Tragically Un-strategic

Strategic Initiatives or just day to day business

During the towns first 2025 strategic planning session held this week in a committee of the whole format, the town CAO advised that strategic planning is a core responsibility of council and the foundation of their governance role. She further highlighted that council provides strategic direction, allocates resources, provide oversight and manages risk while staff provide reporting.

The CAO explained the concept that 85% of staff resources are devoted to delivering the core services of the day to day operations of keeping the business of the town running. This includes regulatory requirements, maintaining systems and processes, while meeting citizen expectations.

In reviewing 129 page document I was surprised and a bit disappointed to see so many "so called" strategic initiatives that I would have expected to fall into day to day operations of keeping the business of the town running. Examples include: Employer of choice, Records management update, Review of DCC reduction Bylaw, Policy reviews, Visual identity refresh,

Update of fees for the Cash in Liew of parking bylaw, Community park site review, Pathway to pollinator policy development, Asset replacement management plan for the airport, Wayfinding signage, Airport fees bylaw review, and one offs like the community pianos project.

The town has numerous well paid director level "management" employees whose job descriptions should include regular review of these types of activities. When you are the director of the department you should be responsible for all aspects of that department. Reviewing both revenue and expense reduction opportunities, policy updates and procedures should all be part of running the day to day business of the town.

When I think of council strategic initiatives, I think of our biggest longer term challenges and what new initiatives we could initiate outside the normal course of business. Off the top of my head, examples might include:

• Determining a strategy to attract builders of attainable housing with the goal to achieve housing for workers.

• Creating a framework for determining the priority and funding mechanisms for replacing or expanding the infrastructure of the recreation and cultural services we offer.

• Exploring alternatives in how we deliver core services to reduce costs for tax payers. We may now have the scale that we can bring in house some services that we currently outsource such as waste collection and various consultants that we use repeatedly.

• Developing a strategy to ensure Qualicum Beach residents get their fair share of Health Services as provided by the BC Government. Not just doctors but also long term care facilities.

• Determining the long term viability of our airport and how to more equitably fund it.

The town is still very early in the planning and budget process with many of the more difficult and hard to do initiatives still unresolved. The meeting was recorded and you can view it here. Further meetings are scheduled and you can find particulars on the towns website.

Marie Noel

October 21 2024

We welcome your feedback and comments.

You can email us at Qualicumbeachinsights@gmail.com

More observations from the meeting

To reinforce how busy staff are, the CAO provided the following stats for the first 9 months of this year:

244	Council resolutions requiring staff action
48	Council meetings
123	staff reports
102	freedom of information requests (FOI)
34	committee/advisory group meetings

What jumped out at me was the number of FOI requests and for the record, although we actively engage with the town, we have never submitted an FOI request. So I conclude that there are others, apparently many, who are unable to get the information they are looking for from the towns website or directly from counter staff at town hall. Information management remains a challenge for the town, with many policy's and even bylaws not posted on the town website. Finding the information can be challenging but generally town front counter staff try to be helpful.

Councillor Harrison suggested the high number of FOI is because the town does not charge for them. (He is apparently unaware of the towns current FOI policy.) I would venture it is simply a result of residents not getting the information they are seeking and see FOI as the only option to exercise their legislated rights.

Following the Community Charter with respect to closed meetings, increased transparency with respect to decision making processes and publication of policies would go a long way to reduce the burden of FOI requests.

Interesting, the City of Vancouver had 800 FOI requests and they post the FOI information requested on their website, so everyone can see what was released. Further they do not charge for FOI's.