From the website of the The City of Kitchener:

Posted On Wednesday March 25, 2020

As another step in their co-ordinated emergency response, today, the City of Kitchener, together with the Region of Waterloo and local municipalities, declared a State of Emergency in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic. 

The declaration is a precaution being taken by the City of Kitchener, and its local municipal partners, which raises public awareness regarding the gravity of the current pandemic situation and gives the City more speed and flexibility to make important future decisions to protect the safety and wellbeing of residents. 

“This is an important decision for the future health and wellbeing of our entire community,” said Mayor Berry Vrbanovic. “This declaration gives our municipality a few more tools in our toolbox to respond to the spread of this virus in our community.”  

The decision to declare a State of Emergency, made by Mayor Vrbanovic, was made in consultation with Waterloo Region’s public health experts, the City’s emergency management team and members of Kitchener City Council. 

“This is not a decision I’ve taken lightly, and it is not one I’ve made on my own,” said Mayor Vrbanovic. “We’re all in this together and Kitchener remains committed to working collaboratively and co-ordinating closely with our municipal partners to not only make decisions quickly and effectively, but to co-ordinate our response so that there is consistency for residents no matter where they may live in the Region.”

As the pandemic situation continues to evolve, Kitchener has executed its pandemic plan and its emergency management team continues to respond quickly to ongoing direction from the federal and provincial governments, and Region of Waterloo public health experts. 

“Our community can be confident that their city has a robust emergency management framework and pandemic plan in place, which we are executing on quickly,” said Dan Chapman, the City’s Chief Administrative Officer and Chair of the City’s Emergency Operations Centre Management Team. “Our emergency management team continues to meet daily to understand and resolve challenges quickly and anticipate the key decisions that will need to be made in the days and weeks ahead.” 

To stay up-to-date on the City’s response to COVID-19 and any impacts on city operations, visit www.kitchener.ca/COVID19 

For more information:

Shawn Falcao
Manager, Corporate Communications
City of Kitchener
shawn.falcao@kitchener.ca