City council has put the brakes on a decision to remove crossing guards from a few locations in town.
Last week, council committee discussed a staff report that recommended the elimination of crossing guards at Brant and Laclie streets, Forest Avenue and the Highway 12 bypass, West Street at Orchard Park Public School, and George Street and Westmount Drive.
Council committee voted to remove guards from three of the four spots, opting to keep one in place at Forest Avenue and the Highway 12 bypass.
During Monday’s meeting, some councillors called for a postponement.
“I think this is not the right time to make this kind of decision,” said Coun. Tim Lauer.
He said officials at Orchard Park Public School indicated they did “not like the idea of forcing kids up into that Fittons and West Street intersection.”
“It is not where I would want my children,” he said.
Coun. Rob Kloostra agreed.
“We need to look at this a little bit longer into the future,” he said, adding he acknowledged the number of people using the crossings was low but wanted to focus on how to recruit more crossing guards.
That was echoed by Coun. Mason Ainsworth.
“We need to be looking for a solution as opposed to eliminating the positions,” he said, suggesting a pay increase be explored and brought to upcoming budget talks.
“It’s not a very lucrative job. I think we need to change that.”
Coun. Ted Emond noted service reductions are rarely popular in the community but added the pedestrian traffic at the crossings in question doesn’t warrant crossing guards, as mentioned in a staff report.
“In the face of the safety issue, I agree that it would be lovely if we could have a crossing guard at every corner … but that’s not realistic,” he said.
Emond also reminded council of the issue of liability, pointing to a case that saw the City of Hamilton ordered to pay millions of dollars after a crossing guard left a post early and a child was struck by a vehicle.
“I’m not interested in putting our city at risk when we cannot provide the crossing guards that we have now,” he said.
Lauer said the situations in Hamilton and Orillia aren’t comparable.
“It sounds like that was a dereliction of duty,” he said of the issue in Hamilton.
He also suggested there might be an increased level of interest among potential crossing guards as the COVID-19 situation improves.
“Historically, crossing guards … tend to be seniors and I would think the last thing I would want to do as a senior during COVID is work with school children,” he said, adding that hesitancy “may disappear” by the time the next school year starts.
“Let’s not rip everything apart. Let’s simply put it on hold and we can re-evaluate all of them.”
A decision was deferred to Dec. 6 to allow council members time to get any further information they require about the matter.
