Municipal services touch the lives of every resident and visitor. Addressing social inequities means services can address the needs of all citizens and improve the well-being of the community.

IDEA Action Plan

The Municipality of Kincardine is committed to developing actions to improve inclusion, diversity, equity and access (IDEA).

Learn more from our IDEA Action Plan

Ongoing IDEA Initiatives

We provide support, resources, learning, and engagement opportunities for the community for a variety of IDEA related elements.

Murals on the garage doors at the Welcome Centre in Kincardine.

New Garage Door Murals Installed

June is National Indigenous History month. It is also the month we recognize and celebrate Pride with the LGBTQ2s+ community.

June is a month where we carve out the spaces and places to create awareness, promote resources, celebrate the successes to date, and affirm our commitment to equity and justice for everyone. June should not be the only month we recognize and celebrate inclusion.

Located at the Welcome Centre in the Kincardine Centre for the Arts at 707 Queen Street in Lakeside Downtown Kincardine, two new murals have been installed to the garage doors.

These two garage doors provide a symbol for our ongoing commitment to reconciliation and healing and to our recognition and celebration of Pride in this community. They promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in public spaces, contributing to a more vibrant and socially conscious community.

Learn the story behind the garage doors:

Seven Generations and Land Acknowledgement

Artist: Jeffrey (Red) George (Ma-Mi-No-ga-boo)

One garage door features a land acknowledgement and art work by Ojibway Artist Jeffrey (Red) George (Ma-Mi-No-ga-boo).

Providing a land acknowledgement gives time for reflection and demonstrates recognition of Indigenous lands, treaties, and peoples.

It involves thinking about what happened in the past and present, and what changes can be made in the future in order to further the reconciliation process.

Acknowledging the traditional territory of Indigenous Peoples, whose ancestors were the first to inhabit, care for and live on this land, is a small and important step in the process of reconciliation.

We are on the traditional lands and treaty territory of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation, which includes the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation and the Chippewas of Saugeen First Nation.

We recognize and deeply appreciate the contributions that Indigenous Peoples have made, both in caring for this land and shaping and strengthening this community, this province and this country.

Learning and acknowledging Indigenous history and culture moves us towards a journey of truth, healing and reconciliation with the Saugeen Ojibway Nation (SON), the Métis Nation of Ontario (MNO) and the Historic Saugeen Métis (HSM).

The story behind the Seven Generations Artwork

(Red) George (Ma-Mi-No-ga-boo) is an Ojibway artist who grew up along the shores of Lake Huron on the First Nation lands of Kettle and Stoney Point. He connects with his mind and heart, with each of his paintings guided by the ancestral tradition of painting in the Woodland style influenced by Norval Morrisseau. Red is a renowned artist signed with Canadian Indigenous Art in Vancouver and a native flutist.

This vision was designed as an eagle feather, and you can see the image of an eagle’s head within. If someone receives an eagle feather, it is a symbol of great honour and respect. The eagle serves as a messenger for the earth’s people, retrieving prayers, and delivering them to the Great Spirit in the sky. The eagle flies the highest amongst all other birds which allows it to travel to the Creator’s realm.

The colour black represents a dark period in Canadian history in which many Indigenous children were taken from their homes and sent to residential schools, many run by churches, where they endured abuses on many levels.

The colour orange represents every child matters, especially the children who did not make it home and who were recently discovered in unmarked graves. It also represents the survivors who have suffered from the trauma subjected upon them.

The colour white represents the healing powers of prayer that lead us from a darkened past to a brighter future of hope.

The seven little circles within the eagle feather represent the seven sacred grandfather teachings – honesty, truth, love, respect, bravery, wisdom, and humility. These teachings were given to help humanity live a more harmonious and balanced life so that we would treat each other and the earth with more kindness.

This door is named in honour of the seven generations. This idea urges the current generation to live and cooperate for the benefit of the next seven generations that are to come in the future.

The Seventh Generation Principle is based on an ancient Haudenosaunee (Iroquois)* philosophy that the decisions we make today should result in a sustainable world seven generations into the future. It is also important to keep in mind to create healthy relationships build on a strong foundation of trust and respect between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.

For additional resources:

Progressive Pride Flag

Artist: Daniel Quasar

The second garage door features the Progress Pride Flag originally designed by Daniel Quasar. This is a reimagined take on the traditional Pride Flag, which has six colored stripes in the order of the rainbow.

The Progress Pride Flag includes a black, brown, blue, pink and white stripe layered on top of the rainbow colors. The six rainbow colors altogether symbolize hope, but have their own individual meanings:

Red: Life
Orange: Healing
Yellow: Sunlight
Green: Nature
Blue: Peace or serenity
Purple: Spirit

The black and brown colors represent marginalized communities. The blue, pink and white stripes represent Trans Pride, with light blue and pink for the traditional baby colors for girls and boys and white for intersex, transitioning, neutral, or undefined gender.

The black stripe also represents those lost during the AIDS crisis as seen in the Victory Over AIDS Flag designed in the 1980s. The red also has a double meaning in showing the search for a cure.

A celebration of progress and an acknowledgement of the rights of 2SLGBTQ+ identities, the crosswalk symbolizes a commitment to being a safe and welcoming community.

More IDEA Initiatives

Afro Caribbean Youth Awards

Afrocentric Art Installation

Emanicipation original artwork by Phillip Saunders

Emancipation Month

Hindu Culture Open House

Journey to Reconciliation

Pride in our Community

Secord Monument Public Engagement

Welcoming Week

Immigration and Ethnocultural Dashboard

The Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA) Lens

Our community is becoming more and more diverse and so are the needs and aspirations of its residents and visitors. For this reason, we need to incorporate this reality into how we communicate, engage, plan, and deliver services so we can remain relevant, meaningful, and effective.

To help us apply equity and inclusion to our work, we can ask some practical questions to improve IDEA:

Providing Services

Who is and who is not included in your service?
What could contribute to exclusion?
What could we do differently to ensure inclusion?
What are we already doing to promote inclusion?
Have we consulted with groups that are not accessing our services?

Working with People

When I interact with people, do I check assumptions?
Do I hold assumptions about people that get in the way of how I work with them?
Do I avoid stereotypes so I can see the individual for who they really are?
Am I able to respect our differences and yet recognize what we have in common?
Am I paying attention to those who are not expressing their ideas?
Do I discourage jokes, insults and negative comments that are offensive to people?

Engaging the Community

What approaches and outreach will help to ensure that everyone is able to fully participate?
How can we create opportunities for people least likely to be heard to ensure they share their specific concerns?
Have we consulted with people who are impacted by the work or program we are offering?
Have we consulted with people from diverse communities?
Which employees, department or community agencies with experience in these specific communities can help us do outreach?
How does the engagement foster inclusion, respect and equity?

Holding Meetings

What steps can we take to remove barriers to people’s full participation? (e.g., dependent care, transportation, safety, language, accessible location, time, multiple formats, avoid religious and cultural holidays, culturally appropriate.)
Is the location accessible for people with disabilities?
Could we assist with transportation and /or child care needs of participants?
Is the environment welcoming to participants who may be reluctant to share their views? If not, what can we do to change this?
Have we asked participants if there is anything we can do to remove barriers to attendance/participation in meeting? e.g., prayer space, large print materials, etc.
Have we included a land acknowledgement at the beginning of the meeting’s agenda?

Communications

Have we made sure that the written materials follow AODA standards?
Is the written message the best approach or could we use infographics, social media, radio/newspaper ads to promote the information?
Have we considered what populations will be missed by only using certain methods? (e.g., online or social media communications) What other approaches might we use?
Do the images and photos represent the full diversity of the community?
Is everyone portrayed in positive images that promote equity and break stereotypes? Consider: who is active and passive, who is at the centre, who is serving and being served.
Is the language we use in our promotion materials plain and easily understood?
How can we make sure that this information reaches diverse groups?
What modifications could we make to improve access?

Staff and Volunteer Recruitment

Do staff and volunteers in our work area reflect the diversity of the community we serve? Who is under-represented?
What knowledge, skills, experience and diversity would enhance our team’s capacity to serve the diversity of clients?
Do job requirements and selection criteria unnecessarily limit who would qualify?
Have we considered where best to post this employment opportunity to ensure that the widest diversity of people are able to access it?

Policy Development

What are the equity and inclusion concerns related to this policy issue? (e.g., accessibility, affordability, safety, culture, gender identity.)
Are the groups most affected by the policy consulted from the early stages of the policy development? How can we ensure their perspectives are included?
How can we communicate the policy so as to reach the full diversity of people affected?