Strategic Plan Progress Report

Council has received the first progress update on the city’s strategic plan, Our City, Our Future.

The City’s overarching strategy document was created to shape and direct long-term strategic decisions.

The City published the 2019 Action Plan in March 2019 and committed to reporting on achievements. The October 2019 Progress Report shows overall progress on each of the initiatives including written commentary.

There are 61 initiatives outlined in the 2019 Action Plan. To date fifty initiatives are on track for completion by the end of year or sometime in 2020.

• Of the 50 initiatives on track, 37 have completion dates in 2019 with 13 scheduled to require some work into 2020.
• Seven initiatives are completed
• Four initiatives are showing as behind

Planning has already begun for the development of the 2020 Action Plan. Items from the 2019 action plan with completion dates into 2020 will be incorporated into that plan.

The four directions - A Sustainable City, A City that Moves, A Connected City and An Effective City - are pillars, each one including goals that translate into specific strategic actions annually. While the directions are long-term, the goals are designed for the life of Council with each new Council reviewing and adjusting them to reflect emerging and changing priorities.

Actions Completed 

• We have finalized a long-term partnership agreement with the St. John’s International Airport Authority. This includes taxation, land acquisition for extension of Hebron Way and access to the City’s water distribution system.
• We have implemented new stormwater design criteria that takes into consideration climate change, ensuring our infrastructure is built with adequate capacity for anticipated increases in intensifying weather events.
• We have reduced development fees in intensification areas to stimulate growth within the City core.
• We have amended development regulations to make minimum parking requirements discretionary in the downtown.
• We have completed the Bike Master Plan to support cycling in the city.
• We acquired HIGH FIVE © quality assurance accreditation for recreation programming in St. John’s; in fact, St. John’s is the first fully accredited organization outside Ontario with this status. A celebration took place at our community centres on April 28, 2019.
• We developed and implemented a Privacy Management Policy.