Mental health is not something that most municipal councils in Canada spend a lot of time discussing.
It should be.
As the feature-length article by Nicole Regan of Nova Scotia outlines in our lead story, the statistics surrounding mental health challenges in Canada will stagger you. I strongly urge you to read the article and to then consider what ways your community might take a fresh look at your municipality’s policies and practices.
Nicole’s article offers 14 specific actions that you can consider implementing or at least pondering. It is a thought-provoking article that you need to contemplate. The implications for towns and cities across Canada are significant—and urgent.
We’ve also curated four really interesting examples of community and economic development ideas from other cities in North America. PERSPECTIVES always tries to bring you a broad overview of fresh ideas and innovative concepts from other municipalities. These will often spark your own thoughts and generate new ideas and practices that could benefit your own community.
And, Nolan Crouse has written an article on better ways that elected officials can be trained, exchange ideas and information, and improve their orientation on city council after elections. His article is another different take on an important issue.
Enjoy your April PERSPECTIVES!
As always, we welcome your ideas, feedback and comments... and of course, your original articles on what major issues your community is confronting. By sharing ideas and information, we can improve the policies and practices of all Canadian municipalities. That’s what we are doing with PERSPECTIVES.
Just email us at: perspectives@municipalinfonet.com
GORD HUME
Gord Hume
gordhume@municipalinfonet.com
http://www.gordhume.com
Gord Hume is recognized as one of Canada's leading voices on municipal government and is an articulate and thoughtful commentator on civic government and community issues. He is a very popular public speaker, an advisor to municipal governments, and a respected and provocative author.
Gord was elected to London City Council four times. He has had a distinguished career in Canadian business, managing radio stations and as Publisher of a newspaper. Gord received two “Broadcaster of the Year' awards. He is now President of Hume Communications Inc., a professional independent advisor to municipalities.
