The Canterbury Mayoral Forum is proud to release its updated wellbeing overview, a document which includes high-level information on the current state of the region and trends.
This document helps inform Mayoral Forum priorities, engagement with central government and the development of a regional strategy for the next triennium, but it also paints a picture for the Waitaha community about what’s going on in their backyard.
The wellbeing overview was first published in 2019 and has been updated in recent months and published today. There has been some change in the last three years – a mixture of both positive and negative depending on what areas you’re looking at.
Of course, the major event has been the COVID-19 pandemic. While the impact of the pandemic on wellbeing, including border and lockdown controls, is yet to be fully understood, some indicators provided in the overview give insight into the short-term impacts of the pandemic e.g. on visitor arrivals.
We also know that the impact of COVID-19 on regional economies has been varied. Canterbury’s underlying activity in the manufacturing, construction and agricultural sectors has provided some protection on the regional economy from COVID-19 impacts. The impact on tourism has also been more significant in other regions.
Other highlights in the document include:
- Information on Canterbury’s five main climate zones and the impacts from climate change
- Details of natural hazards including a breakdown in the asset cost and benefit value of river control, flood protection and land drainage schemes across the region
- Highlighting major infrastructure projects that are either proposed, in progress or have been recently completed e.g. a new $344 million Antarctica research base to be constructed in Timaru before being transported to Scott Base
- Canterbury was the second highest emitter of greenhouse gases, contributing to 14% of all greenhouse gas emissions in New Zealand (data from 2019, latest available).
The 2022 wellbeing overview (PDF file, 3.2MB) can be found here.
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