Community Safety and Well-Being Plan

Improving safety and well-being in Sioux Lookout requires a collaborative approach that involves many community partners working together towards systems change that will benefit all residents of Sioux Lookout.

This Plan was developed with the support and contribution of multiple agencies and organizations in the Sioux Lookout community, with direct input from Sioux Lookout’s residents.

Known as the “Hub of the North”, Sioux Lookout is a unique community, as in addition to being home to its approximately 5,700 residents, it connects 31 remote northern communities to healthcare, essential services and to the rest of Ontario.

As the rich history of the region began over 5,000 years ago with the Anishinaabe peoples, the community of Sioux Lookout today find themselves immersed in the continuing efforts of Reconciliation between Canada and the Indigenous Peoples. Inherent in this is the recognition of the effects that continue to this day from colonial policies like the Indian Act and the Residential Schools. The people who live in Sioux Lookout are diverse, vibrant and progressive and are committed to strengthening Sioux Lookout to be a better community for all.

Sioux Lookout’s Community Safety and Well-Being (CSWB) Plan consists of strategies and supporting actions that fall within the four levels of intervention – social development, prevention, risk intervention, and incident response. A combination of research, a review of existing data and community reports, and input from system leaders and community stakeholders was used to identify where to focus collaborative efforts for the Sioux Lookout CSWB Plan. Through this process, six priority areas of focus were selected: 

  1. Appropriate and affordable housing
  2. Mental wellness
  3. Substance misuse and addictions
  4. Crisis Services’ capacity for incident response and de-escalation
  5. Employee recruitment and retention
  6. Community cohesiveness and vibrancy

The CSWB Plan is meant to be a living document and should be updated as we move forward with our partners and stakeholders.

The Plan itself will be important for shared strategic planning between community partners of the Plan and informing the community at large of the way forward. In addition, it is acknowledged that targeted financial resource commitments from senior levels of government will need necessary to see the Plan’s goals to fruition.

Collectively, should the CSWB Plan be a successful living document, it will serve to assist in improving the coordination of services, collaboration, information sharing, advocacy and partnerships among local government, agencies, and organizations, and ultimately improving the quality of life for Sioux Lookout’s residents.

Click here to download the final report. (PDF)

Strategic Plan

The 2020-2025 Municipality of Sioux Lookout Strategic Plan has been released. It is available for review in PDF format.

Message from Mayor Doug Lawrance:

On behalf of the Council of the Municipality of Sioux Lookout it is my pleasure to provide an introduction to our Municipal Strategic Plan for 2020 to 2025.

The Strategic Plan has been prepared based on significant community engagement and input: an on-line survey of residents, a series of focus groups with community and business groups, a town hall meeting for residents, and personal interviews. Council considered all this information as well as input from staff as we met and mixed in our own visions for our community. We believe the result is a Strategic Plan that is realistic and aspirational in recognizing both our opportunities and challenges.

While it is clear that opportunities abound for Sioux Lookout, it is also evident that we face significant challenges. Many of these were identified by residents during the community engagements to prepare this plan. Although our challenges can seem unique to Sioux Lookout, a national scan shows our challenges are evident to a greater or lesser extent in many municipalities across our country. The Municipal Strategic Plan recognizes the importance of working with other agencies, municipalities, and different levels of government to address the challenges we face. In doing so we will also be creating opportunities.

Through the process of developing this Strategic Plan with community members and Council, there were certainly differences in opinions on community priorities and approaches on how best to address our challenges and take advantage of our opportunities. No matter the differences it is clear that we all share the desire to make Sioux Lookout a better place to live, work, and visit. To that end, Council was united in its belief that it is important to celebrate our cultural diversity and continue to find ways to work with others to ensure the health, happiness and prosperity of all our residents. Council has identified five strategic priorities for our community: Innovation & Development, Community Wellness, Regional Collaboration, Community Engagement, and Operational Excellence. These are presented in the following pages and we look forward to engaging with you as we move forward with our 2020 – 2025 Sioux Lookout Strategic Plan.

Community Profile

The Sioux Lookout Community Profile provides information about everything you need to know about Sioux Lookout.

Municipal Services Delivery Review

In 2020, KPMG completed a Service Delivery Review for the Municipality of Sioux Lookout.

This relates to the community development component of the Municipality's Strategic Plan: "Strive to achieve effectiveness and efficiencies in the delivery of goods and services to the residents of the community."

This report outlines the potential opportunities for the Municipality and generally fall into one of four categories:

  • Operating efficiencies, with the anticipated benefit of
    1. enhanced decision making and service delivery
    2. potential capacity gains, and/or
    3. potential cost savings while maintaining current service levels;
  • Service level adjustments, representing either
    1. the discontinuance of the Municipality’s involvement in a non-core service; or
    2. a reduction in the level of service provided;
  • Alternate service delivery, which involves changing the Municipality’s delivery model for a service (e.g. exploration of shared services); and
  • Revenue generation. These opportunities seek to reduce the municipal levy by identifying alternate means of funding municipal services through user fees and other cost recovery methods.

The report compares Sioux Lookout's various services to six other Northern Ontario municipalities of comparable populations, geography, and historical comparisons including:

  • Dryden
  • Fort Frances
  • Greenstone
  • Hearst
  • Iroquois Falls
  • Red Lake

Read the complete Municipal Service Delivery Review report. (PDF)