Vital Signs

Report provides current status of our community and its challenges

The County is a vibrant place with a rich heritage and culture. The past few years of rapid change has brought growth and prosperity to this region, but not all residents have been able to share in those opportunities. The County Foundation (TCF) recently released its second report on the strengths of this community and the challenges it faces, highlighting the actions being taken to address the most major shortcomings. The first Vital Signs report was issued in 2013, with a progress report following in 2015. Those documents identified three major areas of concern: food insecurity, education and transportation; and working groups were formed to investigate how those areas could be improved. In the intervening years there has been significant progress, but much still remains to be done and the new report provides a roadmap for the way forward.

The County Foundation president Brian Beiles holds up a copy of the Vital Signs report during a presentation at St. Andrew’s Anglican Church in Picton.

The 2018 report was released on October 3 at a well-attended session at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Picton. Mayor Robert Quaiff provided some introductory remarks, noting that council had worked with TCF on a number of issues, including the creation of the Community Housing Corporation to address the shortage of affordable housing in the community. “While progress is being made in several key areas, this new Vital Signs report clearly shows that more needs to be done,” said Quaiff. “New challenges and opportunities arise quickly in our community and we need to be ready to respond. If we are to overcome the challenges we face as a community we all need to pull in the same direction.”

Brian Beiles, president of TCF, then described the contents of the report and noted some of the changes that have occurred since the 2013 report was released. He said that over 100 residents participated in the three working groups, with many supporting community organizations pitching in to help. Over 170 people took part in focus groups to provide information and feedback in the areas of public transit, food insecurity and education.

That information, plus recent census data and information from organizations such as the Ontario Ministry of Education, Poverty Roundtable Hastings Prince Edward and the OPP, were used to generate the report. “We pulled this together in a composite report that is specific to our region,” said Beiles. “We hope that it will become a platform for discussion, innovative ideas and corrective actions. Our call to the community is going to be to encourage collaborative action to build a community of shared prosperity where everyone can feel they belong.”

The report highlights a number of the challenges facing residents in the County. Soaring housing prices and the rise of short-term accommodations have resulted in a lack of affordable rental accommodation. There is currently a 0.8 per cent vacancy rate in the County, and the median monthly rent for a twobedroom apartment is $1,187. A more serious statistic is that nearly half of renters are paying more than 30 per cent of their household income on housing. “Thirty per cent is basically the threshold above which people can’t afford the accommodation they are in,” noted Beiles. There are mixed indications when it comes to health data. The smoking rate has decreased, as has the rate of teenage pregnancy— although this region ranks in the top ten in Ontario—but the obesity rate has risen from 24 per cent to 34 per cent since 2011. Food insecurity remains a problem for an estimated 2,000 people in the County. “For a community of bountiful produce and agriculture, such as we have, this is really an unacceptable situation,” said Beiles.

There have been a number of steps already taken to address some of these issues. Organizations such as Food to Share, Fresh for All and the Good Food Box program have helped alleviate food insecurity for some. A pilot project will see some limited public transportation available across parts of the County. Programs such as Reaching for Rainbows, the ROC and the County Seniors Centre help in the areas of education and well-being. The first Vital Signs report brought together a number of community groups and service providers as partners. This time Beiles wants to reach out to the broader community. “We weren’t sufficiently successful in engaging with the community. Our focus was engaging with service providers, and we were successful in that regard, but we realized that it was a much bigger job than that, and it needed much broader involvement and participation,” said Beiles. “Also, since that time we’ve established a much closer working relationship with the municipality, which has been very helpful. The Foundation will be convening a meeting with the advisory committee to talk about how we get the message out to the community … to find out what they see as the priorities and what they are willing to commit to address them. We want to explore how we create a groundswell of knowledge and participation in terms of the community at large.”

A copy of the Vital Signs report, as well as information about TCF, can be found at countycommunityfoundation.ca.