Praxis Consulting Ltd. has won the contract to help the Board of Police Commissioners and Moose Jaw Police Service (MJPS) create a new five-year strategic plan to guide the organizations.
During its Sept. 15 meeting, the board voted unanimously to engage the consulting firm for $15,000. The board’s goal is to start the process in a few weeks and complete the new plan by Dec. 1.
The police service — on behalf of the board — issued a request for proposals over the summer, looking for a company to help develop a new strategic management plan during the next half-decade. After receiving several proposals in August, the selection committee — composed of the MJPS’s executive management and several board members — reviewed the submissions.
“The police service and the board have been wanting to get a strategic plan in place to update our current one, and we’ve been in discussions for quite some time,” police Chief Rick Bourassa said during the meeting.
The project is already behind schedule because Praxis was ready to start the planning sessions immediately, but the board had to officially approve the selection at its September meeting, he added. However, the intent is to complete the project before January.
“I was under the understanding that we were going to start sooner, just because we had discussed at the committee level for that reason because we wanted to start fairly quickly about doing an email motion, which I then said would be ratified here, which is why we’re here,” said board chair Commissioner Dawn Luhning, who sat on the selection committee.
“But that’s fine. Another week — five business days — isn’t going to make that big of a difference.”
“I’m very pleased with it (the selection of Praxis) because it’s the one I would have picked,” said Commissioner Mary Lee Booth, who was not on the selection committee.
The MJPS’s management team is consulting with Praxis about the day and a time when phase 1 of the planning can commence, said Deputy Chief Rick Johns. Once a day is finalized, the team will inform the board and other police service managers.
This will be a “robust and broad process” that will include consultations, environmental scans around diversity, inclusion and equity information, surveys, choices on how to proceed and then an analysis, Bourassa told the board.
Praxis and the committee will review the previous strategic plan from 2019 and consult with the community and partner agencies about possible priorities for the new document.
“There will some public discussion that will go out from the company as they start working on the consultation pieces. And we will participate in obtaining proper space for that … ,” said Bourassa. “They’ve laid out a very detailed process principles that they’ll be following.”
He added that the committee would be able to choose how deep and broad those community engagements go.
The next Board of Police Commissioners’ meeting is Wednesday, Oct. 19, at 2 p.m. at the Cultural Centre.
