State Of The City
Posted Mar 31, 2011 11:57:44 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Vision and balance: those were the two themes in Kitchener Mayor Carl Zehr’s annual State of the City Address.
Zehr’s speech at the City Hall rotunda this morning minced no words on the need for the new 11-person council to work together and present a collective vision.
Zehr said of the council, “while we may have campaigned as individual candidates, now is the time for us to come together and govern collectively.”
He also said “building a collective vision amongst eleven individually elected members of council will not be easy — but it is possible.”
Zehr it is “time to begin” to find the things the councillors have in common.
Zehr told 570 News there haven’t been any problems on council, but certainly there are differences of opinion. He spoke to 570 News following the address…
The mayor went so far as to say, “it is unfortunate this council had to deal with the city’s budget before we were able to come together to develop a collective vision.”
Zehr said no one on council, including himself, was 100% satisfied with the recently passed city budget.
Zehr also spoke about the need to balance low taxes and still invest in the city’s future.
He says the developments at King and Victoria in the downtown, including the School of Pharmacy, new residential and commercial space, the digital media hub and the proposed transit hub, are the perfect examples of how such investments pay off for future generations.
The breakfast event raised just over $2,000 for The Kitchener and Waterloo Community Foundation.
Click HERE to link to his speech.
