Sunday, June 6, 2010

Review of the 2009 Corporate Goals - City of Williams Lake

I thought I would take a minute to review Williams Lake Council's 2009 Corporate Goals and provide my take on them:

1) Develop & Implement a Community Safety Strategy

The current WL Council, after being sworn in, completed a series of actions with regard to this item and although I know it is easy to be cynical about this goal and saying - where's the results of these actions?, sometimes when a Council makes a decision, especially on crime-related matters, it truly does take time to see the positive effects of these decisions, so I would encourage Williams Lake to be patient as I believe you'll see the results of these decisions bear fruit very soon. Indeed, the crime stats recently released seem to confirm this

2) Improve First Nations Relations

I think all would agree that the last number of Williams Lake Councils' have worked on this topic and although mistrust between natives and non-natives is not entirely surprising, it is fair to say that we have a lot of work to do to ensure a level of trust is there, between natives and non-natives, to ensure that fruit is borne for all peoples (native and non-native) and I would expect you'll see much more work occurring on this file, not only from this Council but future Councils' as it is the right thing to do

3) Create Affordable Housing Opportunities

Council, right now, is looking at a Secondary Suite Policy and that policy is in the process of public consultation (Reminder - a public information meeting on this will take place on Wednesday, June 17th from 3 - 7pm in Williams Lake Council Chambers). With regard to Cariboo Lodge, the last discussions that took place was in March of 2009 and I think it's time to go back to seniors' and let them know what has taken place since then. If I had it my way, Cariboo Lodge would be used solely for seniors' needs, consistent with historical practices of this place. Council also needs to do look and see what it can do (lands, fees/charges) to spur along development for individuals/families who do not have the same opportunities as others to own their home

4) Develop & Implement an Arts and Culture Plan

This is one of the areas where Council has personally let me down. To call the "Service Delivery Plan" for the Central Cariboo Arts and Culture Function an "Arts and Culture Plan" is absolutely hypocrisy at its' finest. The Service Delivery Plan doesn't contain a future vision for Arts & Culture for the Central Cariboo - including where do we want to see Arts and Culture in 5, 10, 20 years? Do we want to work towards a performing arts center in Williams Lake? We all know the current facility (Glendale Elementary) where performing arts takes place is a joke and we in Williams Lake can do better? Furthermore, with the recent decision by the Central Cariboo Joint Committee to form a new "Central Cariboo Arts and Culture Society" to look after the operations of the Central Cariboo Arts and Culture Function, the public needs to see this and provide its' input prior to implementation, otherwise the Joint Committee risks being accused of:

"Do as I say but not as I do"

5) Update the City's Economic Strategy

This goal also, for whatever reason, has take a back-seat to Council's wish to develop the Arts and Culture sector, which doesn't have the same level of impact that the traditional sectors have on the local economy and for whatever reason Mayor Cook as Joint Committee Co-Chair, along with the Joint Committee co-Chair from the CRD, has not used the Joint Committee to work on economic goals for the sub-region, which is necessary to ensure that, not only the City of Williams Lake succeeds, but also the sub-region of Central Cariboo is economically successful as well

6) Support the Prosperity Mine Project

Williams Lake Council, in addition to the CRD Board, has been vocal supporters for this project. The last WL Council and CRD Board were vocal supporters for this project as well. You will see, I believe, Williams Lake Council & CRD Board to continue to support this project by various means. The Federal Environmental Assessment Review Panel is writing their report for the Federal Environment & Natural Ministers' as we speak and they are expecting to hand in their report in early July. I would encourage everyone to not only read this report but to encourage our local MP (Dick Harris) to twist the arms of both Jim Prentice (Federal Environment Minister) and Christian Paradis (Federal Natural Resources Minister) to make a quick decision on this matter

7) Develop & Implement a Road Pavement Plan

Williams Lake Council's actions on this file have been slow to date. It's now June 6th and the Road Pavement Plan was supposed to be published in early 2010 (ie - January to March 2010). In addition, with the entire length of Mackenzie Avenue being repaired, I believe many in Williams Lake want to see a overall plan to repair streets in Williams Lake, even if it occurred over a 5 to 10 year period (note - Quesnel Council just adopted such a plan over the next 3 years and there's no reason why you couldn't do the same here)

8) Develop & Implement an ICSP (Integrated Community Sustainability Plan)

This plan is part of the "Imagine our Future" project & creation of a new OCP (Official Community Plan) and has been going through the process to date with the draft ICSP ready for public review. You can find that document here. In addition, presentation on a "Land Use Plan" is set to occur sometime this month and the draft OCP is set to be presented this fall, either in September or October of this year. I encourage everyone to get to the Land Use Plan meeting or presentation of the draft OCP to provide your input, if you haven't already done so. After all, it is the community's future at stake

9) Pursue Downtown Redevelopment

Again, WL Council has had very little action on this point, other than the "Community Corner" opening and the Courthouse redevelopment. I believe what is lacking is a vision/action plan for a lively/busy downtown core and there needs to be a "meeting of the minds" with Council, the local BIA & public meeting together to create a plan to have an active downtown core with achievable goals, and not lofty, "pie in the sky" goals where they'll never get achieved

10) Complete a Service Delivery Review

According to the Goal that is laid out, this is what took place:

"Implemented restructuring of some senior management positions"

Maybe so - but from what I've seen, the number of staff people hired by the City overall has gone up and not down. In addition, a true Service Delivery Review includes all services provided by the City and look at the ones that the City shouldn't be involved in & ones where the public has not provided a clear desire for the City to be involved in

*** I'm looking forward to seeing what Williams Lake Council's 2010 Corporate Goals are. As well, we will see the City's Annual Report out in the next couple of weeks as Council must adopt this Report before June 30th, 2010 (requirement of the Community Charter - Sections 98 & 99) ***

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