City hall is patting itself on the back for all it has accomplished during the past couple of years while implementing the City of Moose Jaw’s strategic plan.
“The team at the City of Moose Jaw, council, administration and staff continues to excel, and this major progress would not be possible without everyone working together to meet our shared sense of purpose,” city manager Jim Puffalt said during the April 25 regular council meeting. “We also thank our partner agencies who provide invaluable assistance.”
Based on guidance from futurist Doug Griffiths, who wrote “13 Ways to Kill Your Community,” the municipality has moved away from a traditional vision and mission statement, Puffalt noted. This is because every community wants to be a “progressive and sustainable community of choice” for people, while also being a “wonderful, friendly place to work and raise a family.”
Plan achievements
Since a March 3, 2021 meeting with Griffiths, the municipality has implemented several new strategic initiatives, the city manager continued. These include:
- A climate action plan
- A downtown enhancement plan to better highlight heritage and history
- Marketing Moose Jaw more effectively
- Creating more promotional videos and using analytics to understand their reach
- Creating meeting spaces and offices downtown to rent by the day, week, month or year
- Developing a list of companies that fit the vision of agri-food processing and proactively encouraging them to come to Moose Jaw
Other highlights were:
- Hiring an economic development co-ordinator
- Securing the fifth-highest year for building permits
- Generating nearly $1 billion in investments over the past four years
- Making progress toward upgrading an internal software program
- Saving more than $1 million annually and generating over $1 million in revenues, with the savings being re-invested into cast iron replacement work
- Implementing a solar panel project
- Identifying more than 100 projects or actions under the entrepreneurial civic administration category
City hall plans to engage in a branding exercise in August with Gair Maxwell, who helped the municipality determine its “Notorious” brand last year, Puffalt said. Meanwhile, the next strategic plan meeting will be in 2023.
The strategic plan’s seven main objectives and actions include branding, agriculture, diversification and innovation, entrepreneurial civic administration, core amenities and services, regional collaboration, transportation and infrastructure, and people and culture.
Each category provides a list of projects that have been completed and ones still ongoing.
Council discussion
“… this is even more timely as we look at our strategic plan and assess our values and get an update on where we are. One thing I really appreciate about our strategic plan and how our council and mayor have worked on this is this is filled with action items,” said Coun. Crystal Froese.
“(There are) measurable ways to be accountable to our stakeholders and citizens we serve. And you can’t encapsulate everything we’ve done in the past four years in a single document.”
Two initiatives that Froese appreciated were the city’s focus on truth and reconciliation and its cultural diversity strategy. She felt that both speak to the fabric of the community and diversity and inclusion projects on which council is working.
“Supporting the disenfranchised, but also looking at ways to benefit all the residents in our city in a very inclusive, open and strategic way. I think that is to be noted,” she added. “Just as we have Ukrainian flags that are represented around council tonight in support of those in our community, we raise flags to support other citizens in our community.”
Coun. Kim Robinson acknowledged that the list of achievements was inspiring, especially since he thought city administration had to handle the COVID-19 pandemic during the past two years as well.
“This list is very comprehensive and impressive as well,” he added. “It takes a whole team approach to accomplish this sort of thing.”
The next regular council meeting is Monday, May 9.
