by CONNIE TABBERT
Editor
WHITEWATER REGION — In an hour-long session, Whitewater Region council learned much about recreation within the municipality.
Ed Newhook of Milestone Strategy recently presented the Recreation Master Plan in a power-point prestation to council. In the presentation, he reviewed the process, socio-demographics, trends, document review, household survey, user group survey, issues and the next steps.
“Most important was to talk about the issues that have been raised,” he said.
He noted there were five master plan goals, including ensuring a liveable and age-friendly community to retain and attract residents; organize volunteer resources and celebrate contribution; improve communication and information sharing regrading recreation; participant service, facility and investment requirements based on affordability and cost-effectiveness and ensure operational alignment and recommend innovative and long-term approaches for sustainable services and facilities.
“Volunteer delivery in Whitewater Region is a huge issue and more importantly, a huge asset,” Mr. Newhook said. “We want to make sure we preserve that attribute and enhance that.”
Pull together and work through identifying recommendations, which will be sent out to the community for review and comment, and a plan will emerge from that, he said.
The demographic profile of Whitewater Region showed a population base of 7,009 in 2016 and it’s expected by 2036 that number will increase to between 8,4447 to 8,876, he said. There is a very high rate of home ownership in Whitewater Region compared to Renfrew and Ontario.
“While 81 per cent of residents are permanent, and that’s important, we need to ensure we are addressing the needs of seasonal residents as well,” he said.
The population in the township has two predominant features, he said. The first is the seniors’ population, which starts at age 50, and is much larger than the Ontario population, he added.
“This illustrates for you that the older adults and the seniors’ population is certainly something we need to address in the master plan in terms of programming,” Mr. Newhook said. “There’s an evolution away from facility dependent recreation…”
There is also a high level of mobility, meaning people moving in and out of the area, he said. When people move from a larger to smaller centre, possibly due to retirement, they bring with them expectations for recreation facilities and programming, so that creates a higher expectation of, and knowledge of, what can be offered, he said.
There is generally lower education levels and lower average and median income levels with little diversity in ethnic background within the boundaries of Whitewater Region, Mr. Newhook said.
“Recreation goes hand in hand with unemployment,” he said. “Recreation is more than going out and playing organized sports. Programming could also include support.
“The more important issue is that there are some income and financial abilities that will inhibit their ability to participate,” he continued, adding, “We want to make sure that recreation is available to everyone.”
While recreational facilities are aging and reaching the end of their life-cycles, what is trending in recreation are multi-use facilities such as a free-form piece of asphalt for basketball/ball hockey or any number of things; trails and sport tourism, he said.
The trend is showing there is little participation in various activities due to lack of free time, physical inactivity and economic barriers; while arts and culture are on the rise, there is declining participation in organized sports and active seniors.
While people believe they are living healthy and active lives, Mr. Newhook said following the Canadian healthy and active guidelines, they aren’t.
Strengths and Weaknesses
There are various strengths and weaknesses within the township for recreation, Mr. Newhook said. Strengths include an abundance of outdoor recreation opportunities, a strong volunteer base, an active community, a well-established tourism industry, a good range of programs, free hockey events, and a rural mindset to make due with what’s available.
“We want to build on your volunteerism,” he said. “It would be very easy in the plan to say here’s all the things you need to do and the municipality should do them. The risk is if you do that, everyone will say I pay taxes now, and we’re going to let the township look after all these things.
“What we want to do is make sure that we define the roll for the township as supporting those areas that the recreation associations can’t efficiently or economically do,” he said. “It may be building awareness in what programs exist, providing some of the equipment that may not be financed by individual associations, perhaps access to grants and funding.”
However, there are many weaknesses, including volunteer burnout; low population; being geographically dispersed; older, retired community; residents are not familiar with the opportunities availability; no community parks; lack of computerization of registration/permitting; duplication of functions in recreation associations; arenas needing maintenance; lack of leadership for some programs and inconsistent options regarding centralizing/decentalizing services.
There are also opportunities: increased use of school facilities; new uses for rail corridors; recently expanded municipal services; large seniors’ population; lending hub; under-used churches; under developed and underused provincial park and tourism packages.
However, there are also threats: inexpensive facilities available outside of the municipality; low income; employment for many is outside of the municipality; disbursed population; unknown financial status of arenas; rivalry between Whitewater Region communities; and with the number of new municipal staff, there is a fear of too much administration.
Survey Results
In the household survey that was completed in September/October 2017, there were 262 individual responses and 15 respondents from the community group survey, of which 41 were invited to participate.
Information from the survey includes support subsidizing those who cannot afford recreation; 58 percent feel parks and facilities are well-maintained; there is a lack of awareness about recreation opportunities; 38 percent versus 35 percent feel Ross Museum is important and 66 percent versus 20 percent feel there are not too many indoor skating facilities; 50 percent vs 37 percent would rather have larger recreation and culture facilities located in a single location rather than smaller facilities dispersed throughout the township; 63 percent versus 24 percent would rather three smaller libraries than one large one; 50 percent versus 43 percent feel there are adequate beach facilities available in or near Whitewater Region; and 61 percent versus 13 percent feel the cost of participating in recreation or culture activities in Whitewater Region is good value for the money.
People are aware of recreational programs within Westmeath for Westmeath residents, but not so much of what’s going on in Cobden or Beachburg, he explained. There has to be co-ordination of finding a way for everyone to know what’s going on throughout the municipality, regardless of where they live, he said.
Emerging as the number one role for the township is ensuring there is awareness of what the opportunities are and awareness of how to create a program, whether by an individual or group, Mr. Newhook said.
The difference in statistics are those who had no opinion, he said.
Recreation Issues
He quickly reviewed some of the issues:
programming and special events, such as what is the township’s role, residents not aware of the recreation program opportunities process and affordability;
indoor arenas: used very little during non-prime use, declining numbers in minor hockey (which means not the same pace as school enrollment), advanced age, and management systems;
outdoor rink: only at Foresters Falls; limited rentals, capital improvements needed, interest expressed for Cobden;
ball diamonds: declining enrollment and adequately supplied; sports fields: there aren’t any; play structures: more needed;
halls and multipurpose spaces: Cobden arena hall not wheelchair accessible;
indoor swimming: none here, have to go to Pembroke;
Ross Museum: only four active volunteers; libraries: no issues raised;
Parks and open space: more are needed; desire to create a signature park for Whitewater Region;
Trails: BORCA; rail line now in public control;
Beaches: need to find leadership/location for Little Lakes swim program;
Boat launches: users are not charged unless in tournament, free access to Ottawa River for kayak pull out is an issue;
Financial: corporate sponsorship should be co-ordinated;
Municipal role: volunteer burn-out; communication and information dissemination; healthy active living promotion role of recreation in economic development and tourism.
Priorities for those who filled out the survey were swimming, adult programming, information about all programs, health and fitness, general fitness teens, dance. There were about 25 recreational items on the list of what people wanted, Mr. Newhook said.
“Interestingly, we heard that not only is senior programming wanted, but there appears to be a gap in adult programming as well,” he said. “That’s an area we’re going to be making recommendations as well.”
Resident Phil Cottrell questioned if the concept of a signature park in Whitewater Region was necessary, since 58 percent of those surveyed felt there were adequate parks/parkland.
Mr. Newhook noted the signature park would be a design decision as opposed to strictly for recreation.
“…a signature park would be something that would be for the benefit of perhaps a municipal-wide event, an economic development identifier, something to brand the municipality,” he said.
Mr. Cottrell further noted there is very little public access to the Ottawa River, even though the municipality has a good number of kilometres of the river in its municipality.
“If a kid wants to go down and do a bit of fishing, I’m not sure where he would be able to, maybe the La Passe boat launch,” he said, adding, “If a family wants to picnic beside the river, that would be a challenge.”
Mr. Cottrell suggested that rather than a major park, a series of mini parks, where people could go down by the river, if land is available, and barbecue.
In closing the meeting, Chief Administrative Officer Robert Tremblay said this portion of the plan was to identify the issues.
“For some of us, those issues are well known, but for others, they may not be,” he said. “But, it’s not the end of the process, it’s really the beginning.”
The next step will be the recreation advisory committee being engaged with some of the issues, a public meeting and focus group finalization of the recommendations, he said.
The full presentation is available in the January 24 agenda on the township’s website.
