Working together to create Halton Region’s priorities

Today more than 500,000 people live in Halton and, as mandated by the Provincial Government, that number is expected to grow by another 240,000 by 2031 as people continue to appreciate how Halton is a great place to live, work, raise a family and retire. In order to continue to provide the services and facilities required to support our residents, we need a work plan that reflects the community’s priorities.

That work plan is The Citizens’ Priorities-Halton Region’s 2011-2014 Action Plan. This plan sets out Regional Council’s agenda and priorities for the next four years. It’s also fundamentally different from any strategic plan we’ve ever developed at the Region because we worked closely with the community at the beginning of the process and listened to what the community told us was important.

Halton Region retained Ipsos Reid, a public opinion research firm to conduct a phone survey and focus groups to determine our residents’ satisfaction with Regional programs and services. Halton Region also provided an online survey through our website, to ask our citizens what was important to them. Once Councillors were elected, I asked them to give us the top five Regional issues they heard from constituents when they were on the campaign trail. And finally, the Region initiated the first ever Halton Region Citizens’ Reference Panel and Public Roundtable meeting.

After pulling together all the ideas, thoughts and visions of our community, Regional staff were able to create the Action Plan. Now Regional Council is once again asking for your continued input by looking at the Action Plan and letting us know your thoughts. 

The Action Plan will not only guide the work that Halton does on a daily basis, it will also provide a way to measure both Regional Council’s and staff’s performance and achievements in a way that is clear and easy to understand. It contains measurable priorities and actions that act like a report card, so that each year residents will be able to clearly see all the great things we have achieved, for the taxpayers of Halton.

As we near the completion of our new Action Plan, I’d like to thank everyone who has contributed to developing The Citizens’ Priorities-Halton Region’s 2011-2014 Action Plan. Working together we can continue to make Halton a great place to live, work, raise a family and retire.

If you have any Regional concerns or comments you would like to share, please feel free to email me at gary.carr@halton.ca. To receive further updates on Regional issues, please subscribe to my quarterly e-newsletter, “The Carr Report.”

Join the conversation about Halton’s future

What do you like about living in Halton? What do you think Regional Council should focus on to make Halton an even better place to live, work, raise a family and retire? As we move into 2011 with a newly elected Regional Council, these are the questions we are looking for the community to answer as we create our new strategic work plan. 

Over the next few months, Regional Council will be identifying the strategic priorities that we will focus on for the next four years through its strategic planning process. A key priority we want to ensure looking forward is that Halton’s residents continue to be engaged in their Regional government. As an example, citizen engagement is a priority for this Council as it develops its strategic work plan. We will be seeking citizen input on priorities in a number of ways including public forums, web-based applications, surveys and a new, innovative approach with Halton’s first ever Citizens’ Reference Panel. 

On Saturday, January 29 there will be a Citizens’ Reference Panel Public Roundtable meeting where Halton residents can add their voice to the strategic planning conversation. The meeting will take place on the 29th from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. in the Auditorium at the Halton Regional Centre, 1151 Bronte Road in Oakville. Residents are encouraged to register at http://www.halton.ca/strategicworkplan. 

At this meeting, you will also have the chance to meet some of your fellow residents who make up the Citizens’ Reference Panel. In November, you may have received one of 10,000 letters that were mailed to households throughout the Region inviting residents to submit their names for a chance to participate on Halton’s first Citizens’ Reference Panel. After a great response, 36 people were randomly selected to be panelists and are meeting for four Saturdays in January and February. Their insights, along with input from the broader community received through other citizen  engagement opportunities will help Halton Regional Council develop its new strategic work plan and set priorities for the next four years.  

If you can’t come to the Public Roundtable on January 29, you can still give us your ideas by sharing your thoughts at http://www.halton.ca/strategicworkplan. Here you can either send us an email or complete an online survey.

Between all these various methods, at the end of the day we want to have a very strong strategic work plan that has been put together with real input from residents. Thank you for joining the conversation about Halton’s future.

If you have any Regional concerns or comments you would like to share, please feel free to email me at gary.carr@halton.ca. To receive further updates on Regional issues, please subscribe to my quarterly e-newsletter, “The Carr Report.”