Thread by @adamadonaldson

Coming up in about 10 minutes or so, a workshop meeting of #Guelph City Council to talk about the Strategic Plan. Stand by! guelphpolitico.ca/2023/01/06/cit…

Mayor Guthrie has called the meeting to order. He's here in person with Cllrs Chew, O'Rourke, Busuttil, Richardson, Goller, and Klassen. Caron, Caton, and Billings here virtually.

Guthrie says this is a bit of orientation for council, especially the new ones, to talk about how they came up with the Strategic Plan and how it intersects with City business. Also notes that COVID threw a wrench into things as they were implementing the plan.

CAO Stewart kicks off the presentation. He says the SP was a "terrific step" for council because previously all the separate plans were a mess and the SP got them to a "good place". It's the "North Star" and an important tool.

2023 is the last year of "Guelph Future Ready." They're now embarking on a new plan for 2024-27, and that will mean this year is a transition year. He asks council to keep in mind what they're experiencing now & bring their feelings to the table: How do they feel about decisions?

After today, staff will be scheduling one-on-one interviews with each member of council to get their own personal thoughts and ideas before council will start the process as a group.

Daniel Beemsigne - Acting GM of Strategy, Innovation and Intergovernmental Services - takes over. He notes that before the SP there was the Community Plan, which had a 10-20 time horizon and is the highly aspirational overview of Guelph's future direction.

Here are the five pillars of the Strategic Plan:

If you're interested in how the City is doing in meeting their SP goals, here's the 2021 progress report: …turereadyprogressreport2021.guelph.ca 2022 report coming soon...

"Powering our Future" is economic stuff. The objectives include accelerating the innovation economy, supporting businesses, and adapting to changing workforce needs.

"Sustaining our Future" is economic stuff. In this category, Guelph aims to build a sustainable city while reducing the carbon footprint and executing an ambitious and achievable climate action plan.

"Navigating our Future" is transportation stuff. This pillar is all about transportation, the effort to improve local and regional transit, to adapt clean technology, and provide affordable and reasonable transportation options.

"Working together for our Future" is internal corporate stuff for the City. This one is about City services, attracting talent, improving communications, and developing strategies to manage finances and other resources.

"Building our Future" is infrastructure stuff. Cost-wise, it's the biggest pillar, worth appr. the same in the annual operating budget as all the other pillars combined. It means maintaining community assets, working to increase housing & building a strong safe & health community

Shanna O’Dwyer, acting GM of Finance/City Treasurer, takes over to talk about how the SP intersects with the budget. Reminder: The budget docs drop this Thursday.

Preview of 2023 budget highlights:

Each member of council has been assigned a "budget buddy" a member of the finance team that they intersect with one-on-one to ask budget questions. The budget board also goes live this Thursday!

Now council questions. Cllr Gibson, now online, asks about "Building our Future", what happens to 10-year capital forecast? O'Dwyer says the plan for 24-27 budget it to re-evaluate the plan and take into account inflation pressures.

Gibson notes that the word resilience came up in the plan, and wants to be mindful of the future while being mindful of the people in the city right now.

Cllr Caron asks about the infrastructure backlog, how do we manage that through SP? Stewart says the inflationary pressures will be identified in future SP discussions and the coming budget. Says there's lots of work "behind the scenes" to bring costs down for SECC for example.

Guthrie says Caron's question makes him think in sections: asset management & city building. Looking at the question that way, will the City focus on the former. Stewart says we've made great progress on AM, can't give that up, the trick is pacing for the other issue.

Guthrie says he doesn't want to micromanage the corporate asset management, and would rather focus on city building strategically. Stewart says this is accurate; council set strategic goals, and staff implements. Hold them accountable via KPI and be clear on expectations.

Cllr O'Rourke asks about critical inputs that went into current plan that have to go into next. Beemsigne says all master plans complete and in-progress, commitments made by council (like Race to Zero), new ON bills, Community Plan, and enviro overview.

O'Rourke asks about the evolution of the KPIs. Beemsigne says it started with travel arrows, are we going up or down. We're now adding numbers as well as understanding which KPIs that the City has the most control over. KPIs more closely linked to objectives in next plan.

O'Rourke asks if anything other than COVID took us off track. Beemsigne noted the huge social interruption (affordability, anti-racism) during pandemic. Stewart adds that COVID had many tentacles, and we're still dealing some of them.

Cllr Caton asks about how accessibility standards are factored in. Beemsigne says they added the word "equitable" to the Building our Future pillar in 2021, which encompasses all areas of accessibility.

Caton asks if the Accessible Canada Act is included. Beemsigne it's part of the "Pestel Analysis" which is one of the tools they use when considering any project.

Guthrie notes that when it comes to reviewing the 2023 budget, how are staff framing the new impacts? Is it using the same SP pillars? O'Dwyer says the update will be aligned around key themes, not necessarily with the SP (though they can make the connections in presentation).

Cllr Allt, now joining us, asks for confirmation that the SP is foundational for the budget. Stewart repeats that the SP is "the North Star", the budget is the gas and break pedals.

In closing comments, O'Rourke says she's grateful staff was able to execute SP despite COVID challenges. Busuttil adds her thanks because understanding the SP is important sin assisting the transition.

Guthrie says over his tenure, the way things are set up now has created greater degree of trust between council and staff because they're all on the same page. Council doesn't have to micromanage b/c council agreed on that shared direction.

So that's the end of the work shop, be back here at 2 pm for Committee of the Whole.

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