Over the past several months, conversations, survey responses, comments, and ideas have helped shape the development of Kitchener's 2027-2030 Strategic Plan. Today, we're sharing a new What We Heard Report, which summarizes the key themes and priorities emerging from community engagement, research, and data collected so far.

The Strategic Plan is Council's four-year roadmap. It helps guide City decisions, investments, and actions while advancing our community vision of Building a City for Everyone where, together, we take care of the world around us and each other.

What is the What We Heard Report?

The report brings together what we've learned through engagement activities and research conducted throughout 2026. It highlights the ideas, concerns, opportunities, and aspirations shared by residents, community organizations, City staff, advisory committees, Council, and other stakeholders.

To date, more than 1,750 inputs have informed the process through:

• A statistically significant community survey
• Community Conversations led by local organizations
• Street Team conversations with residents across the city
• Engage Kitchener feedback
• Advisory committee discussions
• Council strategy sessions and interviews
• Resident Panel sessions
• Staff workshops
• Strategic foresight and trend analysis conducted by Abacus Data

What we're hearing

While participants brought many different perspectives and experiences, several common themes emerged across the engagement and research completed so far. These emerging priorities include:

• Housing
• Economy
• Community
• Services
• Climate

Participants also emphasized several guiding principles that cut across all priority areas:

• Affordability
• Resilience
• Partnerships
• Trust

These priorities are not final decisions. Rather, they represent areas where there was strong alignment across the feedback and research gathered to date. They will continue to be refined and tested as the Strategic Plan evolves.

This work is still underway

The What We Heard Report is an important milestone. Over the coming months, staff, Council, community members, and project partners will continue working together to refine priorities, develop goals, and identify actions that can make a meaningful impact for Kitchener residents. The final 2027-2030 Strategic Plan is expected to be presented to Council for approval in 2027.

Read the What We Heard Report and follow the project on Engage Kitchener to stay connected as the next phase of work unfolds.