History

CPTED Ontario

The inaugural meeting of CPTED Ontario, then known as the Ontario CPTED Association, was held at Sir Sanford Fleming College on April 25^th, 2000. The meeting, organized by Cst. Tom McKay of Peel Regional Police, gathered 17 individuals from a variety of backgrounds for the purpose of establishing a CPTED Association modeled after the Florida CPTED Network.

A positive response was followed up by a series of meetings which culminated in the establishment of the first provincial CPTED organization in Canada in co-operation with Ruth Marland, founding Board member of the CPTED Institute, making it only the second such organization of its kind in North America at that time. The fledgling organization quickly went about the business of organizing its first one day conference in partnership with the Mississauga CPTED Advisory Committee, Peel CPTED Advisory Committee and Peel Regional Police. The workshop, held on Monday November 5th, 2001 at the City of Mississauga’s Noel Ryan Theatre in the Central Library, featured renowned CPTED trainer and author Timothy D. Crowe. The workshop was a resounding success having attracted 189 registrants.

In 2005, the organization developed a mission and vision statement along with a Code of Ethics. CPTED Ontario continues to organize a workshop/conference on an annual basis. In 2009 the organization took a major step towards developing a standard for basic CPTED training by establishing core curriculum. Over its’ twenty-one year history it hosted twelve conferences, one workshop and a number of zone meetings throughout the province of Ontario.

In June of 2020, the CPTED Ontario Board passed a motion to support in principle the development of:

“a national CPTED organization for the purpose of presenting to the membership at the next AGM for their consideration and approval”

which led to the development of CPTED Canada. A formal motion was passed to dissolve CPTED Ontario on March 31^st, 2022.

CPTED Canada

CPTED Canada came into being on March 31^st, 2022, at the CPTED Ontario membership meeting when a presentation in favour of launching a new national organization was made to the membership which voted to adopt the following motions:

That CPTED Ontario be dissolved in favour of launching a national Canadian CPTED organization to be known as CPTED Canada be approved”
That the By-laws for the new national Canadian CPTED organization be approved
That the new CPTED Canada Board of Directors be elected.

This represented over two years of preparatory work which started with a Zoom meeting between then CPTED Ontario President Tom McKay and Steve Woolrich (then Principal of Rethink Urban) during which time the benefits of a national organization was discussed.

This discussion was shared with the CPTED Ontario Board of Directors in June of 2020 at which time a motion was passed to support the idea in principle. This led to Steve being invited to speak at the October 2020 CPTED Ontario Board meeting at which time a motion was formally passed to:

“develop a national CPTED organization for the purpose of presenting to the membership at the next AGM for their consideration and approval”.

This subsequently led Steve and Greg Smith (Principal of Urban Security Innovation) being invited to speak at a CPTED Ontario membership meeting in February of 2021 on the topic of “Building Bridges – The Future of CPTED in Canada” after which the membership approved the following motions:

“ That CPTED Ontario transition into a national Canadian CPTED organization by January 30, 2022, be approved”
“ That the Action Plan for the transition of CPTED Ontario into a national Canadian CPTED organization as shown to the membership on February 11, 2021, be approved”
That a Special Membership Meeting be called prior to January 30, 2022, for approval of the following:

Dissolving of the CPTED Ontario organization;
Approving the By-laws for the new national Canadian CPTED organization
Election of the new Board of Directors for the new Canadian CPTED organization

The last motion would form the basis of the March 31^st, 2022 motions which gave birth to the new national organization. This laid the ground-work for Steve Woolrich and Greg Smith to become the first members of the new CPTED Canada Board from outside of the province of Ontario and, with that, the process of winding down CPTED Ontario began.