Red Deer’s size, location, trails, arts scene and parks are some of the things residents love, according a recent public participation event Shape Your Red Deer.
From April 24 to June 10, the City of Red Deer asked citizens what they like about the city, their hopes over the next four years and their long-term vision for Red Deer in the year 2040.
Input collected from Shape Your Red Deer is being used to inform city council’s 2022-2026 strategic plan, as well as the city’s Vision 2040 plan.
“Through the public participation, citizens told us that our priority areas are the right ones for the city to focus on over the next four years, and people also gave us a number of suggestions and ideas to achieve it,” said Mayor Ken Johnston.
“I want to thank our citizens for partnering with us to set our vision, which will benefit the entire community.”
Overall, the city heard from 1,181 residents and 483 staff members. Targeted activities were also held to ensure comments were heard from newcomers, the Indigenous community, seniors, people with lived experience, youth and the business community.
The strategic plan is council’s direction to city administration on the work they want done over the course of their four-year term. The draft strategic plan was presented during the public participation activities and has three priority areas: thriving city, community health and wellbeing, and connected and engaged city.
The development of the strategic plan is expected to be complete and will be shared publicly this fall.
To ensure alignment with long-term plans, citizens were also asked for their ideas for Red Deer twenty years from now. The top three themes participants said they hope to see in Red Deer in 2040 are: access to nature, community events and a vibrant downtown.
Administration is working to develop Vision 2040, using input collected by the public during the Shape Your Red Deer public participation, which is expected to be complete in Spring 2023.
To read the report for Shape your Red Deer, visit www.reddeer.ca/2040.
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