City council has walked back plans for an adult school crossing guard program in Barrie.
The matter was sent Tuesday evening to the city’s community safety committee. There was no further discussion.
Barrie resident Tannis McCarthy, who has pushed Barrie councillors for the program, said it’s disappointing this issue was passed back to community safety committee, which might not meet again until September, when general committee could have OKd this program at its May 29 meeting.
“It is clear to me after the general committee meeting that councillors see merit in an adult school crossing guard program, but are unwilling to run and fund it through the city,” she said. “They continue to focus on the school boards running and funding it despite being reminded historically and recently that the school boards’ mandate is education, not traffic.”
McCarthy, who is a Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board high school teacher, said the city is also aware that the Highway Traffic Act states that municipalities bear the responsibility for these programs should they have them.
“There is no precedent in Ontario for this program being run by anyone other than the municipality,” she said. “I can appreciate trying to be creative, but not when the other party has already said no, and with good reason.”
No funding would be available from the public or separate schools boards, according to city staff, should council decide to implement the adult crossing guard program.
McCarthy said she is thankful for conversations at council to continue increasing safety around schools, but the focus is on automated safety, signs, etc.
“The (automated speed enforcement) cameras have proven that drivers ignore signs, posted speeds and tickets. Hopefully this behaviour changes over time,” she said. “But I believe crossing guards are the missing human element that helps parents feel that their children are safe.
“I can appreciate the conversations being had around safety and the willingness of council to look at this issue however, I believe they are missing the mark.”
Although city staff did not recommend it, councillors have seen a plan for crossing guards at nine Barrie school locations, which would cost $350,000 to $400,000 annually, and take 12 months to staff and launch for the start of the 2025 school year.
Coun. Bryn Hamilton has a $300,000 plan with financial contributions from the city, school boards and parent councils, and which each school would have to apply for, starting in September. It was this plan which was sent to community safety committee.
At general committee on May 29, there was no consensus among councillors about what plans there should be for an adult crossing guard program, how it should be funded or even the source of the funding.
Hamilton’s motion suggested funding could come from the ASE cameras program, which McCarthy has also suggested, noting that data collected from ASE proves that speeding in Barrie’s school zones is common.
But Michael Prowse, the city’s chief administrative officer, says city staff have grave concerns about over-committing revenues from the speed-camera program.
Prowse said staff expect the speed-camera program to work, meaning drivers will slow down and revenues will decrease.
For the nine-school model, city staff collected data at 112 locations in the vicinity of elementary schools in the fall of 2023 and analyzed it 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 program.
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, although that last number was affected by the pandemic.
None of these collisions occurred at any of the nine locations identified for adult crossing guards.
Barrie police also reviewed the collision data from city staff and it’s consistent with their collision data.
“In regards to the number of locations, I think it’s moot point at the moment as I don’t believe we are going to get far with the current direction council is taking,” McCarthy said.
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 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.
