Pandemic recovery and response to be a key focus for Kawartha Lakes council

DAN CEARNS, The Standard

KAWARTHA LAKES: The City of Kawartha Lakes will continue to focus on community pandemic recovery moving forward.

At a budget meeting, on Tuesday, January 17th, CAO Ron Taylor discussed COVID-19 pandemic initiatives as part of his presentation to council.

“Continued support, whether it’s economic or community supports, and how things progress in a post-pandemic state, I think is going to be a main focus of [council],” the CAO told councillors.

He also stated, councillors would have to decide how city services are run.

“What are the new service expectations coming out of the pandemic? What did we learn? What did we do during the last two and a half years? Some of those practices should remain. Others may need to go back to pre-pandemic [levels or practices].”

The CAO said, a “proactive pandemic response” is ongoing, and the city is “constantly, internally, still responding to things” related to the pandemic.

“We’re going to continue to maintain our strong local health partnerships, we’ve established pre-pandemic, [which] we really leaned on during [the pandemic]. We’re going to keep looking at local conditions because things can change, as you can appreciate. And, we want to do that while still managing public demand, [and] public expectations,” Mr. Taylor said.

The CAO mentioned “investing in our downtowns,” council advocating to the province and federal government for relief funding, and investments in local healthcare as ways this new council can support the community.