Barrie could have an adult school crossing guard program at nine locations for $350,000 to $400,000 a year.
Sitting as general committee on Wednesday, city councillors will consider the program.
While the agenda motion says committee would receive a staff report for information purposes, Barrie resident Tannis McCarthy anticipates a motion to implement the program instead.
“I think that the cost of the program is reasonable,” said McCarthy, a Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board high school teacher, who has pushed Barrie councillors for the program before. “Two priorities in council’s strategic plan are community safety and active transportation. I think this is a huge step for that, to get the ball rolling in that direction.
“I also think it would help with the congestion around school at drop-off and pick-up times, which in turn would make things safer,” she added. “If we have more kids walking that means less congestion at those times.”
McCarthy emailed all members of council Monday morning asking that the crossing guard program be implemented.
Data was collected at 112 locations in the vicinity of elementary schools in the fall of 2023 and analyzed to create a baseline of what’s called warrant criteria. Locations counted consisted of all-way stop controls, minor stop controls, signalized intersections, pedestrian crossovers and designated school crossings.
In total, 6,102 students were counted crossing public roadways ranging from junior kindergarten to Grade 8. After the studies were analyzed, nine locations were determined to be candidates for an adult school crossing guard (see graphic).
The city also did a review of collisions involving vehicles and pedestrians, aged four to 14, Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
There were 16 collisions January 2013 to December 2016, 12 collisions January 2017 to December 2019, and four collisions January 2020 to the present. None of these collisions occurred at any of the nine locations being considered for adult crossing guards.
Barrie police has reviewed the collision data from city staff and it aligns with the police department's collision data.
It is anticipated to take 12 months to staff and launch the adult crossing guard program, and co-ordinate it with the start of the 2025 school year.
McCarthy said it would be council’s decision how to fund an adult school crossing guard program, but revenue from the automated speed enforcement (ASE, or speed cameras) program should be considered.
“The amount of tickets being issued through the use of the speed cameras also speaks to why there is a need for this (crossing guard) program,” she said. “The data collected from ASE is clearly proving that speeding in school zones is quite common.”
Barrie’s ASE cameras were first located eastbound on Big Bay Point Road, near Willow Landing and St. Michael the Archangel Catholic elementary schools, and southbound on Anne Street North, near Portage View and Nouvelle-Alliance schools, from last Dec. 1 until Feb. 18.
The cameras nailed 9,240 vehicles for speeding at these locations, with an average ticket fine of $90. That number had climbed to at least 13,000 speeding tickets by the end of March.
The city says no funding would be available from the public or separate schools boards, should council decide to implement the adult crossing guard program.
City staff say that from a safety perspective, there are several alternatives to adult crossing guards — such as automated speed enforcement, limiting vehicle access and physical alterations to the road structure.
City legal staff say they are not aware of any legislative requirement for a municipality to have and operate an adult crossing guard program.
Liability matters could arise, however, if a municipality establishes a crossing guard program and is negligent in implementing it, such as having issues hiring adult crossing guards.
Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act defines school crossing guards as persons 16 years of age or older who direct the movement of people across a highway and who are employed by a municipality or employed by a corporation under contract with a municipality, to provide school crossing guard services.
The school crossing guard’s role is to direct and supervise the movement of people across a public roadway by creating necessary gaps in vehicle traffic to provide safe passage at a designated school location.
General committee is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. on May 29 in the Council Chambers at Barrie City Hall.
