Midland Ontario Officially Designated a Safe Community

Midland, ON – Today, Safe Communities Canada president Paul Kells officially designated Midland Ontario as Canada’s 57th Designated Safe Community at a ceremony held at the town’s Little Lake Park.

“It takes a lot of hard work and a strong commitment on the part of many dedicated people, primarily on a volunteer basis, to achieve this status and as result of all of your work, the quality of life in Midland will be enhanced and lives will be saved.” Mr. Kells said. “Designation by Safe Communities Canada signifies that the community has demonstrated its commitment to a culture of safety and injury prevention through established community-specific priorities to reduce the risk and burden of injury for our children, seniors and friends and co-workers through partnerships between the private, public and volunteer sectors. We congratulate all those involved for this significant accomplishment”.

”I would like to congratulate Midland as the newest member of the Canadian Safe Communities movement” Kells said. “Very shortly after its recent session to establish priorities to address community-specific safety issues and injury reduction, the Leadership Table grew to over 30 participants under the capable leadership of Co-chairs Adele Payne of the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit and Peter DeCourcy of the Midland Police Service. Clearly the enthusiasm and wide-ranging representation of its community to address the important issue of a safer and healthier community demonstrates that Midland is on the right track and will make a difference in the lives of its citizens.” Kells concluded.

Midland is the second of three Ontario communities to undertake the designation process with the active encouragement and tangible support of the Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion. This initiative was one of four initiatives announced in August 2007 when the Ministry of Health Promotion launched a provincial Injury Prevention Strategy. The Safe Communities injury prevention community mobilization initiative is designed to demonstrate that a community which gains the capacity to take meaningful action to address its rates of injury can reduce them - thus improving the health and safety of every one of its citizens.

“On behalf of the citizens of Midland and members of Council, I want to thank and congratulate all of those who were involved in this extensive and very thorough process,” Midland Mayor James Downer said. “The hard work by all those involved to date and into the future will have a significant impact on the safety, health and well-being of our children, co-workers, friends and neighbours. May I emphasize our resolve to actively enhance the safety and physical, social and mental well-being in our workplaces, neighbourhoods, public spaces, backyards and homes”.
“The Town of Midland and its partners have been working very hard to gather stakeholders from many sectors together to work toward making ours a safer community”, Peter DeCourcy said. “Designation as a Safe Community by Safe Communities Canada is the first major step in reaching that goal”.

“Our real work has now just begun” he said. “We will be visible in the community addressing issues that touch us all.” DeCourcy concluded.

“Safe Communities Midland is off to a great start!” said Adele Payne. “We are proud of the support that our community has already shown by demonstrating the commitment in these early months to see a positive change in the number of injuries reported.” Payne noted that injuries related to falls, intentional self-harm and motor vehicle collisions were identified as priorities for the community, and will be the focus for the immediate future.

Safe Communities Canada is Canada’s foremost community-driven injury prevention charity whose mission is to make Canada the safest place in the world to live, learn, work and play.