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Quality of Life Personal Health and Well Being In Vision 2020 the Task force envisions a community where everyone has adequate food, shelter, income and education. Citizens are involved in their community while educational and cultural institutions educate us about the principles and values of sustainable development. During the public participation program many citizens talked about emerging social trends in our community and the need to address them. These included, the aging of the population, access to appropriate health care, poverty and affordability, and the need to invest in life long learning skills. It was recognized by many that the definition of quality of life needs to shift from its current focus on materialist acquisitions to one stressing personal health and vitality. Our personal health and well being, is affected by numerous interactive factors including: the quality of air we breathe and the water we drink, the availability of food, the quality of housing, the safety of our communities, the opportunities to find meaningful employment and receive a fair and adequate income, the quality of and accessibility to educational, cultural, health, and social services / institutions, the opportunities for meaningful involvement in our communities and their governance, the availability of social networks, human physiology, the opportunities for lifelong learning and the lifestyle decisions we make. There is a growing recognition of the link between our socioeconomic and physical environments and individual health and well being. As health care costs rise more and more emphasis will be placed on prevention rather than intervention.
Community Empowerment
A more sustainable community will result if citizens have the opportunity for meaningful participation in the decision-making processes of local government, on the issues that affect their community. A concern repeated over and over, during the entire public participation process, was that local government is no longer responsive to its citizens, has failed to provide leadership and exhibits little commitment to long term goals, policies, and plans. Although the Task Force and its mandate is a step towards addressing this concern, people expressed a real distrust about the commitment of Regional Government to act upon their voiced ideas and concerns on Hamilton-Wentworth's (now the City of Hamilton) future.
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Early in its mandate, the Task Force, agreed that one of the fundamental principles of sustainable development was the involvement of everyone in the definition and development of local solutions to community issues and problems.