City Hall Needs Tough Security? THE VOTER
Does the new beefed up security setup at Ottawa City Hall mean that if I come in through the parking garage and up the elevator, I can bypass the security screening on a weekday? Good to know.
The lunchtime crowd at the cafeteria will drop off when people from surrounding buildings decide not to eat at Fort-Knox-on-the-Rideau. That will be good for those inside the building, I suppose, but not very helpful for the proprietor.
Organizations will stop using Jean Pigott Hall for events – can you imagine asking a couple of hundred people to go through security screening to attend a community event? That won’t happen. Jean will be turning over in her grave about this – definitely not her style.
I’m in and out of government buildings for meetings regularly and, apart from the Parliamentary precinct, very few of them have this level of security at the front door. Some may have higher security in specific secure areas once you’re in the building.
Most security screening procedures do not require you to put your cellphone or laptop through an X-ray machine since that can do damage to your device. They usually require you to turn it on and off.
Are there actual threats to the building or its occupants – that’s not what this memo actually says. It refers to general threats and incidents “out there” somewhere:
“Over the years, security risks and incidents have evolved, resulting in various levels of government updating their security procedures for entry into their administrative and legislative centres. As a result, the city will be adopting security screening measures, which is a best practice model that it is currently in place in other public-facing government buildings in the national capital region, as well as at city hall buildings in Toronto, Edmonton and Montreal.”
No To New City Security: CULLEN
I wonder how much time it will add to each councillor or staff member’s day when, rather than bringing a group of people to meet with them at Ottawa City Hall, they are told that they will have to meet people off-site. Instead of being able to efficiently schedule back-to-back meetings at their city hall office, they’ll be shuttling from place to place out in the community.
How long will it be before every councillor’s ward office will have similar security measures in place? How long before the mayor and councillors are shadowed by a security detail when they attend events out in the community? They’re already much more vulnerable to attack outside of city hall than in it.
How disruptive will it be to Ottawa City Council and committee meetings, which sometimes have high attendance, for people who’ve been held up by traffic jams at the screening facilities to be slowly dribbling in to meetings that have already started? Will they have the capacity to handle large groups of people all arriving for the same event?
Who made this decision anyway? I get newsletters from various councillors across the city and none of them has mentioned this.
The Voter is a respected community activist and long-time Bulldog commenter who prefers to keep her identity private.
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Why don’t they just admit it, they hate the homeless which are overwhelmingly male. As someone who has worked with mostly men on the streets at 2AM I am not surprised at all there are issues. Build more facilities for the homeless with the appropriate staff and perhaps incidents like this can be mitigated. Unfortunately bike lanes and Landsdowne are more important than our men.
Anderson:
I’m not sure I understand what you are saying here. What does this have to do with security. Perhaps something is there but it is not clear with your comment.
cheers
kgray
Hey The Voter:
What about the councillors constituent offices? Will they also be secured?
Kosmo,
I did pose that question. Some of those offices will be difficult to secure like this given that they are in community facilities around the city. Will this mean that getting to your kid’s hockey game or daycare will involve going through airport-style security? Having been a hockey mum, I don’t envy a security guard having to potentially go through dozens of kids’ hockey bags – they can be pretty disgusting!
What about the locations that host the City’s Service Centres? Would they and the councillors’ ward office locations only be under the security precautions when they are open to the public or would it be 24/7?
I did notice that there’s no mention of what the City Hall installations will cost for equipment and personnel. I wonder what adding the satellite operations would bring to the budget. Will these costs be clearly identified in the budget or lumped in with other items to try and make them invisible?
Madame Voter, I’m not sure that I’ve ever read of an instance in dire need for this type of security. Perhaps I missed something or perhaps the natives are getting restless? There is only so much BS taxpayers can take before they become less than their normal pleasant self. We can only be ignored, discounted, and silenced for so long …