in si de ha lto n. co m O ak vi lle B ea ve r | T hu rs da y, F eb ru ar y 18 ,2 02 1 | 6 ABOUT US This newspaper, published every Thursday, is a division of the Metroland Media Group Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Torstar Corporation. The Metroland family of newspapers is comprised of more than 70 community publications across Ontario. This newspaper is a member of the National NewsMedia Council. Complainants are urged to bring their concerns to the attention of the news- paper and, if not satisfied, write The National NewsMedia Council, Suite 200, 890 Yonge St., Toronto, ON M4W 2H2. Phone: 416-340-1981 Web: www.mediacouncil.ca insidehalton@metroland.com facebook.com/OakvilleBeav @OakvilleBeaver WHO WE ARE VP, Regional Publisher Kelly Montague Regional General Manager Jason Pehora Regional Managing Editor Catherine O'Hara Managing Editor Karen Miceli Director of Distribution Charlene Hall Circulation Manager Kim Mossman Director of Production Mark Dills Regional Production Manager Manny Garcia Directors of Advertising Cindi Campbell and Ryan Maraj CONTACT US Oakville Beaver 901 Guelph Line Burlington, ON L7R 3N8 Phone: 905-845-3824 Classifieds: 1-800-263-6480 Advertising: 289-293-0620 Delivery For all delivery inquiries, please e-mail kmossman@metroland.com or call 905-631-6095. Letters to the editor Send letters to insidehalton@metroland.com. All letters must be fewer than 320 words and include your name and telephone number for verification purposes. We reserve the right to edit, condense or reject letters. Published letters will appear in print and/or online at insidehalton.com OPINION TO LEARN HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR OWN CONTENT VISIT INSIDEHALTON.COM Improving road safety is Ford Mobility's goal, ac- cording to Callahan Co- plai, product owner of Safe- ty Insights, and Ananda Palanisamy, head of Mobil- ity Engagement-Midwest U.S. and Canada, who both made presentations to the Oakville Chamber of Com- merce on the automaker's Safety Insights platform. Ford Mobility is a busi- ness line within Ford Mo- tor Company that works with municipalities to bet- ter understand their unique challenges, and then design targeted solu- tions that help improve the quality of life for residents. Safety Insights is a data- driven solution tool that en- ables municipalities to bet- ter understand their trans- portation system when it comes to traffic flow, conges- tion, collision hot spots and multi-modal travel. The Chamber appreci- ates the engagement from Councillors Natalia Lish- chyna, Janet Haslett-Theall, Sean O'Meara and Tom Ad- ams, who participated in this important conversa- tion, along with senior staff from the Town of Oakville. The presentation under- scored the chamber's call to action through its "Road- map for a 'Smart' Oakville" initiative, urging town council to develop an ambi- tious and visionary inno- vation strategy that priori- tizes transportation mobil- ity and digitization. Ford Mobility's Safety Insights Platform enables communities to streamline what can be a costly and time-consuming process of accessing and analyzing transportation data, so that decisions surround- ing infrastructure projects and road safety improve- ments are based on best practice data collection and analysis. This includes the abili- ty to analyze crash data, ag- gregated and de-identified connected vehicle data, and more -- all through a streamlined, automated solution. Furthermore, the plat- form's tools help calculate predictions for potential solutions that forecast the impact on safety and cost savings to the overall econ- omy of installing features like flashing lights, round- abouts, median barriers, speed restrictions or pe- destrian countdowns. Windsor recently be- came the first Canadian city to collaborate with Ford Mobility by leverag- ing the Safety Insights plat- form. Oakville, too, should look for opportunities to improve the efficiency and safe movement of people and goods by leveraging data-driven tools. To that end, the Oakville chamber will continue to encourage the Town of Oak- ville to commit to actions to modernize and innovate as part of the town's economic health and recovery. To learn more, please vis- it safetyinsights.ford.com. Faye Lyons is the vice- president of government relations and advocacy for the Oakville Chamber of Commerce. She can be reached at faye@oakvil- lechamber.com. FORD'S SAFETY INSIGHTS WORTH LEVERAGING TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THIS TOOL WOULD BE GREAT FOR OUR COMMUNITY, WRITES FAYE LYONS Many organizations are enduring financial hard- ship with COVID-19. Many will have to adjust to post-pandemic times, and this could include ceasing to exist. Laurentian University just filed for credit protec- tion. The reasons for this are not likely unique to this institution. Laurentian is located in Sudbury, and its president acknowledged having years of declining enrollment be- cause of changing demo- graphics in northern Onta- rio, recurring deficits and a failed attempt to expand with its Barrie location. Added to the school's fi- nancial challenge was the 2019 decision by the provin- cial government to reduce tuition fees and freeze those fees for two years. Plus, as a result of persis- tent financial pressures, they had built up debt of $90 million. In summary, changing times meant changing fi- nancial stability. This can happen to any organiza- tion. That's normal. It is part of the natural evolution of organizations that can re- sult in restructuring, merging and in some cases ceasing to exist. But this is not a normal period. COVID-19 is the most significant event since the Second World War. Its ripple effect on many aspects of current daily life is significant. Consider COVID-19 a catalyst. The rate of change and evolution has been dramatic. I suspect many of the changes in how we live our lives will be perma- nent. Do I think Laurentian will be operating 10 years from now? Yes. Do I think many other organizations will have to make hard adjustments in the years ahead? Yes. Laurentian's current problems could be a signal of what lies ahead for other organizations. Peter Watson, of Watson Investments MBA, CFP®, R.F.P., CIM®, FCSI offers a weekly financial plan- ning column, 'Dollars & Sense'. He can be contacted through www.watsonin- vestments.com. UNIVERSITY'S HARDSHIP A SIGN OF CHANGING TIMES DIFFICULT CHOICES AHEAD FOR MANY ORGANIZATIONS AMDIST ONGOING PANDEMIC, WRITES PETER WATSON PETER WATSONColumn A swan tests the water at Bronte Harbour. Do you have a great local photo you'd like to share? Send it to sleblanc@metroland.com, along with a brief description. Judy Cartwright photo SNAPSHOT FAYE LYONS Column