After months of meetings, the streets of Ottawa are going to be made a little safer for local kids and families.
The city’s 2015/2016 budget, outlines plans to “enhance and increase funding for the Adult School Crossing Guard Program.”
The program is conducted through the Ottawa Safety Council, a non-profit, non-government organization. Somerset Coun. Catherine McKenney says the program is important. “We need to make walking to school a safe and comfortable experience,” she says. “We want kids to be able to walk, and families to be able to walk their kids into school. So having more access to crossing guards is one way of making that a safer experience.”
Last year, Mayor Jim Watson was in talks with local school boards about sharing the cost of the city’s crossing guards. But according to McKenney, “the school boards were unable to expand the (funding of) services that neighbourhoods and communities have become used to.” City councillors recognized this, and worked towards expanding the city’s budget as a result.
The city currently has 154 active crossing guards on duty. School crossing guards are provided by the city, with a single, new crossing guard costing between $9,000 and $11,000 per school year. According to Kathleen Cameron, director of program and policy development at the Ottawa Safety Council, the city typically adds between eight and 10 new crossing guards per year– though the exact number depends on the city’s annual budget.
The city’s budget is the only source of funding for the program. Cameron says that the total budget they receive from the city is $1.84 million, but that they have not yet received word on how much that amount will increase this year.
The crossing guards are typically placed at intersections near neighbourhood schools. Locations of the crossing guards are pre-determined by the city on annual assessments, which can leave some potentially dangerous intersections unguarded.
“We often get parents who contact us throughout the year to identify specific intersections that have been creating problems,” says Cameron. For example, a particularly problematic intersection in Rockcliffe Park sparked a petition from local parents, which resulted in a city-conducted assessment of the area. The intersection was then given a crossing guard.
Hanefi Asliturk, 74, became a crossing guard in Centretown earlier this year. He worked for a road excavation company for 35 years, and would often see crossing guards at work.
“All my life, I’ve been doing physical work,” he says. “(After retirement), I was thinking, ‘I have to keep going to work because of my health.’ Sitting down with nothing to do isn’t good for my health.”
Greeting kids and parents with a friendly smile, and wishing them a good weekend, Asliturk is posted near the corner of Cambridge and Arthur streets, a few steps away from Cambridge Street School, which serves pupils from junior kindergarten to Grade 6.
“We need it (the crossing guard program), because there are those who are careless when it comes to driving,” says Asliturk. “We have to take care of our kids. They see me here and they feel like I’m their grandfather.”
Asliturk says it’s an important contribution to “training our society” to better follow road safety, and he points to problems such as texting while walking among today’s youth.
Changing the habits of speedy — and texting — drivers is also a big challenge, but the Ottawa Safety Council conducts “School-Zone” safety presentations across the city. Crossing guards give class presentations to children to teach them about how to safely cross the street.
“It assists the children and gives them the skills and knowledge on how to cross the street safely, even in the event that there’s no crossing guard present,” says Cameron.
More funding means more crossing guards, which means safer streets and street-savvy kids, says McKenney, and also encourages physical activity.
“We need our kids to be walking to school. We’ve got childhood obesity that we’re dealing with and we’ve got kids who are trying to be more active and health, so that’s one way to encourage that.”
But ultimately, she says, “we need to make sure that the kids are safe.”