Committee of the Whole Receives Strategic Plan Update

At the Committee of the Whole meeting today, Council received the 2020 Annual Report on the City’s 10-year strategic plan, Our City Our Future.

While the organization was challenged in 2020 by both severe winter weather and the COVID-19 pandemic, actions on strategic priorities continued. In total, 26 initiatives were completed in 2020; 17 initiatives are currently reporting “on track;” five are showing as “behind;” and 29 are listed as “overdue.”

“We are pleased to see staff continue to focus on achieving our strategic priorities, despite the challenges experienced in the last year,” said Mayor Danny Breen, Council lead for Governance and Strategic Priorities. “These initiatives help move our organization forward towards achieving our vision of St. John’s as a progressive city, shaped by its geography and history, where people want to live and feel they belong.”

The annual report also includes details on the projects underway to improve organizational efficiency. Continuous improvement (CI) projects aim to improve turnaround times, achieve cost, or time savings and add value for City residents and businesses.
 
“While most projects have been impacted in some way by the current public health situation, we are pleased to see that project leads have made the transition to virtual or successfully modified their implementation plans,” said Mayor Breen. “Training continues, and with new yellow-belt certified staff we are pleased to see 15 new projects underway or completed.” Detailed updates for each CI project are included in the annual report.

For 2021, 23 new strategic initiatives have been identified. These range from construction and housing projects to internal efforts to continue to improve efficiency and effectiveness in programming and service delivery.

As part of the accountability around the plan, a public dashboard was launched early in 2020 and quarterly reporting is provided to Council on the plan’s progress.

2021 is also a year for review of the strategic plan’s Directions:  A Sustainable City, A City that Moves, A Connected City, and An Effective City. These were validated through the recent Citizen Satisfaction Survey and - through both public and internal consultation - will be reviewed this year with recommendations brought to Council in Fall 2021.