Kincardine takes initial stab at Community Plan
By Liz Dadson

Kincardine Council

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About 45 people gathered in the Kincardine council chamber Tuesday night (Sept. 29) to take an initial stab at formulating a Community Plan for the Municipality of Kincardine.

This was the first of three workshops, involving council members, staff, media and citizens, working together to shape the future of Kincardine for the next five years.
"Council believes we don't know everything," said mayor Larry Kraemer. "The best way to get ideas about what people want is to ask."

He said community plan surveys were mailed out and available on the municipal website. Out of the 300 responses, the top 12 issues of importance are: family health care availability, green community initiatives, physician recruitment, post-secondary education opportunities, support for emergency services, affordable housing, business diversification, tourism investments, enhanced recreational opportunities, available employment, high school capital improvements, and more accessible public facilities especially washrooms.

Kraemer said council was not surprised that health care and the shortage of physicians were in the top three.
The workshop participants were divided into seven groups to reflect the seven major committees of council: economy (economic development), infrastructure and environment (public works), corporate development (general government), protection of people and property (emergency services), people and leisure (recreation and parks), planning and growth (building and planning), culture and community activities (community, heritage, arts and tourism).

Each group went through an analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for its department and then developed some trends. Based on the information from the strategic plan done in 2004, many of the opportunities that were recognized five years ago have become reality and are now strengths.

Some of those include new housing, new retail development, cultural diversity, preservation of heritage buildings, resurgence of the arts, new updated Official Plan, strong downtown, new OPP detachment, strong volunteer base, public parks and trails, and a new dog park.

Among the weaknesses are lack of public transit, resistance to change, poor signage, no natural gas line, lack of service sector employees, technical issues and regulatory processes, not enough doctors, lack of affordable housing, large geographic response area for emergency services, lack of teen activity centre, and a shortage of unorganized activities.

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30/09/2009 10:24 PM

Opportunities include the Bruce Energy Centre, tourism, demand for harbour services, arts centre, Green Energy Act, development along the lakeshore, waste diversion program, personal safety education, training centre for the fire department, centralized information for parks and recreation, outdoor ice rink and basketball court, and a teen centre.

Among the threats are increased cost of living, shortage of doctors, aging infrastructure (community centre and high school), economic downturn, stricter provincial regulations, people don't know what's going on in the community, resources drying up, and cost of sports to families.

Trends identified include less government funding as the federal/provincial infrastructure money runs out, health and fitness concerns, informal and unorganized sports, more health club use, higher service demand, aging population with special needs (mobility and accessibility), increase in home care, centralized hospital services, high public expectation for service, shortage of affordable housing, changes in communication technology, more drinking water regulations, demand for municipality to take responsibility for everything (health care, education), demand for transparency, "Go Green" even if it costs more, high-density development, phased retirement communities, sustainability of infrastructure and services, more provincial control, interactive tourism, culture affected by influx of retirees, active tourism (hiking and biking), healthy lifestyle tourism, Bruce Power and the rebirth of the nuclear industry, Internet and on-line shopping, on-line newspapers, and rebirth of downtowns.

The next two workshops are Oct. 29 and Nov. 24, when the groups will hammer out a mission statement, vision statement, strategic initiatives and tactics. A draft community plan will go to council for approval in late December.