Mayor Berry Vrbanovic — Building Kitchener Together

 

The current council's strategic plan organized its work under five pillars, each with a common word embedded in the title: creating an economically thriving city together; building a connected city together; fostering a caring city together; cultivating a green city together; and stewarding a better city together. The mayor was clear that government is an enabler and facilitator in this work — not the whole story. The progress has come from partnerships with community organizations, volunteers, businesses, and other orders of government.

 

Kitchener’s innovation ecosystem — built over decades around advanced manufacturing, tech, and entrepreneurship — is recognized internationally. The city’s $8.5 million investment in the University of Waterloo’s Innovation Arena, located in the downtown innovation district near Communitech and adjacent to Google’s Canadian engineering headquarters (which employs more than 1,600 people across three buildings), has created a hub connecting entrepreneurs, researchers, students and industry. The arena supports more than 120 tech startups and is helping build a growing health innovation cluster.

The city’s economic development strategy, originally called Make it Kitchener 2.0 and launched in 2020, has been refreshed as Make it Kitchener 2.1 in response to the changed economic reality — particularly the impact of US trade policy on Canadian communities. The refresh focuses on three areas: diversifying the economy, a bold vision for downtown, and catalytic investments.

On arts and entertainment, the city recently launched Kitchener Live, a single destination platform for discovering live events, performances, venues, and ticketing across the city. It showcases the Centre in the Square, the Registry Theatre, the Conrad Centre, and other venues, and includes Kitchener Takes the Stage — a new initiative to showcase local young musicians and artists. The mayor also noted that 2026 marks the 30th anniversary of the Christkindl Market, which this year will expand to two weekends in December for the first time.

 

Housing affordability remains one of Kitchener’s most pressing challenges, and the mayor outlined the significant federal and provincial support the city has secured to address it. Kitchener has exceeded its annual provincial housing targets for three consecutive years — one of only a small number of municipalities in Ontario to achieve this — earning more than $32 million through Ontario’s Building Faster Fund, invested in road resurfacing, stormwater improvements, and land acquisition for affordable housing.

Through the federal Housing Accelerator Fund, the city secured $46.6 million to increase housing supply, speed up approvals, and strengthen partnerships with nonprofit housing providers. Since adopting its first housing strategy, Kitchener has helped enable more than 2,000 affordable housing units across 40 projects through land contributions, financial incentives, planning approvals, and nonprofit partnerships.

A new project is underway on Wellington and Lancaster, where the city has made land available for Reception House to develop housing for refugees and newcomers to the community.

On the water infrastructure side: the region identified a water capacity issue earlier this year, which has been addressed through a new water allocation policy approved in June. Kitchener’s top priority for its water allocation is affordable housing projects that have already received provincial or federal funding.

The largest recreation facility in the city’s history is under construction at RBJ Schlegel Park. The Cowan Recreation Complex will be 222,000 square feet, featuring two pools, a quad gymnasium, a cricket pitch, a FIFA-sized turf fieldhouse, and amenities for people of all ages and abilities. It is expected to open in late 2026, welcome more than 500,000 visitors in its first full year, and serve as home base for more than 30 sport organizations. Sports tourism is also anticipated to generate meaningful economic impact for the city.

 

The mayor spoke at length about the city’s efforts to ensure that as Kitchener grows and changes, residents feel they belong and have a meaningful place in its future. The Love My Hood program has supported more than 200 neighbourhood projects and invested over $1.6 million in resident-led ideas that bring neighbours together. The Neighbours Day concert series delivers roughly 100 community concerts each June. A municipal newcomer strategy, shaped through engagement with more than 1,000 newcomers, 25 community organizations, and over 60 city staff, focuses on practical actions to help people connect and participate in civic life. The city is also a partner in the We All Belong Here campaign, which promotes inclusion and stands against hate across the region.

 

Mayor Vrbanovic has represented Kitchener on a number of national and international stages. He currently serves as co-president of United Cities and Local Governments, the global association of cities, bringing the municipal voice into forums including the UN and the international climate change process. Closer to home, he has been part of multiple Canadian mayors’ missions to Washington to advocate on trade issues in the wake of the new US administration — noting candidly that Republican elected officials have been willing to engage behind closed doors but not publicly, for fear of political consequences.

 

Asked what troubles him most, the mayor didn’t hesitate: mental health, addiction, and homelessness. He shared that he was not born in Canada — he arrived from the former Yugoslavia at age two and a half, his parents having made the decision to emigrate when Soviet forces entered Czechoslovakia and they feared Yugoslavia might be next. He spoke with evident feeling about the contrast between the opportunity Canada provided his family and the fact that people are sleeping on the streets of its cities without a clear path to a solution across all orders of government.

His greatest joy, by contrast, is community events: Neighbours Day, the Blues Festival, the concerts and gatherings that bring people together. In a world of increasing polarization, he said, the positivity and connection he sees at those events is genuinely special.

As a parting note, the mayor shared that it was former mayor Carl Zehr who encouraged him, back in 1997, to apply for a Rotary Group Study Exchange. He didn’t get the one to Czech and Slovak Republics that he’d hoped for — he got the one to Uttar Pradesh, India instead. He called it one of the best things that ever happened to him. The experience of stepping outside his comfort zone, living and engaging with Rotarians in a completely different culture, shaped him in ways he still carries. A fitting note on which to close a Rotary morning.