{"id":141086,"date":"2023-02-15T15:47:54","date_gmt":"2023-02-15T20:47:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=141086"},"modified":"2023-03-01T12:45:36","modified_gmt":"2023-03-01T17:45:36","slug":"i-truly-believe-quality-of-life-is-fundamental-for-a-village-like-us-town-of-sutton-modifies-its-family-and-seniors-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/i-truly-believe-quality-of-life-is-fundamental-for-a-village-like-us-town-of-sutton-modifies-its-family-and-seniors-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Quality of life is fundamental for a village like us:’ Town of Sutton updates Family and Seniors Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Town of Sutton officially presented its new \u201cFamily and Seniors Policy\u201d and the action plan for the policy to the public at a meeting Feb. 9.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The policy is the result of the work carried out by a steering committee headed by councillor Lynda Graham, elected official responsible for family and seniors\u2019 issues, over the last year.<\/p>\n

Last year, a series of consultations were held with certain focus groups and citizens were also encouraged to take part in a survey to give their input as to what they wanted to see in their community.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The collaboration between citizens and the steering committee allowed the municipality to draw up a five-year action plan (2023-2027) focused on nine fields of action: housing and living environment, transportation and mobility, social participation, recreation, respect and social inclusion, communication and information, health and social services, safety, outdoor spaces, and buildings.<\/p>\n

The action plan outlines 21 objectives and 36 actions that the municipality intends on implementing to ensure what Mayor Robert Beno\u00eet referred to as \u201cquality of life\u201d in Sutton.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe process was, first off, to listen to people, to listen for their needs. If you\u2019ve looked at we\u2019ve done over the last year, we\u2019ve had several listening experiences for citizens. So, that was one part of the process, with the family and senior people, but that\u2019s not all. We also have \u2018Dream Sutton\u2019 that\u2019s really important because we touch almost the same issues,\u201d said Beno\u00eet.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dream Sutton is an online platform that encourages citizens can give their input on certain municipal projects.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf I want to say, bottom line, what the issue is out there it\u2019s how do we enhance the quality of life for citizens? That\u2019s what we are listening to. (\u2026) If you look at the policy there are nine action items. (\u2026) The bottom line for all of those issues is quality of life. For every one of those nine items we have actions that we want to implement in the course of the next three to four years,\u201d continued Beno\u00eet.<\/p>\n

The municipality already had an existing family and seniors policy, but Beno\u00eet noted that the current administration recognized it was in need of an update.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think everybody recognized that it was done a long time ago and things have changed tremendously for the last years. We wanted to really be sure that it was up to date,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Beno\u00eet told CIDI that he believes the new policy sets out concrete actions for the municipality to monitor over the next couple of years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the problems with Sutton is that there was no follow-up on the actions. (\u2026) We\u2019ve already said in the policy that there will be a follow-up on the action plan two times a year,\u201d he highlighted.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Beno\u00eet provided an example as to what issues the municipality plans to address, and how, when looking at transportation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s issues about the number of cars, the speed on Main Street, how do we cross Main Street safely, how do we get more walking paths in the town, secure walking paths. Those are all items we have been working for the last year,\u201d he explained. \u201cWe are discussing those issues with the Ministry of Transportation because Main Street is owned by the Ministry of Transportation. We need to come up with comprehensive solutions that everybody would agree on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having more social housing, affordable housing, and communication with teenagers are also major priorities for Sutton.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the members have conveyed is that there is a lot of activities for young children and older people, but there\u2019s a gap for teenagers. (\u2026) We need to take better care of the teenage population of Sutton because maybe there is a lack of leisure time, a lack of something to do, after school,\u201d noted Beno\u00eet.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To ensure a successful action plan, the municipality will be collaborating with different community groups and organizations in Sutton.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe town will act more as a leader, but the implementation of these actions are mostly related to community groups. We are working with them to implement those items, but we will be orchestrating the delivery of services for the different groups,\u201d explained Beno\u00eet.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Beno\u00eet emphasized that he truly believes that\u00a0 \"quality of life is fundamental for a village\" like Sutton.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is important for us because our economy depends on quality of life, it depends on residential areas, it depends on leisure activities, community sense, those are the elements that are working. We don\u2019t have any industry here, we don\u2019t have a lot of commercial space to rent. (\u2026) The key for us to have happy people living in Sutton,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The revision of the policy and its action plan was supported by a $12,000 financial contribution under the Programme de soutien \u00e0 la d\u00e9marche Municipalit\u00e9 amie des a\u00een\u00e9s (MADA).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For more information on the \u201cFamily and Seniors Policy,\u201d visit the Sutton website<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Listen to the full interview below:<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Town of Sutton officially presented its new \u201cFamily and Seniors Policy\u201d and the action plan for the policy to the public at a meeting Feb. 9.\u00a0 The policy is the result of the work carried out by a steering committee headed by councillor Lynda Graham, elected official responsible for family and seniors\u2019 issues, over…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":141100,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,223,21655,225],"tags":[18463,23514,23510,21387,4158,23515,571,9780,23516,5345,23511,2082,23513,794,1705,23512,3277,23509],"radio":[246],"origine":[274,259,260],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141086"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/113"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141086"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142789,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141086\/revisions\/142789"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141086"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=141086"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=141086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}