Aurora to welcome Swedish “twins”

June 21, 2017 · 0 Comments

By Brock Weir

Aurorans are invited to come out to Town Hall next Thursday, June 29, to welcome our Swedish “twins.”
A delegation from Leksand, Sweden, the Scandinavian town “twinned” with the Town of Aurora, will be here next week for a cultural exchange and to take part in the Canada 150 Celebrations on Canada Day next Saturday, July 1.
A public welcoming ceremony will be held at Town Hall starting at 8.30 on the morning of June 29 before the delegation, which consists of Leksand’s Mayor, Vice-Mayor, and City Manager, get down to business.
“One of the things they are interested in is learning a bit more on how we do our processes with planning and housing, and physical planning for the Town, recreation planning and that type of thing and some of the administrative processes that we go through,” says Mayor Geoff Dawe. “Our staff are preparing some short presentations with their group on things like subdivision planning, planning for new soccer fields, and a lot of that basic-type stuff.”
Their presence, he says, will add a bit of extra “pizazz” to the Canada Day party and afford the two municipalities to compare notes on rapid growth. Aurora, of course, is a rapidly growing community, and the same can be said of Leksand over the last few years.
Mayor Dawe likens the upcoming conversation to comparing notes with others who have gone through similar experiences.
“[You see] there is a light at the end of the tunnel, which is a big benefit when you’re walking into that situation,” he says.