Message From The Mayor
On behalf of my Council Colleagues, it is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the Town of Huntsville Website. I am sure that you will find our Website informative, accessible and easy to use, providing you with instant information about the Town of Huntsville. I encourage you to visit our Website regularly as changes take place within our Community.
Huntsville, a community of nearly 20,000 permanent residents as well as many thousands of additional seasonal residents, boasts the amenities of a much larger urban centre, while maintaining the community spirit and serenity of a convivial small town. Located in the rugged heartland of the Canadian Shield and on the doorstep of Algonquin Park, the oldest and most renowned park in Ontario, Huntsville is a community that offers a truly unique and exceptional experience for all visitors. Huntsville takes great pride in the multitude of potential experiences it offers its residents and guests. Whether tasting our distinctive “Savour Muskoka” cuisine, taking in a performance at our Algonquin Theatre, meandering through our Muskoka Heritage Place, or looking for a wilderness adventure, you have come to the right place.
The Town of Huntsville is a progressive, growing community that offers a variety of year-round recreational activities and business opportunities. Our many lakes, parks and attractions provide enjoyment, as well as economic benefits to our residents, visitors and businesses. As we grow, we are committed to maintaining a strong infrastructure and superior customer service while protecting our environment, keeping in mind the interests of our residents and visitors.
Huntsville’s reputation as an unsurpassed location in Ontario for sports and recreation is well deserved. We are wholly committed to fostering a community where healthy, active and participatory lifestyles are encouraged and enabled. You will soon realize our recreational facilities are quite simply remarkable.
Our new Canada Summit Centre, which includes a $20 million addition and renovation to the Huntsville Centennial Centre, is undeniably world class. The addition alone now boasts an expanded indoor swimming pool, a brand new Olympic sized ice rink, a fitness facility and an indoor running track. Our community is also eagerly anticipating the opening of Conroy Park, with its professional grade outdoor track capable of hosting track meets of the highest level, as well as an artificial surface for field events and soccer.
Chosen by the Prime Minister of Canada as a community worthy and fully capable of hosting the most influential and powerful countries in the world, Huntsville was thrilled to undertake this challenge. Our town undertook the arduous task of planning and preparing for the 2010 G8 Summit and we are extremely proud of the result.
We are committed to showcasing our piece of paradise to the world as an ideal place to live, raise a family, and start a business. Preparing for the summit was not an easy process, and every Huntsville resident can attest to the immense expenditure of time and effort that has gone into laying the foundation for a successful event. The people of Huntsville came together to ensure that our community succeeded not only in welcoming the world, but also maximizing this tremendous opportunity to facilitate growth, progress, and prosperity.
Perhaps more significant than all other endeavours Huntsville has embarked upon this past year is the initiation of a long-term relationship with the University of Waterloo. This prestigious institution now has a beautiful, permanent facility here in Huntsville along the shore of Cann Lake. Devoted to the study and research of environmental science and ecosystem resilience, the new University of Waterloo initiative marks an exciting new beginning for Huntsville. We are honoured that the University of Waterloo recognized Huntsville as an absolutely ideal place to expand its operations.
Huntsville provides UW the ability to work collaboratively with the Government of Ontario, Algonquin Park, and the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, to research the most pressing and critical issues facing our natural world, including medical aspects of ecosystem degradation. It is our goal to foster this wonderful relationship into something greater. Huntsville is confidently striving towards becoming a national, and perhaps even international, bastion of environmental research.
The 2010 G8 Summit and the establishment of the University of Waterloo in Huntsville are two integral components of our town’s community vision. We are striving to define and brand Huntsville as a leading community for events tourism and environmental research. Our achievements this past year only serve to further solidify our town as a foremost destination for sporting events, conferences, and academic pursuit.
Huntsville is a community that takes great pride in honouring the past while simultaneously looking with eager anticipation towards the future. The year 2010 will undoubtedly be remembered as a seminal time in the history of Huntsville. Our town is in no way lacking in ambition; in fact, spend a little time here and it will quickly become evident how passionate we are about moving our community forward.
With poise and conviction Huntsville welcomed the world. It is with the same enthusiasm, that I, on behalf of Council and everyone who calls Huntsville home invite you to take part in this exciting time.
Claude Doughty,
Mayor
Town of Huntsville
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