NEWS RELEASE
COMMUNITIES IN BLOOM
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The City of Barrie is the winner of the International Challenge Large category. They received a rating of 5 Blooms - Gold and a special mention for Waterfront Strategic Plan during the 2024 National/International Symposium and Awards Ceremonies in the City of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. The community also received an Outstanding Achievement Award for the CNLA Green Cities Award.
Over the summer, trained volunteer judges travelled to participating communities to evaluate the overall contributions of municipal council and departments; industry; businesses and the private sector – including volunteer efforts – regarding the following criteria: Community Appearance, Environmental Action, Heritage Conservation, Tree Management, Landscape and Plant and Floral Displays.
Following their evaluation, volunteer judges Dr. Andrea Bocsi and Alain Cappelle wrote:
“Barrie’s waterfront is the crown jewel of the city and preserving the public spaces along the shorelines is a high priority. The Waterfront Strategic Plan includes revitalization projects such as the floral installation at Military Heritage Park, recommendations for the 21 waterfront parks around Kempenfelt Bay and the planting of 1000+ new trees along the 10-kilometre stretch, and in addition introducing an improved ecological offsetting policy aimed at planting more trees within the city limits.
The Plan envisions “the Barrie Waterfront as a series of distinct, inclusive, resilient and activated spaces and experiences, across three shores”. By introducing the three key pillars of inclusivity, resilience and activation to be applied to all waterfront parks, the plan created a framework to ensure that a balanced and strong waterfront would be created for future generations. Each pillar is supported by three goals achieved by a set of six realistic goals.”
Within the actual context of climate changes and environmental concerns, communities involved in the program can be proud of their efforts, which provide real and meaningful environmental solutions and benefit all of society.
For a complete list of the results, please visit www.communitiesinbloom.ca.
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