FILLING IN DETAILS NEXT STAGE FOR CITY PRIORITY PROCESS

At the last council meeting, the overall directions from the Strategic Planning Process initiated by the Mayor were approved. Now the process to fill in the details about how those directions will be implemented begins.

City staff have been instructed to prepare a draft Corporate Plan for the period up until 2010 based on the directions from the Strategic Planning Staff. When the Long Range Financial Plan Subcommittee prepares the framework for the 2008 City budget, the directions from the Strategic Planning Process are to be a guide.

The Strategic Planning Process was started at the request of Mayor Larry O’Brien. He said he wanted a chance to discuss some of the ideas he felt would make City operations more efficient and avoid the choice between cutting services or increasing taxes. I have consistently supported efficiencies in how the City is run and felt strongly that he should be given a chance. As the direction to, “achieve efficiencies in City operations” is fleshed out the Mayor should be able to provide details on his ideas for achieving greater efficiencies. 

MAKING SURE THE COST OF GROWTH IS NOT IGNORED

There were a number of changes made to the draft Strategic Planning Process directions. The only addition to the proposals for sustainable finances was a motion I put forward dealing with the cost of growth. My motion instructed staff to ensure that information on the financial impact to the city of growth in urban, suburban and rural areas was provided as part of the review of the Official Plan.

While decisions around where growth will take place are not part of the budget process, they have a huge impact on City finances. In addition to the cost of new infrastructure required by growth, how growth takes place also affects the annual cost of city services like garbage collection or snow removal. Having information on how decisions on the Official Plan will affect the budget will make it easier to push for planning decisions that control the cost of growth.

KANATA PRIORITIES IN THE STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS DIRECTIONS

For Kanata residents, making sure new communities get the infrastructure and services they need is a priority. This is addressed in the Strategic Planning Process directions with directions dealing with having city infrastructure in place as growth occurs and dealing with the backlog on work needed to make our roads safer.

The one section of the transitway that is still to be built is the Western Transitway which will serve Kanata. As the transitway is designed to be converted to light rail, completing the Western Transitway is important no matter what other decisions are made on rapid transit. Completing the transitway is one of the Strategic Planning Process directions.

BRIDLEWOOD COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION SURVEY ON STONEHAVEN

WORKING FULL-TIME FOR KANATA SOUTH

I appreciate the chance to hear from you about issues affecting our community. You can reach me at 613-580-2752 (office), 613-580-2762 (fax), or peggy.feltmate@ottawa.ca