Threats lead to $82K ask for more security at Barrie Ontario Works

Ontario Works is looking to step up security at their downtown Barrie location after reporting an increase in threats against staff.

According to a County of Simcoe staff report released this week, county staff will be asking county council for $82,000 to procure full-time security guard services for the Ontario Works building at 136 Bayfield St., for a one-year pilot project.

In the report, Wendy Hembruff, manager of Ontario Works through the County of Simcoe, outlines the changing landscape of the city’s downtown in relation to the opioid crisis and an uptick of homelessness caused by poverty, addiction and mental-health struggles.

“In the public reception areas on the third and fourth floors, staff is increasingly dealing with outbursts, verbal escalation and threats, engaging with persons under the influence of substances and people who are loitering,” wrote Hembruff in her report.

“There are daily incidents of escalation requiring the involvement of an Ontario Works supervisor, and often these incidents require police intervention,” she wrote.

While the Barrie police say they do not track arrests in specific parts of the city, they have seen the need for a significant police presence downtown.

“The opioid issue is having an impact on communities right across the country,” said Peter Leon, communications co-ordinator with the Barrie police. “(We have a) significant presence in the downtown area where our Community Response Unit is deployed. This specialized unit patrols on foot, bicycle and in traditional police vehicles and respond to all calls for service in a professional manner that encompasses public safety.”

The Barrie Ontario Works location serves a caseload of 3,047 benefit units as of March 31, 2019, which includes Barrie and neighbouring catchment areas. This caseload represents 54 per cent of the total 5,603 caseload for the County of Simcoe.

Staff at the Barrie Ontario Works location has received crisis prevention and de-escalation training through the Crisis Prevention Institute of Canada. All staff members are also equipped with panic buttons in their individual work areas, and higher glass has been installed to improve staff safety.

The $82,000 request is inclusive of taxes, which would be cost shared 50/50 with the province as well as further cost shared with the separated cities of Barrie and Orillia.

County council will be considering the request during their Tuesday, June 11 meeting of committee of the whole. Any decision made at committee of the whole on Tuesday will still need to be ratified at the regular council meeting on June 25.