Tillsonburg approves Community Safety and Well-Being Plan update

Jeff Helsdon, Editor

Tillsonburg council gave the nod to an update of its Community Safety and Well-Being Plan.

Sarah Hamulecki, Oxford County’s Manager of Strategic Initiatives and Intergovernment Affairs, and county Warden Marcus Ryan gave an overview of the plan. In Oxford, all eight municipalities agreed to adopt a single plan and have the county lead implementation. Called Safe and Well Oxford, the plan must be reviewed and updated every four years.

“They’re quite unique in the sense, yes, they’re legislated, but the plans themselves don’t actually hold a lot of power per se,” Hamulecki said. “The plans aren’t necessarily what’s actually doing the work; it’s our community partners, our service providers, and our stakeholders that are advancing the goals and investments of the plan itself. The plan is an opportunity to collaborate to bring the partners together, to help problem solve and get creative with our solutions as we work towards the goals and solutions.”

Ryan explained that the review, led by StrategyCorp, began in 2025. The company reviewed the data, surveyed area municipal staff, councillors, and residents, and presented the information garnered at a summit in October. The plan was at the point where it was ready to be endorsed.

One of the priorities was to add gender-based violence as one of the priority areas.

The original plan had four priority areas. The new plan has six priority areas: mental health and well-being, housing for all, people and belonging, substance use and addictions, gender-based violence, affordability and economic stability.

Another change is the addition of a full-time coordinator for the plan to provide support.

“It was pretty loud and clear at the summit there was a need for resources, both people and financial, from our service providers,” Hamulecki said.

Communities will remain engaged on an ongoing basis, with a particular focus on youth.

Throughout the process, things will be looked at through both urban and rural lenses.

“For instance, homelessness looks different in urban areas than what is seen in rural centres,” Hamulecki said. “By ensuring we are looking at situation through both of those lenses will ensure we are looking we will hopefully be able to better reflect our unique environment here in the county.”

Deputy Mayor Dave Beres picked up on the involvement of youth and asked how involved school boards were in the process, “because this is about the future.”

Hamulecki explained school boards would have taken part in the survey and agreed they wanted to do a better job at involving youth.

Coun. Kelly Spencer said she attended a program on safe and wellness programs at the recent Rural Ontario Municipal Association conference. As part of that, she said it was mentioned that there had been a 30 per cent increase in homelessness in rural areas, and asked whether that was being seen in Oxford.

Ryan said it’s hard to nail down the exact breakdown on homelessness.

“At best, the homeless situation in Oxford is the same as it was two, three, or four years ago,” he said, explaining the county is spending a lot of money to make it better.

Coun. Chris Rosehart questioned who would have their “feet on the ground with the people that are out here, that are homeless, that are dealing with addictions.”

“It’s nice to sit in a group; it’s nice to sit around in meetings, but who is going to be out here,” she asked, figuring it wouldn’t be the new staff person.

Ryan said it is correct that the staff person wouldn’t be out there, but the groups that contribute to the plan already would be.

“The idea of this plan is not to add more feet on the ground, more FTEs, and more boots on the ground as municipalities,” he said. “The idea is coming together as a group of groups that they will find ways to be more effective and efficient. That could be different in Tillsonburg than it is in Thamesford than it is in Ingersoll.”

Rosehart questioned how this would occur when homeless people don’t use the existing shelters, but didn’t receive an answer, as Ryan said the plan doesn’t give municipalities or police more power.

The motion passed by council was to approve the updates and to have Oxford County lead the implementation of the Safe and Well Oxford plan on behalf of Tillsonburg.