Back in 2017, The Town of Bradford West Gwillimbury adopted a Leisure Services Master Plan, setting a course for the direction of leisure services in the municipality from 2017 to 2026.
The 10-year plan included 66 recommendations and strategies, to provide meaningful and appropriate programming to a rapidly growing population.
On Sept. 3, Nick Warman, Manager of Recreation and Client Services, provided an update of the Master Plan to town council, and proposed a template to “move recreation forward in Braford West Gwillimbury.”
Warman noted that BWG was the first municipality to adopt the five pillars of recreation, recommended by Ontario Parks and Recreation: Active Living; inclusion and access; connecting people with nature; creating supportive environments through community partnerships; and improving recreational capacity.
The town has had progress in achieving many of its goals. Where it has been lagging – where there are “some gaps,” Warman said - is in the provision of training for new leaders and volunteers in recreation, the promotion of ‘physical literacy” for both youth and seniors, and policies that meet international standards, to encourage inclusion, access and connectivity to nature.
Besides more training options and the streamlining of service delivery, Warman identified a need for greater specialization to address the needs of two specific groups – older adults; and preschool children/youth.
He also suggested that the town is falling behind in its target of providing parkland. The target: 2.0 hectares of parkland per 1,000 people.
The town’s inventory of parkland will stand at 83 hectares, once phase two of Henderson Park is completed, bringing the ratio to 1.6 ha./1000 people; the recommendation was 95 hectares by 2026, to serve a population of 47,500.
Councillors were skeptical.
“You say we’re not going to have enough lands for recreation in the future. Where are you getting your calculations from?” asked Coun. Mark Contois.
Manager of Community Services,Terry Foran agreed that development of phase two at Henderson would allow the town to catch up, temporarily – but he said, “The biggest concern of course is intensification.”
Higher population densities not only translate into higher populations, but less land available for parks, making it harder to achieve the target.
“There’s no more pennies from heaven,” agreed Counc. Gary Lamb. “We’re really going to have to work hard to get this.”
The update also presented a three-year plan for additional staff, and staffing reorganization, to meet master plan targets.
For 2020, leisure services is recommending reassigning a recreation co-ordinator to the position of recreation supervisor – a change in title and duties, but not salary; the reassigning of an administrative co-ordinator – leading to a salary increase of $6,155; hiring of a new administrative clerk ($54,960 incl. benefits); changing the position of events & marketing programmer from part to full-time, at an additional cost of $39,328 per year; moving a customer service rep from part-time to full-time at an added cost of $24,656; and hiring a co-op student, to achieve youth-friendly status, at a cost of $9,324.
The total budget impact in 2020 would be $134,423.
In 2021, the town would hire a new programmer of adult and seniors recreation, at a salary of $62,250 incl. benefits, and preschool and child programmer ($62,250 incl. benefits), for a total of $130,500.
In 2020, another two new positions – an events programmer, and a new inclusion programmer – would add another $130,500 in in salaries and benefits, bringing the three-year total for the new hires to $395,423.
The changes would position the town to deliver better services, especially tailored for older residents and preschool/child-aged residents, the two fastest growing demographics in BWG, council was told.
But Deputy Mayor James Leduc questioned adding more staff, when there is no indication that it would increase revenues. “I don’t see our aquatics changing, I don’t see our fitness changing,” said the Deputy Mayor. “Why do we need to bring more people in for that?”
He suggested that rather than expanding programming within leisure services, community partners like retirement residences and the BWG Public Library, could meet the need.
“I’m prepared to accept the report,” Leduc said, but not necessarily the new hires. “I’m not seeing the revenues changing. Why are we bringing in more people?”
He suggested, “We should be able to do this by using the assets we already have,” and developing partnerships to deliver programming.
“In our community there are many different organizations” that provide services to residents, agreed Mayor Rob Keffer. “When it comes to budgeting and more hires, I think we have to be aware of that, and not try to take over what is provided by other groups… As the Deputy Mayor has said, it’s a complex issue for our community.”
Keffer noted that the town wants to provide the best and most appropriate leisure services for residents, “but we also have to deliver it in a cost-effective manner.”
“We can’t just add a lot of people and hope the revenues come,” added Gary Baynes.
Council receive the report, and referred the recommendations to budget talks.
