KENORA — After a year and a half of planning, the City of Kenora is ready to get to work on implementing a new 10-year plan to improve safety and wellbeing.
The city has committed to making changes they hope will benefit the entire community’s lifestyle.
Kenora council voted into effect last month a new Community Safety and Well-Being Plan set to achieve seven key goals over 10 years. What is usually the type of plan that would be set over five years is taking a priority seat for longer because, chief administrative officer Kyle Attanasio says, it’s not just about checking boxes set out by the provincial government.
“First and foremost, it’s a community plan,” he said. “We really tried to do the best engagement and cast as wide a net as possible to make sure everyone was included.”
The city has been gathering data for over a year and a half intensively and since 2019. Concerns and needs voiced directly from the community have been put into the master plan, and Attanasio noted that people should see themselves reflected in the pages.
There are seven key priorities highlighted:
- Collaboration and Communication
- Children, Youth and Families
- Downtown and Community Spaces
- Belonging and Engagement
- Housing along the continuum
- Prevention of interpersonal violence
- Mental health and problematic substance use (including alcohol)
To reach their goals the city said they want to foster collaboration and engagement across key groups in the city, like the All-Nations Health Partners. Attanasio said the advisory committee for the project is now becoming the implementation committee. It was broken down to 48 total tasks — 4.8 items per year — over the total committed time span of 10 years.
Within these priorities, the city wants to reduce the number of children and youth who are at risk, enhance safety and inclusivity in downtown Kenora, increase housing stock by 2030 and build up the well-being of people who need support with mental health and addictions. Another goal is to increase the sense of welcome and belonging into the community by 25 per cent — not just for people who move to Kenora, but those who already live in the city.
“When we bring things like this to council, we’re making a promise to the city that we’re going to put our attention on these things,” said Attanasio.
The document is comprehensive, at over 100 pages, with clear intentions and steps to get these projects to fruition, but partnerships are key to making it happen.
“This plan is essential in our ongoing commitment to creating a safe and inclusive environment for everyone in Kenora,” said Mayor Andrew Poirier.
Eric Shih is the city's community well-being coordinator and has overseen the process for the past year and a half. Getting everyone to the table, creating and analyzing surveys and facilitating group involvement has been a process he’s excited to share with the community now.
“This is a really good snapshot of what the situations are in the community and what the community is looking for,” he said. “It really is a wide effort.”
Over 1000 people responded to their community survey and hundreds of hours sitting with community partners.
The city is looking for more local residents to join the effort. They hope that organizations, boards, community groups and individuals will adopt policies that work withing the goals of the safety plan, making it truly a communal effort, said Attanasio, and they hope to grow it even more with community partners.
The entire report is available on the City of Kenora website and interested residents are encouraged to contact the city to get involved.
