Early in November of last year, Council met with Gordon McIntosh for two days of strategic planning and to determine strategic direction for the district.
The process started by looking at what was happening right now and identifying issues and opportunities. They also looked at emerging strategic topics, with an eye towards desired expectations in mind.
According to interim CAO Aleen Torraville, “strategic priorities are meant to guide both Council and staff in the the development of budgets, planning documents and capital projects. Although strategic priorities are a priority by nature, there are many other daily operational items that require attention.
Recently, the results of those discussions came before a Policies and Priorities meeting.
According to the document, the top five priorities for council for 2024 are:
- Draft Zoning Bylaw
- Asset management plan
- Trail master plan
- Downtown strategy: design review
- Finding options to attract medical professionals
These five priorities come out of a larger group of 17 “strategic topics”: Youth, Daycare, Broadband, Healthcare, Aging Infrastructure, Spray Park, Council/staff relations, Trail Master Plan, Active Transportation/Gaps, Downtown Revitalization, Emergency Response, Forest Fuel Mitigation, Policy Audit, Inclusivity, Economic Development/Tourism, Community Beautification and Housing.
From each of these topics, council identified a number of strategic “possibilities,” actions that could be taken to move these items forward. For instance, on the topic of daycare, council decided the actions they were hoping to take were to meet with YMCA regarding daycare expansion, determine daycare expansion needs/budget, prepare funding application/submit to Province, research alternate providers/training options, as well as, over the longer term, prepare a childcare strategy.
“The priority setting process started by looking at present conditions—issues and opportunities,” writes Gordon McIntosh in the report. “The emerging strategic topics were explored with a preferred future—desired expectations in mind. Effective priority setting involves making strategic choices consistent within the district’s mandate and capacity. It is in the transformation stage where the present/future gap is closed by defining achievable strategies.”
McIntosh writes that, for this process to be effective, it is important to be able to adjust to change. “ Strategic priorities should be regularly monitored and adapted to changing external conditions and internal capacity. Once priorities are completed, next items can take their place.”
Mayor Krakowka says he’d like to see the document brought to a budget discussion. “There’s things here that we’ve put in to the strategic direction that could mean budget implications or tax increases. That concerns me. I know this was going to be coming to a regular meeting but I think it should just go to a budget meeting so that we know that we can afford and so council knows what the budget implications are.
Councillor Gulick says her understanding is this is not a one year plan. “I look at this as being for the rest of our term. I absolutely agree that I think going to budget is good knowing what we maybe can and can’t do, though I think we did a good job prioritizing what we thought was important. I mean, they are all important, but in setting out the ones that were a priority.”
Mayor Krakowka points out there are things on the priority list that have been carried forward from previous councils. “Whether it’s the trail master plan, or daycare or youth or broadband or health care, those are held over from previous councils. When we did this discussion, we didn’t know what budget numbers were for certain things. We need to see where we’re at in regards to our budget and then if we need to move something to next year, or the year after.”
Councillor Norbury says budgeting out the priorities might be putting the cart before the horse.
“I think it’s always a good idea to see how much this will cost, but I think it’s also appropriate to have a discussion now so that staff can still get a feel for council,” he says. “What comes first? Do we decide this is what we want and then staff investigates it, or we find how much it costs before we even decide to do it?
Councillor Noksana agrees that a lot of items need to have a cost associated with them, but there’s a lot that council should be looking at now. “There’s things that council could be doing, like reading the truth and reconciliation calls to action, or reviewing the downtown design guidelines. These are things we can be reviewing now so we’re ready when that comes across our desk.”
Councillor Gulick says she doesn’t believe the action points are going to change. “What might change is how soon we do some of them. I think it would be okay for us to approve it with the understanding that there could be budgetary implications so they may not be done in the order that they are within the strategic plan.”
Council will be bringing the plan forward to adopt at a regular meeting in the near future.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
