Residents, businesses, visitors invited to complete survey by Dec. 18
The Town of Winnipeg Beach council has embarked on a strategic planning initiative and is asking permanent and seasonal residents, business owners and visitors to provide their views on how they see the future of the beachside town.
Council is inviting people to complete a brief survey to share their perspective and ideas on what services they think are needed, how often they’d use particular services and what they think council should focus on over the next few years.
People will also be able to take part in a community focus session that will be held later this month.
The feedback will provide valuable insight to council as it moves forward through the strategic planning process. The strategic plan will provide a blueprint that outlines a vision and priorities for the town over the next five to 10 years, and will help guide future decisions that will impact the town’s development and its ratepayers.
Deputy mayor Jean Gendron said council is very excited about moving forward on the strategic plan, and everyone’s input is “valuable” to the outcome of the plan.
“All of council is supporting this initiative. We’re really looking forward to establishing a direction for our community that involves council, staff and our community members,” said Gendron. “Community input is extremely important because people live here and people have chosen Winnipeg Beach as their summer place. We want to make sure that we’re moving forward in a positive direction for them. In addition to using the input from people who live in and love Winnipeg Beach, we’d like to hear from those who visit.”
The strategic plan survey is posted on the town’s website under the Town Notices section. It takes about five minutes to complete. The survey can also be printed out, completed by hand and dropped off at the administration office.
The survey asks 13 questions, plus an open-ended question that invites people to share their perspective on anything the survey doesn’t address but which they feel is important to the strategic planning process.
Questions include how many years the respondent has lived in or owned property in Winnipeg Beach, how they feel about tourism, what they think the town’s defining characteristics are (e.g., tourist attractions, parks, sense of community belonging, fishing), what areas need to be improved ( e.g., jobs, more retail, town administration/staff retention, crime, parking, road improvements), how often people would use additional services such as an upgraded recreation/curling club, active transportation routes, health services, what kind of recreation programs they’d support, how often they use information services such as Facebook, coffee shop talk, newspaper, town E-news, town website for information on what the town is doing, and whether they feel council shares enough information with the community.
“We’ve had 105 responses to the survey already [as of Dec. 6],” said Gendron. “That’s very exciting.”
In addition to the survey, Gendron said council held a virtual focus group session on Dec. 4 for the community, and they’ll be holding a second session later this month, with the date to be announced.
“The first virtual feedback session provided a lot of valuable information, and we’ll be holding a second one this month,” said Gendron. “We’ll be posting the date and details on the town’s website.”
Council has hired a consulting firm, GovFox Municipal Consulting, to facilitate the strategic planning process.
“We’re expecting the strategic plan to be finalized in February and it will be posted on the town’s website,” said Gendron.
Surveys should be completed by Dec. 18. They can be dropped off in person at the town’s municipal office at 29 Robinson Ave.
Visit the survey online by clicking on the link from the town’s website or go directly to the survey, which is posted on Survey Monkey: www.surveymonkey.com
For more information about the survey, call the town office at (204) 389-2698.
