ABSTRACT
LQcated at the western end of Lake Ontario, Hamilton-Wentworth encompasses an urban centre and almost 100,000 acres of farmland. Approximately 7 ometres west of Toronto, the region is part of a larger urban agglo . st six million people. community has been a centre
The Hamilton-Wentworth Sustainable Community Initiative started in 1989, when the region's !Jlanagement team decided that more mprehensive criteria were needed to evaluate capital budget decisions. At the same time, fficial Plan and Economic due for review, and it was felt that the future economy of the region depended on entally-
sustainable development. The management team felt that many sustainable development objectives had not been achieved in the past because of a lack of community support. If new plans were to be developed to transform the community from an industrial centre into an environmentally-sustainable region, it was agreed that they needed to be based on community values and desires.
