A draft is now available online

NEWS RELEASE

CITY OF KITCHENER

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A draft of the city’s 2019-2022 strategic plan is now available online for a final round of public feedback before going to council later this spring for approval. The draft is the culmination of a comprehensive engagement process that identified residents’ priorities and grouped their responses into five themes. City staff are asking the public to participate in an online survey to validate that their feedback is reflected in the plan’s recommendations.

"I'm extremely excited about the new draft strategic plan and the collaborative process being used to establish it," said Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic. "I see common themes between the plan and what we have heard from citizens – both through past consultations and during the election campaign. The draft plan outlines an ambitious agenda that will advance the initiatives that matter most to our residents through concrete action."

The five themes included in the plan based on feedback from the public are:

People-friendly Transportation

Caring Community

Vibrant Economy

Environmental Leadership

Great Customer Service

Each of these themes has a defined goal and concrete set of actions. These actions range from a new online customer service portal to the implementation of a climate action plan. The Compass Kitchener citizen advisory committee is working to develop a public dashboard for measuring progress on these actions.

"Residents told us that it was important that the strategic plan include focused goals with specific, measurable, achievable actions that are relevant and can be delivered in a timely manner in order to be accountable to the community," said Chief Administrative Officer Dan Chapman. "We've aligned the goals with the interests of residents, and part of holding ourselves accountable is circling back with the public to ensure their feedback has been captured accurately."

The strategic plan public engagement survey is live at https://www.engagewr.ca/strat-plan until April 30 and will be used to refine the goals of Kitchener’s 2019-2022 Strategic Plan. The plan will go before council for final consideration and approval in June.

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