City administration wants to connect its strategic plan for Moose Jaw with the provincial government’s 10-year Growth Plan — particularly on agricultural issues — but has not actually finished reading the provincial document.
Agriculture, diversification and innovation is one category within the City of Moose Jaw strategic plan. An updated version was presented during city council’s Jan. 13 regular meeting. Council voted 6-1 to receive and file the report; Coun. Brian Swanson was opposed.
Under that category, several projects were listed:
- Creating a concept plan for the Southeast Industrial Park (finished)
- Completing the development and service agreement with SaskPower (finished)
- Completing the Canadian Tire agreement (finished)
- Finalizing the Carpere Canada land sale agreement (in progress)
- Having funding in place in the 2020 budget to support trade missions
- Aligning with Saskatchewan’s Growth Plan 2020-30
“I don’t recall ever discussing (aligning with the province’s growth plan),” Coun. Scott McMann said. He had not yet seen the Growth Plan document, so he wondered what agricultural diversification meant when council was being asked to approve an updated municipal strategic plan.
“We don’t know what that means either,” said city manager Jim Puffalt, adding city administration is going through the document and will report back to council upon conclusion of its review.
The provincial government released its Growth Plan 2020-30 in November.
City administration wants to align with the document, but since it’s a 10-year plan, it doesn’t want the document to fall off the objectives list in the coming years, Puffalt continued. Administration will determine what the province is attempting to accomplish and how it can support the plan, especially with agricultural processing, since there will be food produced in the industrial park.
“I think a lot of the work we are doing is going to match. We need to make sure we look at what they’re proposing, how it fits together and, if there’s something different, we get back in front of council one way or the other … ,” he added.
McMann suggested adding the phrase “where applicable” when responding to the Growth Plan in the municipality’s strategic plan. He added that since council has not seen the province’s document, it’s not correct to say Moose Jaw is aligned with it.
Coun. Crystal Froese appreciated having the strategic plan to guide city hall’s actions.
The idea behind such a document, she said, was to have something with concrete, tangible actions that would not gather dust on a shelf. Since its creation, the plan has empowered municipal staff, modernized departments in city hall and built a better internal culture.
“I think we are accomplishing that and doing things in the community to make lives better for residents” she added.
Included with the strategic plan was a summary of a meeting city council and city administration held last November with author and motivational speaker Doug Griffiths, who spent the day reviewing the plan and identifying initiatives.
“The City of Moose Jaw administration and council have determined they are not waiting for the world to come to them, but are going to let the world know how wonderful they currently are and how they are preparing for the future,” Griffiths wrote in the report. “The council and administration regularly review the opportunities sitting in their line of sight and ones that are just around the corner.
“It is a pleasure to work with such visionary and pragmatic leadership, and we welcome any opportunity in the future to work with what is demonstrably one of the most forward-thinking and solution-focused municipal teams on the continent.”
The next regular council meeting is Monday, Jan. 27.
