In my last KW Chamber column, I talked about our region's twenty-five-year habit of finishing what we start. The ION line took years to realize. So did two-way, all-day GO service and the David Johnston R+T Park. None of it came together quickly, but it came together successfully because so many leaders and community builders kept showing up, year after year, conversation after conversation with a singular purpose and shared vision.
This fall, local elections will decide who leads the next leg of a race we're already deep into.
Our region-wide trajectory shows a sharp downward trend in voter turnout over the past two local election cycles. The decline was steepest in Kitchener (from 28.22% to 20.26%), and Waterloo (from 34.22% to 27.18%). The systemic downward trend was absolute across the entire region, meaning every single municipality suffered a decline compared to the 2018 election. A small and shrinking share of residents are choosing who steers our region.
Meanwhile, our challenges are increasingly complex. We're heading toward a million residents, and that's bearing down on our roads, hospitals, housing stock and infrastructure right now. As highlighted in the most recent BESTWR Vision 1M Scorecard update, people-centred metrics paint a troubling picture. Chronic homelessness, the speed of mental health eligibility assessments, physician retirements outpacing new entrants to family medicine, and chronic underfunding of our post-secondary institutions are just some of the areas where action is most needed for those living here now and for those who will join our region in the coming years.
As our challenges intensify, engagement needs to grow with them. More of us need to ask the questions that tell us whether someone is ready to lead this community. Do they have a plan for shovel-ready land so we keep attracting the investment our region needs?
Our operating environment gets built by the answers to these questions. When businesses raise these questions together, they carry more weight than any single company could manage alone.
We've seen what happens when we commit to the right things and see them through. HIP Development's work in the Gaslight District shows what patient, placemaking-first investment can do. Merging our two hospitals into one was a heavy lift, but exactly the kind of decision a region this size needed to make. We've achieved enormous things thanks in part to the leadership of our business community, and those voices are needed now more than ever.
New councils mean new priorities, relationships and opportunities for engaging senior levels of government. I lead a business that helps organizations navigate this kind of moment. We work with clients on that strategic readiness year-round. This fall is a sharper version of a question we help organizations answer all the time: how do we best position ourselves to prepare for and shape what's coming next?
Growth is easy to celebrate and easy to take for granted. But it takes people showing up, ballot in hand, to choose who's accountable for getting it right. Too few of us are showing up, and that means too few of us are deciding what this region becomes. Do your homework, encourage those around you to do the same, then cast your ballot. The region we become is ours to determine, one choice and one voice at a time.
This article was originally written for the KW Chamber of Commerce Advocate magazine.
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