Minister Fortier meets with Mayor Vrbanovic of Kitchener

Readout

August 6, 2021

Yesterday, the Minister of Middle Class Prosperity and Associate Minister of Finance, Mona Fortier spoke with His Worship Berry Vrbanovic, the Mayor of Kitchener.

Minister Fortier and Mayor Vrbanovic discussed Canada’s draft Quality of Life Framework that was introduced in Budget 2021 to integrate quality of life considerations into decision-making.  The framework provides a guide for moving beyond one set of well-being indicators – such as GDP – to look at Canadians’ quality of life in five domains – prosperity, health, environment, society and good governance. In addition to this sort of multi-dimensional thinking, the framework emphasizes inclusive and long-term thinking.

The Minister sought input on the discussion paper released alongside Budget 2021 and specifically Mayor Vrbanovic’s views on refining the indicators in the framework to better assess quality of life by ensuring that a broad range of factors are used to guide policy decisions in Canada.  

Mayor Vrbanovic shared the importance of continued collaboration between the federal government and local municipalities to improve the affordability and quality of life of Canadians living in Kitchener. Mayor Vrbanovic and Minister Fortier discussed the City of Kitchener’s Make it Kitchener 2.0 economic development strategy – which includes a focus on affordable housing, environmental protection and the elimination of systemic barriers, as well as growing employment sectors such as health innovation, creative industries and social innovation. They also focused on the importance of good quality data to make policy decisions and the importance of cyber equity for access to programs and services. Minister Fortier congratulated Mayor Vrbanovic and the City of Kitchener for their work to integrate the UN sustainable development goals into their policy and budget-making decisions.Minister Fortier indicated that the feedback from this meeting, as well as other meetings, would be used to refine the framework, which will remain evergreen to ensure its continued relevance in measuring what matters for a good quality of life in Canada.

Minister Fortier also took the opportunity to discuss continued challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and the work done by municipal governments to spearhead the country’s economic recovery. Canada entered the pandemic in a strong fiscal position, which has allowed the government to take quick and decisive action, support people and businesses, and make historic investments in the recovery.

Contacts

Media may contact:

Jocelyn Lubczuk
Director of Operations and Communications
Office of the Minister of Middle Class Prosperity and Associate Minister of Finance
Jocelyn.lubczuk@canada.ca
343-548-7863

Media Relations
Department of Finance Canada
mediare@fin.gc.ca
613-369-4000

General enquiries

Phone: 1-833-712-2292
TTY: 613-369-3230
E-mail: financepublic-financepublique@fin.gc.ca

Stay connected

Twitter : @financecanada

RSS

Page details

Date modified: