City council has approved $80,000 to develop a plan that will guide the city’s decisions and priorities over the next four years.
The city’s corporate strategic plan will be developed in five phases, with the aid of outside consultants; the goal is to refine and clearly define the city’s priorities over the course of the term.
The work towards a plan will begin with a community survey, facilitated sessions with city council, developing action plans, circulating a draft plan for the public’s review, and then presenting the final plan.
The plan is expected to be complete in early 2024, with community engagement slated to begin in August.
Once adopted, the city will hold semi-annual meetings to evaluate progress on its priorities.
City staff presented council with two options at a special meeting Monday, and the second option was to use a December report from Mayor Don McIsaac – a three-page document that outlined council’s priorities through discussions councillors had before taking office.
Several members of council had reservations about the cost of the plan.
“Having a formal plan and having a consultant committed to all that is a valuable thing, and it's just the money that I always have trouble with,” said Coun. David Campbell. “It's a lot of money and I don't know what the value is.”
Coun. Jay Fallis, as well, argued the city “wouldn’t be getting the dollar value” out of the process.
Others argued that council’s priorities were already well-established.
Councillors Tim Lauer and Luke Leatherdale noted that an election took place just six months ago, with councillors identifying their constituents’ priorities through various discussions on the campaign trail.
Coun. Ralph Cipolla disagreed.
“We all knocked on doors,” responded Cipolla. “Necessities in my ward … (are) totally different than Ward 4, Ward 3, Ward 1, so the corporate plan, I think, is necessary. Do we have to spend $80,000? Can it be cheaper? I'm not sure … but I think the corporate plan is essential.”
With council taking action on several social welfare items to date – such as its opioid task force, or homelessness roundtable – Coun. Janet-Lynne Durnford ultimately supported the plan, while lamenting the cost.
“I'm hesitant to spend the money,” she said. “The only thing that I was thinking about was that … this is kind of new from a municipal perspective, because these are areas that have been traditionally in the realm of the county and the province, so I think there might be some value to this process because our focus is different as a council than it has been with other councils.”
Mayor Don McIsaac agreed a plan is important to measure the city’s progress on its priorities.
“I think a plan certainly encompasses the vision, mission, (and) values that we have, but it also allows staff to judge productive behaviour,” said McIsaac. “If you don't have a plan, then anything is success because we wind up where we are and it's good, but if you have a plan, you can at least judge the progress towards it.”
