In 2004, Kitchener launched the Downtown Kitchener Action Plan to re-energize the downtown core and in the same year,the modernized version of its farmers' market was opened. In 2009, the city began a project to rebuild and repair its main downtown street, King Street. The University of Waterloo of Pharmacy was opened on March 15, 2006 and McMaster University opened a satellite campus for Michael G. Degroote School of Medicine next to it. The Health Sciences Campus is set in the middle of this cluster. In 2007, Cadan Inc.bought the Lang Tannery for $10 and renovated for commercial firms. Desire2Learn was located in the building and in 2011, Communitech moved in. Not only that, in 2011, Google Inc. set a place in the Tannery.
The Province of Ontario built a new courthouse on the block near Frederick, Duke, Scott, and Weber streets and is opened in 2012. In the downtown area, many factories were turned into upscale lofts and residences. In September 2010, the city began a project called "City Centre" in the downtown area. This project includes building new condominium units, retail spaces, private and public parking, a gallery, a boutique hotel, and luxury, high-rise apartments.
The Waterloo Moraine aquifer system contains 90% of the water supply in the Region Municipality of Waterloo. Due to its proximity to the aquifer, the city of Kitchener receives a great amount of its natural resources. Not only that, the aquifer provides water for more than 300,000 people in the Region Municipality of Waterloo, making it the largest area in North America to depend on potable groundwater.
The Waterloo Moraine is created from three glacial lobes derived from the Laurentide Ice Sheet that became what is now Lake Huron, Georgian Bay, Lake Ontario, and Lake Erie. As the glacier moves, it brings with it large amounts of dirt, gravel, sand, and debris. When the ice melts, the Waterloo Moraine is left, made up of glacial remains that is 30 to 100 metres thick. Meltwater streams flows from the glacial lobes and carries large deposits of gravel, sand, and bedrock. Now, the moraine lies on top of the Guelph and Salina carbonate bedrock formations.
But this is not the only natural resource that Kitchener possess. Kitchener's urban forests is a valuable resource and covers more than 1,600 hectares of parkland in the city. It provides sufficient economic, environmental, and social advantages.
I believe this resource could be sustained for a long period of time because the city of Kitchener created a program called Kitchener's Natural Areas Program to help conserve the forests and other natural areas in the city.
The majority of the jobs in Kitchener either falls in the secondary or tertiary sector. In 2014, 28% of jobs available in Kitchener is manufacturing-based. In the same time, 72% of the labour force works in services-producing sector, or the tertiary industry, 25.15% of which is working in the education department. Only 1% worked in the primary sector- agriculture.
These jobs are relatively sustainable, because compared to 2011, the percentage of secondary-based jobs has increased by 7.64%. Secondary and tertiary jobs are balancing out; there won't be so much people in the tertiary sector and more in secondary. I believe in the future, this progress can help stabilize Kitchener's economy.
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