July 2024 Update - Pickering Progress: A Mid-Year Update on Our Corporate Strategic Plan
Dear Pickering community,
We hope you are enjoying the summer season. As we enter the second half of 2024, we wanted to share some exciting updates with you on the progress of our Corporate Strategic Plan (CSP), which outlines our vision, mission, values, and priorities for the next four years.
As you may know, there are 88 action items within the CSP, and we are thrilled to report that significant progress has already been made on many of them. These include:
- Endorsing and implementing our first ever Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Strategy, which will guide our efforts to foster a more inclusive, welcoming, and respectful culture within our organization and community.
- Launching Pickering Forward, our Official Plan Review, which will shape the future growth and development of our city in alignment with our community's vision and values.
- Investing in arts, heritage, and culture with the construction of the new Pickering Heritage & Community Centre (located at 2365 6th Concession Road)., which will be the City’s very first Net-Zero Carbon Design facility.
- Exploring innovative and sustainable transportation options, such as a free weekend shuttle to our waterfront, a shared e-scooter pilot program, and a high frequency rail station stop in Pickering.
- Strengthening our environmental stewardship, innovation, and resiliency, with the approval of a new modernized Tree Protection By-law, the completion of the Pine Creek Erosion Municipal Class Environmental Assessment Study, and the development of our first Community Climate Adaptation Plan.
- Building and enhancing our partnerships with local, regional, and provincial stakeholders, such as introducing a Ratepayer Association Registry, partnering with the Town of Whitby on a pre-approved design program for Additional Dwelling Units, and endorsing a Memorandum of Understanding to fund, create, and deliver a family physician recruitment program in Durham.
- Approval of the Community Safety & Well-Being Plan and Community Visitors Plan by Council this year.
- Improving our digital readiness and engagement, by endorsing and implementing a Digital Readiness Assessment and Strategy.
- Adoption of the Arena Strategy that evaluated the city's ice facilities, assessed current service levels and usage trends, with a forecast of arena requirements for the next decade.
These are just some of the highlights of the work that has been done in the past six months.
We are proud of the City’s achievements to date, as directed by Pickering Council, and we are grateful for your ongoing feedback and support. We will continue to share updates on the City's progress, so you can stay tuned by visiting: pickering.ca/strategicplan and/or LetsTalkPickering.ca/strategicplan.
Here, you can also watch Mayor Kevin Ashe's video on the Corporate Strategic Plan.
Thank you for being part of our Pickering community. Together, we are making Pickering a great place to live, work, play, and invest.
