The summer of the gun in Toronto in 2005 left a trail of dead
and wounded youth and a posse of government agencies struggling to
respond to the crisis.
The street shootouts jarred federal, provincial and municipal
officials into exploring the underlying reasons for the violence
that was spawned directly by illegal guns and the drug trade, Sue
Corke, deputy city manager in Toronto, told a plenary at the Lac
Carling Congress.
Working together to deal with the crisis in Canada's largest
city became a demonstration of how far the three levels of
government have advanced in collaborating on the delivery of
services to the public - and how much remains to achieve the
seamless service they have talked about.
Donna Achimov, assistant deputy minister with Service Canada,
said the violence in Toronto highlighted the need for better
co-operation among the three levels of government. Responding to
the crisis "showed we made great progress but that we still have a
long way to go."
Ron McKerlie, recently appointed CIO for Ontario, said his short
time in the post has convinced him that change has to come much
more quickly. "I struggle with how long it takes to do these things
(collaborative projects). This is meaningful work. but it was
talked about 10 years ago. This is not tough stuff to do; it's
about will, focus and getting it done. We are just in the first of
many phases."
The work on Toronto's gun play kicked into high gear with the
Boxing Day shooting of a teenaged girl in the city's shopping
district, Corke recalled. "That got the senior bureaucrats into the
room."
What the officials determined during their examination of the
escalating violence last year was that young people from 13 high
risk neighbourhoods felt shut out from the economic and social life
of the city and had turned to guns and drug pushing for an
identity. Fueling their alienation were a lack of activities for
young people, gaps in social services and a lack of jobs, the
officials concluded. Their answer: New after-school sport programs
and other pastimes for young people and greater attention to how
government programs can improve the lives of residents in the
troubled areas.
Corke said in a later interview that the programs are intended
to deter younger kids from emulating the criminal behaviour of
older youth by giving them alternatives. Those already involved in
criminal activities are for the police to deal with. "We are
reaching for the kids on the edge where our efforts might make a
difference. We want to reach them while they are in school so they
don't fall off the edge."
Getting governments to work together requires building trust
among the different jurisdictions, she added. What the situation in
Toronto produced was a framework for government investment in
troubled neighborhoods. Service Canada is providing more advice on
government programs while the Ontario government has set up a
summer jobs initiative for the troubled neighbourhoods as have the
Toronto Police. Next, Corke observed, is finding a way to get the
guns out of the city.
"We found we needed more effective programs and faster responses
to problems," she said.
McKerlie said Ontario's experience in moving to an electronic birth
registry from a paper-based system provides a clear example of the
benefits of better service delivery. The system is to deliver birth
certificates to the parents of newborns in two to three weeks
instead of four to six months. As well, the electronic system is to
cut down on the number of errors that occur in the paper system.
Sending the birth information to the federal government triggers
the process for issuing a social insurance number.
McKerlie noted that it took two months to agree on the
electronic system and nine months to get the funding. "Hopefully we
will be better the next time we do this kind of thing. After all it
is all about better service."
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