THUNDER BAY — In the last 10 years several initiatives have been undertaken addressing issues such as climate change, sustainability, and recognizing diversity in the city of Thunder Bay, and those at the heart of some of these projects are being celebrated.
On Wednesday, Lakehead University hosted Community Voices and Dialogues for Social Justice in collaboration with Diversity Thunder Bay, the city’s Anti-Racism and Equity Advisory Committee, Confederation College, and other community organizations.
The event included a panel discussion on the Voluntary Local Review Report of 2022, which evaluates the city’s progress toward achieving the United Nation’s 17 sustainable development goals.
“It’s really a local approach to looking at the indicators that are part of the sustainable development goals and tells a picture of how well our community is doing in helping to achieve those global goals,” said Lee-Ann Chevrette, the community safety and well-being specialist with the city of Thunder Bay.
The review, which Chevrette said was not mandated, was completed last year and provides a way for the city to evaluate the steps that have been taken in achieving those goals.
“This is really the first voluntary local review. It is called voluntary because it is not a mandated thing for municipalities to do,” she said. “I think it’s really important for our community is taking this step to complete a voluntary local review and it sets a baseline for us so when we move forward, we can track the data on how we are doing on a local level to achieving those targets.”
The United Nation’s 17 sustainable achievement goals include addressing issues of poverty, housing, climate action, crime, and mental health.
According to Chevrette, the results of the voluntary review are mixed but the sustainable achievement goals provide a good framework for the city to work within.
“For us as a country to help achieve the global goals, we need to localize the initiatives and achieving some positive outcomes at a local level and that will contribute to provincial and federal targets that will also contribute to the global targets,” she said.
“I think it’s also really important to emphasize the importance of local action toward achieving these global goals. When we are talking about sustainability, we are talking about sustainability not just in an environmental sense or climate sense, but we are talking about sustainability in terms of the economy, social development indicators. It’s important we track that at a local level and engage people in the community.”
The event on Wednesday also celebrated the 10th anniversary of the One City Many Voices column that has been published monthly in The Chronicle-Journal and the numerous authors and contributors.
“As the title sounds, One City Many Voices, we want to hear perspectives, we want to hear experiences and this is run by Diversity Thunder Bay and the city’s anti-racism and advisory committee to run in The Chronicle-Journal every month,” said Roopa Rakshit, coordinator of the One City many voices column since 2018.
“It is to acknowledge all the authors who have contributed their wisdom, insights, perspectives, reflections, experiences, stories about what their thoughts on are diversity and multiculturalism.”
The column was in response to negative letters to the editor published in the paper and was meant to balance out the perspective on the city of Thunder Bay and the positive work being done.
“We talk about race relations, diversity, multiculturalism, and how the city has evolved. I have been here for 10 years now and I have seen the city evolving and emerging and change so much,” Rakshit said.
“From the time I’ve come, what I have seen is in the workforce. The workforce is so diverse now. You walk into any store and you see people from all parts of the world.”
