over into the COMPCY. Residents can register to be a member of the
31:33
Senior Active Living Center. They can attend the Sinklair Beach Community Center on May
31:41
eighth to tenth from eleven am to one pm to register for all the programming.
31:45
So looking forward to it. We're going to have so much more programming
31:49
available for our seniors RT into COMPS. That's what makes a community a liverble
31:53
place is having amenities and services that are available for the constituents. We'll keep
31:57
going right around the table, Reno, what needs to be shouted out,
32:01
plugged in, spotlighted well, as you've alluded to in describing my new venture.
32:07
So we're opening Petrella's Italian street food sandwich shop in the next couple of
32:13
weeks. I know we've pushed this back, so we're doing probably a soft
32:16
quiet opening next week and then expect a sort of official opening on the week
32:22
of the fourteenth. But we've been really excited to be in the neighborhood of
32:25
Ford City. Lots going on in that neighborhood. So one of the events
32:30
that's coming up is Sunday, May twenty sixth is the Ford City Flea Market.
32:34
It's in the thousand block of Drewllard from ten to four that day.
32:38
So if you hadn't had a chance to check out all the great things happening
32:42
in Ford City, this is a great opportunity to do so. Lots of
32:45
great shops, new businesses, sandwich shop, barbecue shop, coney dog,
32:51
so lots going on in Ford City. We're excited to be part of that
32:53
neighborhood. So look for the opening of Patrella's in the next couple of weeks.
32:58
If you have a chance to follow us on Instagram and on Facebook on
33:01
our socials, absolutely I'm excited to try it out and last but not least,
33:07
wins to come see MPP Andrew Dowie. What do people need to know
33:09
about? Well, you know what the season is now upon us for the
33:15
Veterans ceremonies. We have about just over a dozen that happened throughout the year
33:20
and they're put on by the winter. Veterans Memorial Services Committee, and so
33:24
it's one of the points of pride for our community. Truly, we have
33:28
some phenomenal services that commemorate those that serve in the different battles. So the
33:32
first one of the season is happening this coming Sunday, May fifth, at
33:37
two o'clock. It's commemorating the Battle of the Atlantic and it'll be hosted at
33:42
Dieppe Park. So that's right across the street from the Saint Clair College Center
33:45
for the Arts. So the public is welcome to be there. They're very
33:51
informative, you learn about why the battles had existed, you get to meet
33:55
veterans of the battles, and truly an opportuny to show our respect for those
34:00
that served for us and to give us the great country that we have today.
34:05
Absolutely incredibly important to not remember who fought for the freedoms that we have
34:09
and that we're able to enjoy here on a daily basis. Hey, I
34:13
want to give a big thanks to all of you for joining me today on
34:15
the roundtable. I know that none of you were expecting to sit around the
34:17
table with me today, so and it's a bit of a swing and a
34:21
miss for you guys. But we got through it. It was an hour.
34:22
It's all good. Winsord to Comesy MPP Andrew Dowie to come see Ward
34:27
three councilor Ricktonio and Patrella's Italian street food owner Reno Bortolin. Thank you so
34:32
much for all of your time, gentlemen. We're gonna take a quick break
34:37
right now. When we get back on the other side, we've got the
34:39
ten o'clock news coming up next, and then we're going to dive back into
34:43
this conversation about the H four Homelessness and Housing Hub location being chosen over on
34:50
Wellington just in Ward three as close as possible to Ward two as possible.
34:55
We'll be talking with the executive director of Street Help about that to find out
35:00
out what they think that this is going to be able to do for those
35:02
who need help in our community. So don't go anywhere. John Lidkey here
35:06
on AM eight hundred Cklwe are back right after this