Council Approves Updates to Strategic Plan

City Council has voted to approve updates to its strategic plan, Our City, Our Future. The four strategic priorities first adopted in 2019 have been reconfirmed for the next four years: Sustainable City; A City That Moves; A Connected City; and An Effective City.

“We firmly believe we are on the right path with our strategic plan, and our recent citizen satisfaction survey which showed significant support for these directions confirms that,” said Mayor Danny Breen. “The updates approved today help to strengthen the plan and provide strong direction for Council and staff.”

With our two climate change plans now complete a new goal has been added to the Sustainable City direction: to work collaboratively to create a climate-adapted and low-carbon City.

In the Effective City direction, a new goal has been added: to achieve service excellence and innovation through collaboration, and modernization, grounded in client needs.

Within the strategic direction to be a City That Moves a goal has been modified to reflect our new climate plans: to create a sustainable and accessible, low-carbon public transportation system.

For 2022, 31 new strategic initiatives have been identified, some of which have already been approved through the capital budget.

New initiatives include:

• Installing EV Charging Stations throughout the City
• Increasing opportunities for youth to engage more fully with the City through an online youth panel
• Implementing a new citizen request management system at 311. 

Also included are a number of recommendations from the public transit review, including new bus shelters and an automated onboard announcement system to improve accessibility.

“Since March 2019, 89 of 136 initiatives have been completed,” said Mayor Breen “We are proud of what our staff have accomplished, during some very difficult times to advance this plan, and we look forward to continuing to work towards achieving these important priorities for St. John’s.”

Staff report on progress quarterly, and the public can access real-time reporting on initiatives on the City’s website.