It has been many months in the making, but at their September 11 meeting, Meaford’s council opted to wait a little longer before they approve the adoption of their strategic priorities for this term of council, in order to ensure that the entire package of priority charters is complete before approval. Council is waiting for the completion of the TC Energy-related priority charter, which staff told council they expect to complete in the coming weeks.
“I just want to say how much I appreciate the work that’s gone into getting our strategic priorities this far, it’s been a great effort on behalf of staff and council, and I really am proud of the way that this has come together,” Deputy Mayor Shirley Keaveney told council at the beginning of discussion of the agenda item. “I would like to suggest that there is one missing. We did agree at our last session to add a charter related to TC Energy, considering that it will require a great deal of staff time, and council time going forward, and staff had not had a chance to complete that charter at this point in time. So to me it seems very appropriate that we adopt these priorities as one package, so I would suggest that this be deferred until we have that TC Energy charter, so that as I say, this can be a complete set of council priorities that we adopt all at once.”
Keaveney’s motion to defer found the support of the remainder of council, who voted to defer the adoption of the strategic priorities until the TC Energy charter has been completed.
Members of council have participated in four special meetings held from January through July, in order to develop the strategic priorities for this term of council.
“Each of the special meetings took the form of a collaborative working sessions to identify projects that could be clearly defined, have a demonstrable outcome, and have benefit to the wider community. Based on Council direction, staff developed project charters for each of the projects identified, which Council then edited at the final working session,” staff noted in their report to council.
As presented to council at their September 11 meeting, the strategic priorities package includes 15 project charters that fall under four primary categories: Ensuring Sustainability, Growing our Economy, Investing in Infrastructure, and Strengthening our Community.
The project charters, which will help to solidify council’s focus for the duration of their term are as follows:
Ensuring Sustainability:
Climate Change Mitigation and Resiliency
Municipal Environmental Regulation for Development Projects
Municipal Tree Inventory
Electric Vehicle Chargers
Growing our Economy:
Short Term Accommodation Licencing
Investing in Infrastructure:
Water and Wastewater Master Plan Update
Expansion of Wastewater Treatment Plant
Water and Wastewater Rates Study
Rural Telecommunications Conduit Framework
Long Term Facility Portfolio
Strengthening our Community:
Downtown Public Realm Plan
Re-establish Market Square
Community Well-being Initiatives
Parks Portfolio Management
Municipal Housing Affordability Measures
Staff advised council that the final project charter related to TC Energy and its hydro-electric pumped storage proposal will be completed and ready for council’s consideration in October.
