Moving Upstream - Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit

Health Goals
4. Healthy Environment
3. Residents live in a healthy built environment.
The built environment has a potential to expose the population to
environmental hazards if monitoring and inspection are not carried
out. On average 195 investigations are conducted annually on potential
environmental hazards. Further, the built environment affords opportunities
for health options such as bike lanes, walking paths to industrial
developments, and subdivision planning.
Transportation policies tend to focus on the best ways to move cars around
the community and could be expanded to consider how to help people
move around the community using a variety of means. Roads built for cars
are not always friendly for bikes or walking. Stores, schools, and workplaces
are not often close to where people live. This has meant that people don’t
walk and bike very much as part of their regular day contributing to low
levels of physical activity for many people.
Some municipalities have developed trails strategies to encourage people to
enjoy nature and be physically active. More could be done to ensure children
with varying abilities and disabilities have safe places to play outdoors,
families can be active outside together, workplaces offer physical activity
options, and roads are built so walkers, runners, cyclists and cars all share the
road.
The Health Unit will focus on the following program strategies to enhance
the built environment.
Develop a Healthy Community Charter in collaboration with the Healthy
Community Partnership, local municipalities, community organizations
and the public.
Provide information to municipal policy makers on health promoting
features of the built environment and work with them to make changes
in the built environment.
Support municipalities to implement the health-related components of
their Integrated Community Sustainability Plans.
Provide information to the public on the importance of the built
environment for health using a variety of strategies.
Assist community partners to develop healthy policies related to
reducing exposure to health hazards and providing healthy living
options in association with built environments.
Moving Upstream: 2013-2018 Strategic Plan
Leeds, Grenville & Lanark District Health Unit
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