KAWARTHA LAKES-the Eastern Ontario Wardens’ Caucus (EOWC), which includes Kawartha Lakes has released its 2024-2027 Strategic Plan which identifies three strategic priorities that will guide its decision-making and advocacy focus for the next three years:
- Infrastructure investment
- Housing for all
- Health care access
“Reliable infrastructure systems and facilities to foster growth, a range of housing options that are affordable and meet the needs of all people, and access to health care services are critically important to people living, raising families, and building businesses in Eastern Ontario,” says EOWC Chair Peter Emon. “This strategic plan is a blueprint for ensuring that we all work together to ensure those needs are met for residents of rural Eastern Ontario, now and into the future.”
The EOWC works with all tiers of government, business operators, and community leaders to ensure people across Eastern Ontario’s small urban and rural communities are equipped to thrive into the future. The Strategic Plan outlines the EOWC’s approach to each priority:
1. Infrastructure: The Foundation for Local Prosperity
- Advocate for continued and necessary investment in provincially and federally owned and controlled infrastructure.
- Create flexible and adaptive policies to enable our municipalities and the Ontario Government to unlock capacity and build innovative infrastructure solutions.
- Invest in municipal infrastructure that provides predictable, fair, evidence-based funding to allow municipalities to plan and create economic environments that foster growth.
- Invest in infrastructure that supports an environmentally sustainable economy.
2. Housing: The Backbone of Thriving and Supportive Communities
- Continue to advocate for alternative funding to assist Eastern Ontario municipalities to plan and develop housing and related infrastructure.
- Make programming more equitable by advocating for the expansion of the parameters for funding eligibility and allocation across all municipalities.
- Develop and recommend flexible and adaptive housing policies to enable Eastern Ontario municipalities and the Ontario Government to build innovative housing solutions.
3. Health Care: The Engine for Healthy and Resilient Communities
- Undertake an environmental scan to measure what municipalities are spending directly on health care and to access related trend data and forecasting. This will include integrating a social determinants of health framework into the assessment.
- Provide evidence-based feedback and data to inform government decisions around long-term care, paramedic services, public health, and the evolution of Ontario Health Teams. The EOWC will incorporate social determinants of health to map-out impact.
- Educate the public and continue to advocate for adequate and sustainable funding to support the delivery of health care services and to ensure the long-term viability of the health care system.
The EOWC Inc. is a non-profit organization advocating for 103 small urban and rural municipalities, including Kawartha Lakes across Eastern Ontario. The EOWC covers an area of 50,000 square kilometres, serving 800,000 residents. For more than 20 years, the EOWC has gained support and momentum by speaking with a united voice to champion regional municipal priorities and work with the government, businesses, non-profit organizations, Indigenous leaders, the media, and the public.
