An Environmental Plan for the New City of Toronto: How to Make It ...

to engage people in a discussion of sustainable development” (Salsberg, 1998, pg. 18).
Because of its emphasis on “process rather than a specific definition of sustainable
development, Local Agenda 21 provided the municipality’s Economic Strategy and
Official Plan exercises with an opportunity to begin to address sustainable development
in their own terms” (Salsberg, 1998, pg. 18). In 1994 Hamilton-Wentworth achieved
recognition for its Sustainable Community initiative when it was awarded the Canadian
Environmental Excellence Award, and the same year became Canada’s only Local
Agenda 21 model community.
2.2.1 Hamilton-Wentworth: Framework /structure
Vision 2020 is a strategic action plan to guide the decisions of the region. It sets out a
vision of the type of community Hamilton-Wentworth could be in 30 years, identifies the
goals, objectives and actions on how to achieve the vision, and describes indicators to
measure progress in getting there. Vision 2020 provides a tool to evaluate every activity,
project or initiative of the region – to ask: will this bring us closer to the sustainable future
stated in Vision 2020 It is a plan of Council, similar to the Strategic Plan or
Environmental Plan proposed for Toronto, which was developed by staff of the
Environment Department in partnership with the community.
The vision is well articulated, described under easily understood concepts of
sustainability: the Landscape, Our Communities, Getting Around, Quality of Life; and
Livelihood. Strategies and actions are discussed under each of the concept areas in
terms of what policy shifts are needed, goals, principles, and new directions. The plan
allows for flexibility in that the annual reporting on signposts keeps the sustainability
concept alive, and allows for feedback and changes to indicators. The Region recently
completed an Implementation Review of Vision 2020 which has resulted in revised
Strategies for a Sustainable Community (1998) completed by the Vision 2020 Progress
Team.
2.2.2 Process: Plan Development
The motivation for initiating Vision 2020 was to develop a common philosophy and
criteria across departments to guide decision making and evaluate budget proposals.
The tasks of the project were to define sustainable development for Hamilton-
Wentworth; identify a vision to guide future development based on principles of
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