Ontario Walkability Award of Excellence

Announcing Ontario's First Walkability Award Winners

Congratulations to the communities of Brantford, Aldershot and Haliburton/Minden, winners of the first Ontario Walkability Award of Excellence!

Ten applications were received in total, including submissions from two urban, three suburban and five rural communities. The communities of Brantford, Aldershot and Haliburton/Minden will receive free registration for one person to attend the international Walk21 Conference in Vancouver in 2011, and a plaque from Green Communities Canada that acknowledges their work.

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Winners of the award were excited to hear the news. “WOW! Thank you! This recognition means a LOT to our efforts here in Brantford” responded Harry Sawchuk, chair of the Brantford Walkability Task Force.

“The Aldershot Community in the City of Burlington is very pleased to be the suburban winner of this award as it showcases the hard work that has been undertaken to turn Plains Road from a highway truck route into a very walkable village Main Street” said Linda Axford, a member of the Plains Road Village Vision committee.

Sue Shikaze, chair of the Communities in Action Committee – Haliburton County, reflected that “sometimes when you are right in the work, progress can feel slow, and taking a step back to review and complete this application provided a different perspective – I realized that we've come a long way!”

Applicants responded to various questions related to topics such as how the public was engaged in the work, what partnerships were developed, what infrastructure improvements had been made, the supportive policy and planning practices in place, and how the efforts to improve walkability had impacted the community. Submission were ranked and scored by a panel of expert judges.

Completing the application proved to be a learning exercise in itself as all applicants indicated that they became more aware of what their community needs to do to be more walkable by participating in the application process.

The Ontario Walkability Award of Excellence was made possible through a grant from the Ministry of Health Promotion and Sport’s Healthy Communities Fund and the Ontario Trillium Foundation.