Council And Community Given Strategic Plan Update

The City of Moose Jaw wants to align itself with the SaskParty government’s 2020 - 2030 Growth Plan but they are not sure what that will entail as they have yet to read the document.

It was all part of the discussion surrounding a report updating Council and the community what the City has accomplished on its strategic plan. Included in the report to Council was a summary of “13 Ways” by Doug Griffiths. The City has been working on updating their strategic plan as well as carrying out a series of initiatives related to that plan.

“Like any strategic plan if we don’t plan and report what we are working on it is a document that sits on a shelf and doesn’t mean a whole bunch,” city manager Jim Puffalt said.

“We will progress the community if we follow our values and work towards that…we are finding ways to be creative and find solutions,” Puffalt said.

Puffalt said Griffiths had given a glowing report on how the City was progressing on its strategic plan.

Reading from Griffiths report Puffalt said “they are determined they are not waiting for the world to come to them but are prepared to let the world know how currently they are and how they are prepared for the future…it is a pleasure to work with such a visionary and pragmatic leadership….demonstratably the most forward thinking municipal teams on the continent.”

Puffalt said the City is working on creating a different intrenal culture of how they can help people better perform the tasks assigned to them.

“Certainly the shared sense of purpose is something we have developed with our team and we are working hard to create that culture internally,” he said, adding “it really goes back to our session ‘How can we help you?’ and that has to be our mantle as we move forward.”

“We are being seen as the place to invest in Saskatchewan.”

Puffalt went on to list the deal with Carpere as one of the accomplishments. Carpere plans to purchase approximately 780 acres of land in the Southeast Industrial Park. The land deal will see the British Columbia based Carpere Canada purchase the land for a cost of $10,000 per acre plus the establishment of a Development Levy of $49,600 per acre with the price held at this level for ten years. The sale would allow Carpere Canada to exclusively develop the Southeast Industrial Park. It has been called by Mayor Fraser Tolmie as the largest land sale in the history of Moose Jaw.

“We are close to one way or another on the Carpere deal that sounds very positive.”

Another accomplishment was concluding the deal with Canadian Tire to purchase approximately 14 acres along Thatcher Drive for a new retail development.

In the list of accomplishments was the rolling out of the new Ceridian payroll system. The system had problems with hourly City staff telling MJ Independent glitches almost had them waiting to be paid for two weeks until questions were asked.

Other upcoming accomplishments will be the new City website as well as a request for service app to better communicate with residents having service problems and track the problem until resolved. Both are due out by the end of the month.

Puffalt said the City wanted to “align ourselves with Saskatchewan’s plan going forward” the Growth Plan.

Councillor Scott McMann asked questions about the province’s Growth Plan because Council had not had time to review it but were being asked to vote for it as part of the report.

“I don’t recall discussing that at all. And I am just wondering if it is a motherhood thing we want that. I’ve never really seen the document so I guess if we are approving this certainly for subsequent Councils…I am just not sure what does that mean exactly,” Councillor McMann said.

Puffalt said Administration had not yet reviewed the document either.

“We don’t know what that means actually. We are going through the document ourselves to find out…we don’t have the conclusion on this yet. This is something the Province announced Ocober, November last year so we have to look at that and report back to Council.”

He felt it was important to review and include as the City was developing a food resources industrial park and the City should mesh their objectives together with the Province wherever they could.

At this point Councillor McMann put in an ammendment to the motion “where applicable” when it came to the provincial government’s growth plan.

“We haven’t even seen the document for us to say we are going to align with it is not necessatily right,” McMann said.

Councillor Crystal Froese said she appreciated the strategy and it was good to “have something that is achievable and not a dusty document that sat on the shelf and is something that we refer to.”

The report was received and filed in a 6 - 1 vote with McMann’s “where applicable” mmendment in relation to the Province’s growth plan. Councillor Brian Swanson who has been a vocal opponent to the strategic plan was the lone member of Council opposed.