About Us

The Just Recovery Simcoe initiative was started in response to the effects of COVID-19 on our communities, families and our economy.

This collective effort between many groups across Simcoe County was intended to create a vision and provide guidance about how we can heal and move forward in a way that is sustainable, equitable, and just.

Our goal is to provide proven ideas to communities and politicians that use tax dollars efficiently with a high return on investment.

Further, in light of climate change and systemic racism and marginalization, these ideas can help provide structural changes which support climate action and equity.

If you’d like to get further involved in your community about the Just Recovery Simcoe effort, we suggest you reach out to one of the groups listed below.

We can make these changes and we can build a better world, but it must be done together.

Our Principles

We, the undersigned, residents and community members of Simcoe County, are calling on local leaders to implement a sustainable, just recovery from the COVID crisis. We must make our communities more resilient, equitable and better prepared to withstand future crises, including the emerging impacts of the climate crisis.

People’s health and wellbeing must be the central focus in all of our current and future decisions and planning. We require more than investment in a robust healthcare infrastructure since only 20% of health outcomes are related to it. The other 80% of our health outcomes result from the social, economic, and natural environments in which we live and work. These conditions can absolutely be changed by our policy and planning choices.

In light of this, we ask that three principles – Invest in People, Invest in Nature, and Invest in Communities – be applied to municipal decision making. Specifically, we request that council direct staff to ensure that any recovery plans, related committee work and community improvement projects reflect these principles. We outline the principles and provide suggestions for achieving each below.

Invest in People

Create conditions to generate and support local, sustainable, secure jobs:

Focus on and support local entrepreneurs as they adapt and innovate in this post-Covid economy;

Invest in our existing economic strengths including local agriculture, eco-tourism and our low carbon economy;

Decrease wage gaps and promote a living wage to address precarious employment.

Build for equity, safety and accessibility to meet the needs of people based on differing age, stage, ability, gender, race, and religion:

Provide better design of public spaces so they are more safe, accessible, inviting, and can continue to enable safe physical distancing.

Recognize and incorporate the right to housing into local policies:

Provide more housing options within existing built up areas and discontinue large-scale, unsustainable sprawl development;

Require more from developers, both in terms of the amount of affordable housing built, and in terms of the type and location of housing built;

Advocate for proper funding to achieve housing as a right for all.

Ensure that Indigenous rights are upheld in a nation-to-nation relationship.
Move toward an Index of Wellbeing to measure our communities’ prosperity.

Invest in Nature

Recognize the role that ecosystems play in supporting our health:

Protect our ecosystems as part of a natural solution to climate change;

Utilize green infrastructure to a far greater extent to help address issues of stormwater absorption and runoff, urban heat island effects, carbon absorption, and water and air pollution. Access expertise from non-profits, such as the Green Infrastructure Ontario Coalition, to help plan and implement plans;

Request that green spaces, including greenlands and agricultural lands, be given stronger protection by inclusion in Ontario’s Greenbelt;

Identify and safeguard natural assets, such as wetlands and wildlife corridors to enhance biodiversity and environmental resilience;

Permanently protect all Highly Vulnerable Aquifers (HVA) and Significant Groundwater Recharge Areas (SGRA) from development and mining for aggregate to ensure clean and plentiful water into the future;

Adjust growth patterns to recognize that natural resources of the planet cannot support endless growth or even the current rate of consumption.

Declare a climate emergency and commit to strong action plans.
Increase access, where appropriate, to natural areas to foster a deeper connection with nature and encourage the mental health benefits nature provides:

Provide opportunities for eco-tourism, recreation and outdoor education.

Invest in Communities

Seek and facilitate community engagement and give a greater voice to marginalized and racialized people:

Encourage input from residents, non-profits, faith-based groups, Indigenous leaders and other community groups to access their knowledge and expertise about what their community needs.

Increase community food security and access to healthy food:

Support backyard gardening and community gardens as a means to enhance food security;

Establish or strengthen partnerships with the local agriculture community, supporting farmers markets with useful space and promotion;

Remove local land use policies that stymie growing food and individual food sovereignty.

Support creative connections and collaborations among diverse groups within the community.
Create communities that are equitable by design:

Support active living and active transportation, such as walking and cycling;

Improve existing communities so basic amenities can be safely and easily accessed without the need to own a car;

Do not drain municipal finances with costly sprawl; save money through gentle density and use savings to invest in existing communities;

Ensure transit is reliable and meets the needs of the communities most vulnerable and under-resourced.

We all want to live in healthy, prosperous communities. We believe that the aforementioned principles provide a clear path towards this goal for the residents in Simcoe County. In the coming months, we will continue to engage with our respective partners to further identify and refine these recommendations.

We look forward to communicating with you further to improve our community’s equity, safety, inclusivity, and sustainability which increases our collective health and wellbeing.

Local Signatories

AWARE Simcoe

Barrie and District Association of Singer-Songwriters

Barrie and District Labour Council

Barrie DOCS

Barrie Families Unite

Bradford Women’s+ Group

Concerned Citizens of Ramara

CONTACT Community Services

Couchiching Conservancy

Engage Barrie

$15 and Fairness Barrie

FridaysForFuture Simcoe

Friends of Simcoe Forests

Friends of Strawberry Island

Grace United Church

Grilled Cheese Social Eatery

Hope Cafe Records

Huronia Meditation Group

Innisfil District Association

Leap Barrie

Living Green Barrie

New Tecumseth Climate Action

Redwood Park Communities

Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition

Simcoe County Alliance to End Homelessness (SCATEH)

Simcoe County Greenbelt Coalition

Sustainable Orillia

Thomson Architecture, Inc.

Urban Pantry

Provincial and National Signatories

Climate Strike Canada

Council of Canadians

Ontario Headwaters Institute

RAVEN – Respecting Aboriginal Values and Environmental Needs

Wellington Water Watchers

About Us

Our Principles

Invest in People

Invest in Nature

Invest in Communities

Local Signatories

Provincial and National Signatories

Want to get involved?

Contact a supporting organization

or

send us an email directly.

About Us

Our Principles

Invest in People

Invest in Nature

Invest in Communities

Local Signatories

Provincial and National Signatories

Want to get involved?

Contact a supporting organizationorsend us an email directly.

Contact a supporting organization

or

send us an email directly.