Next steps for Queen Victoria statue could take up to a year
Posted May 31, 2022 04:23:00 PM.
City of Kitchener staff are recommending the city take action to determine what to do with the Queen Victoria statue in Victoria Park.
A report goes in front of a city committee next week, but the whole process could take up to a year.
The Queen Victoria statue has been vandalized four times within less than a year, with the most recent incident after the Victoria Day long weekend.
The statue received criticism for its symbolism of a harmful colonial legacy.
Each time, it's cost the city around $5,000 to remove red paint.
Kitchener also spends around $3,000 each year for maintenance, with about $60,000 spent on the statue in the last decade on preservation and remediation.
It's estimated the plan outlined in the report will cost between $15,000 to $30,000.
City staff are recommending a process be launched to gather feedback and ideas from community members.
The process would be equity-driven and prioritize Indigenous, Black, and racialized voices.
At the same time, community members, including Indigenous groups have called for the statue to be removed.
If the steps are approved, city staff would spend the summer researching and put together a strategy for community engagement and an education campaign.
The campaign would aim to increase awareness of the history related to Queen Victoria, the statue, and its impacts.
Community engagement would begin in the fall and the results would be summarized next spring.
Staff expect to implement the results May or June of next year.
The report says that though the strategy is specifically focused on the Queen Victoria statue, it is part of “a much larger body of work.”
“Acknowledging and addressing the harms colonialism has had on Indigenous, Black and other racialized populations and incorporating an equity-driven approach to conducting community engagement and gathering public feedback is a small but important step towards reconciliation and decolonization in all the work that we do,” the report reads.
On June 20, the report will go to Kitchener council.
