Armed with a $60,000 provincial government grant, officials with Blind River officially launched the town’s new Ontario Active School program.
The council chamber was packed with supporters of the program prior to Council’s Monday evening meeting to talk about the program. The grant was received from the Ontario Government after a grant application from Karen Bittner, the town’s director of Facilities and Community Services and Algoma Public Health official Lauren Iles successfully submitted it.
The program is meant to promote walking or biking alternatives for students going to and from school daily. It will involve the creation of a committee to develop plans to enhance safety along streets used by students and the benefits of walking.
Mayor Sally Hagman, an avid walker herself, recognized the work done by Bittner and Iles in securing the funding.
“The ‘boomer’ generation has long claimed of having walked to and from school four times a day up hill, both ways and now we are in the business of promoting active travel,” Hagman told those attending the program’s official launch. “These projects today are being implemented through local partnerships involving school boards, student transportation consortia, municipalities, non-governmental organizations and public health units with support from Green Communities Canada.”
In addition to the grant, the town will also receive some $62,000 in in-kind donations for the work to be done.
“Rates of walking and cycling to school have declined sharply in Ontario communities in recent decades. Green Communities Canada and its many partners are working to reverse that decline and make active transportation the new normal,” Hagman added.
The program, when fully implemented, is anticipated to improve physical and mental health and well-being, increase cognitive function and social development that improves academic performance, create safer school zones through reducing traffic and traffic congestion, and improve air quality and lower greenhouse gas emissions.
Ontario Active School Travel is a program of Green Communities Canada made possible through financial support from the Ontario government.
Wallace Beaton, manager of Community Engagement for the Ontario Active School Travel program at Green Communities Canada, also attended the launch.
“Walking to school is a simple, hopeful, powerful act. It is an indicator of what we believe and what we value. Of the health of our children, our environment and our community,” Beaton said, referring to a quote from a former urban planner in Toronto Jennifer Keesmaat who spearheaded the drive for walking programs.
“In recent decades we’ve seen a huge decline in walking and wheeling to school among children both here in Blind River and across Ontario,” Beaton added. “Many school administrators struggle every day to manage traffic in and around school sites, a problem that spills over into surrounding neighbourhoods. And those children who are still walking or whose parents would like them to walk face many safety and other barriers on their routes to school.”
Bittner said she expects planning and implementing of projects will take several years.
“Our committee is diligently studying our community to design preferred routes for our children,” Bittner said of the work started. “We know our greatest resources are our like-minded parents, teachers, principals and community leaders.”
She is anticipating a lot of community input in the planning stages.
“Please keep your eyes open for surveys coming your way,” she added.
Algoma-Manitoulin MPP Michael Mantha congratulated the community in a letter sent to council.
“The Ontario Active School Travel Fund helps communities to offer safer school zones through traffic calming and congestion other pedestrian and cyclist safety measure,” Mantha wrote. “I extend my sincere congratulations to all who have contributed to this outstanding initiative.”
“The active school travel initiative is a very exciting public health opportunity for Blind River,” Algoma Public Health representative Iles said.