Plan with us! Kitchener's Strategic Plan 2023-2026

Corporate waste reduction is important but is there more than can be done to encourage recycling & reusable containers by all citizens?

Restaurants, schools, dry cleaners and other businesses must have cleaner options.

More Electric scooters🛴

Let down town see people with more electric scooter. Make it affordable for everyone

Cycle system

More planing into improving the cycling system around the city. This will reduce the carbon footprint of the city as more residents feel more comfortable cycling on these paths and not the busy roads.

People are not taking care of city property

Over the last few years I have seen a big change in the attitude of people. I can see garbage on streets. Not everyone is bothered to pick after them. Fail to follow rules. It’s high time to educate people about our obligation and duties.

To maintain the tree canopy, please provide affordable arbor services to home owners. It's a prohibitive expense for many of us.

Less tech based interviews

Over the next 20 years we are going to get more and more advanced in the tech world BUT we need to focus on the person to person interviews. I feel those are the most influential. It give the feeling of understanding to the residents that their voices are being heard.

Technology engagements

Tech has grown over the last 20 years by a huge margin and today I was asked about what the city should plan for in the next 20 years. To that I ask that the city looks into planing technology based engagements year round that are easy access to the public. Maybe look at partnering with the universities and the college to create an app that is directly for the city of Kitchener and it’s residents to discuss, post, and get informed on chances to engage. A social media app for the city in short.

Big voices get the attention

I think people of our city feel discouraged that their input doesn't matter because it is the loudest voices that seem to get all the attention at the tables. What efforts are made to quantify whose voices are being captured in these discussions and whose voices are missing? And how much weight are the big voices of getting over everyone elses as a result? A neutral third party researcher tasked with collecting input through creative active outreach methods from all subsections of society would be a start and then use that data to create options for moving forward that those same subsections of people vote on in order to develop the final strategic plan. That would ensure all people feel their voices are taken into consideration.

Current residents need a say

Those that are living in the city today need a say. They are the ones that know the city and know what they want changed in the city. They should be the first to contact as they should be the most important to the city. They are growing the city today and should get to have there input heard.

Public engagement platforms

There should be multiple ways for councillors and mayor to interact with the people to know how better or worse they are doing once in a year. It need to be advertised in medias so no one missed to participate. And the team should take the same effort when the participated in election campaigns. In this way, we get a productive govt.

More Entrepreneurship Programs

The city needs more entrepreneurial programs. The city of Waterloo has a program called “Commuitech”. And the city should adopt this program as well.

Recreation and leisure services paid by everyone

I think recreation and leisure services should be paid by everyone as everyone needs them. Not all the service will be for your needs but if we spend this money on service such as mental health and physical activities for all ages you might find an activity for you. And with mental health we all suffer in someway and it is already paid for and accessible to everyone, the cities well-being will increase over the next 20 years.

Creative ways to fund free recreation and leisure for youth

Engagement in recreation and leisure programs for youth in our city would improve mental health, reduce youth crime and encourage positive outcomes long term for youth. In order to do this the programs need to be expanded, have proper oversight to ensure quality and be free. To cover the costs, make new developers in the city pay a levy for this. These developers are getting rich by building in our city and the result of their building here is an increased population with increased needs to ensure the well-being of our growing population. So requiring them to make a significant contribution to the wellbeing of youth in our community makes sense. Big businesses could also be required to do the same - Amazon for example!

Recreation in 20 years

Recreation in 20 years will look different for my family as our kids will be adults. I don’t know how the city does it right now but in 20 years it would be nice to see a more structured and accessible way to register for recreation and rep teams of sports. I am interested in Volleyball as I sit here looking at McLennan parks courts. Something to get us out of the house.

Kids Programs throughout the week

We have a lot of programs for kids during the weekend but not during the week. We especially need more of these week programs in the summer when the kids are out of school.

2 New Hospitals

We need new hospitals. We haven’t had one since the 1960s and if we want to keep growing the population we need more resources to support that. We need to take care of our population and the growing population at that.

Traffic

I am 8 years old and I love the traffic here it is nothing like it is in Toronto and the city should I’d plan to keep it that way.

Growing Kitchener🌇

I have been in this city for the last 40 years, and from these years I can read that Kitchener has changed over years. In my opinion, high rises are not my concern, how can we accommodate people? If we are growing business, infrastructures, events then who is gonna use it. People from other city.? No ! So there will be more people staying in our city. It doesn’t sounds good but that what we will see in next 10 years.- Rogers

Kitchener needs a city square

Kitchener lacks a city square, and, although I love the city hall, it is a very small open area. With all the new buildings and people moving downtown, the old bus terminal on Charles Street may be the last chance to add open space to the core of the city. City hall should be connected to this open area by way of a vehicle free walkway from city hall down Gaukel Street.

Crowded Kitchener

We need more parks, playground and more schools because the city is getting crowded more. The other day I went to Victoria park with my son and it took long time to find a parking spot and even the park was over crowded. I want to see a Silent Kitchener! Helen Dawit

Parks better than Toronto parks🛝🚵🏼

I moved from Toronto city and I find the parks here are clean and safe for kids I am a usual visitor here in Max Becker commons and MCLenan park and I never had any bad experience. There srevmore parks in every community and have a good play structure and play area.

Bylaw enforcement

We need more bylaw enforcement in apartment buildings/complexs. I live in a smoke free complex but there are always people smoking within. It affects my health and I don’t want my kids around the chemicals they produce. There needs to be harsh fines as we are trapped inside well they can easily just go outside and smoke. They also need to be more away from buildings and a designated smoking area. Bylaw needs to survey more regularly.

Swimming Pools free of Charge

I would like to see swimming pools be free of charge for the youth in the city. It’s keeps them off of the streets and gives them more areas to hang out for free with friends and away from screens. Ages 12 to 17 should be free of charge within the City of Kitchener.

Road maintenance is poor in few parts of the city

I am a resident at Holborn Drive. When it comes to road maintenance, they come and fill some black stuffs and does patch works. After few weeks it just comes off and makes the road condition more worse😒

Another Hospital

I think I heard the city was planing for another hospital in the coming years so that is good. But with the city growing fast we need to plan for new hospitals earlier. They should be built when we need them and not starting to build them when the others are full.

Property tax

The property tax is going up with the prices of homes and making housing even more less affordable. It isn’t reflecting the market price like it should be.

More subsidized housing needed

Everyone should be able to afford somewhere to live. Having years long waitlists for subsidized housing is not acceptable. More units need to be built immediately along side of social supports so that we break the cycle of poverty.

Control the market in some way

Controlling the market can be good and/or bad but I think there needs to be action to make housing more affordable.

City Services

I believe the city is doing well in terms of services. I appreciate how they have a variety of programs in their community centres, but the majority of these programs are sports or dance. I'd like to see more senior writing and reading programs .

Living wages

Adopting living wages to get rid of housing affordability seems to be a good thing like in other cities.