HomeMy WebLinkAboutCAO-07-020 - Plan for Healthy Kitchener (2007-2027) - Implementation Update & Compass Kit Workplan 2007~~
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Report To: Mayor Zehr and Members of Council
Date of Meeting: April 30, 2007
Submitted By: Shelley Adams, Director, Community and Corporate Planning
Ext. 2476
Prepared By: Shelley Adams, Director, Community and Corporate Planning
Ext. 2476
Ward(s) Involved: All
Date of Report: April 19, 2007
Report No.: CAO-07-020
Subject: Plan for a Healthy Kitchener (2007-2027}: Implementation
Update and Compass Kitchener Workplan 2007
RECOMMENDATION:
For information only.
BACKGROUND:
In October 2006, Council received and adopted "A Plan for a Healthy Kitchener, 2007-2027"
(P4HK} as the community's vision for twenty years into the future. P4HK provided a unified
strategic approach to key areas essential to the health and vitality of the City of Kitchener. It
articulated priorities identified in consultation with the community -quality of life, leadership and
community engagement, diversity, downtown, development, and the environment. And it
provided high level recommendations for action in each of these areas to be completed over the
next 4 years, 2007-2010, the term of the current Mayor and Council.
Upon accepting Compass Kitchener's plan, Council requested that staff return in the spring of
2007 with an implementation strategy. This report and the attached Compass Kitchener
Workplan 2007-2008 serve to fulfill that request.
REPORT:
The support for and reach of a Plan for a Healthy Kitchener across the Corporation of the City of
Kitchener and into the community is remarkable, albeit expected, to a certain extent. Simply,
P4HK provides both a mirror and an umbrella for the City's strategic priorities and activities. It
resolutely secures itself in the vision of the community, builds upon the plans, processes,
programs and projects already developed and/or underway, and aims to extend the reach of
community goals and objectives into future City initiatives and actions. Nonetheless, the
extent to which the priorities and concepts are seen to be informing the work of the corporation
-across the corporation - is noteworthy.
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In addition, Compass Kitchener assumed responsibility for P4HK recommendations that align
with its mandate and is a participant or partner on other initiatives in response to or growing out
of community's strategic plan. Each of theses areas of activity are briefly considered below.
1. The Corporate Response to a Plan for a Healthy Kitchener
The adoption and assimilation of community vision, values, priorities and recommendations into
day-to-day business practises has been rapid and far-reaching. Specifically:
2007-2010 Shared Agenda and City of Kitchener Strategic Planning Process
P4HK's 6 strategic priorities and an additional 7t" priority area (Effective and Efficient
Government}, provide the framework for the organization of the City's Shared Agenda for the
current term of Council and, by extension, corporate departmental business plans. Once
completed, the departmental business plans will be rolled up and comprise a single City of
Kitchener Strategic Plan. In a subsequent step, the Strategic Plan overview and the
Departmental Business Plans will form the 4 year summary level budget document of the future.
This marriage of strategy and initiative securely positions the organization for the realization of
P4HK goals and recommendations.
Compass Kitchener is pleased to note that the priority activities detailed in the Shared Agenda
are clearly reflective of community goals and objectives. The following current initiatives, albeit
at different stages of development and/or implementation, serve as examples among many too
numerous to detail in this summary document:
1. CulturePlan ll, in its bid to name Kitchener a Cultural Capital in 2009 and the potential for
capacity building community at the community level, in neighbourhoods and in the
downtown core.
2. A Community Investment Strategy that ensures City grant-making reflects in large measure
the priorities of the community as well as the current funding environment.
3. A Corporate Diversity Strategy that will continue to build corporate access, equity and
inclusion "at home" through staff training, communications in different languages and
formats, and community outreach for the purposes of staff attraction, recruitment and
retention, to name only a few of many activities.
4. New Urban Design and Neighbourhood Design Guidelines were developed through
extensive community consultation, incorporating healthy community constructs as guiding
principles, and endeavour to facilitate the attainment of community priorities in their
implementation.
5. Allocation of funds for the development of amade-in-Kitchener Transportation Demand
Management Strategy, including an assessment of opportunities for shared services and
strategies with other orders of government.
2. Special Council Initiative: City of Kitchener's Locai Environment Action Fund
(LEAF)
Through Who-are-you-Kitchener? (2006} process, the community affirmed what Council had
been hearing for a while: environmental health and sustainability remains a top priority for
citizens. Accordingly, and in addition to the many environmentally focused initiatives found in
the Shared Agenda (as identified by the Corporation and through the work of the City's
Environmental Committee}, and the diversity of environmentally focused work already well in
CAO-06-020
hand, City Council established a 5 million dollar catalyst fund to support local environmental
priorities and potentially leverage partnerships on development and conservation initiatives with
other orders of government and community stakeholders. In addition, Council has committed
to public participation in the determination of criteria for the use of the fund, and, in so doing,
capitalize upon the community's appetite for increased and substantive opportunities for
engagement in municipal decision making.
3. Community Engagement Efforts on Key Issues
(i) Growth Management
Planning staff have developed an education and engagement process to introduce growth
management to residents, raise awareness about potential impacts and opportunities that
expected growth may bring, and provide a forum for input and participation in crafting our
future. The first phase is currently underway and includes amulti-media distribution of
information through the City's Internet page and a series of open houses, and opportunity for
input through a workbook and at the open houses.
Growth management is understood as a complex undertaking that will require the input,
collaboration and coordinated efforts of several city departments, along with projects lead by
the Region, the Province, the GRCA and the School Boards. It also demands input from
several stakeholder groups and the community at large. As such, the subsequent phases}
of growth management will be advanced in consultation with a Growth Management Task
Force, comprised of representation from all stakeholder groups.
Clearly, Kitchener residents expect a balanced approach to the management of what is
predicted to be rapid and substantial growth in our area. The Growth Management Task
Force will engage citizens with staff and other stakeholders in a process to ensure broad
input, balanced Greenfield development and re-urbanization and the prioritization of
Greenfield alternatives, in line with a vision for a healthy Kitchener.
(ii) Community Engagement on a Financial Strategy
Through December 2006 and January 2007, the City reached out to residents through Your
Kitchener, the City's website, and two public meetings in an effort raise awareness with
respect to the 2007 budget and encourage feedback on identified issues and priority areas
for spending. Despite this multi-faceted approach to engagement, the response rate was
extremely low. In general, those providing input placed clear priority on transportation
demand management and air quality. Moreover, complementing the findings of WAYK,
residents support a balanced approach to the funding of new priorities through a
combination of increased non-tax revenues, increased revenues and offsetting expenditure
reductions.
The 2007 operating budget consultation, despite some challenges, has increased citizen
awareness of City finances, provided feedback that informed Council's budget deliberation,
and increased the City's administration understanding of approaches to effective
consultation on financial matters. The experience is extremely valuable in guiding future
efforts in this regard.
In an effort to educate ourselves and partners about various approaches and opportunities
for citizen inclusion in financial decision-making at the municipal level, Compass Kitchener
and volunteers and staff, with Dan Chapman in Finance, are organizing a workshop on
Participatory Budgeting with Guelph University's Professor Daniel Schugensky and City of
Guelph employee Josh Lerner. The City of Guelph has worked with the University in
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bringing a model from Latin America into a Canadian context, and into an urban
neighbourhood. Council and others will be invited to attend and will learn more as plans are
finalized.
4. 2007-2008 Compass Kitchener Workplan
In addition to the efforts outlined above, Compass Kitchener is moving forward on specific P4HK
recommendations that are in line with its terms of reference. Within its current mandate, the
following priorities have been identified and form the 2007-2008 workplan (as attached}.
(i) Annual and Term-by-Term Progress Reports
One of the recommendations in the Plan for a Healthy Kitchener was to provide annual and
term-by-term status reports to Council and citizens to benchmark progress on priorities,
community health and well-being. An Indicators Working Group has been formed, made up
of 4 Compass Kitchener members and the City's performance measurement specialist,
Corina Tasker. They are currently developing metrics to measure the health of the City
which will be structured along the 6 themes laid out in the P4HK.
This dovetails nicely with the City of Kitchener's Strategic Plan which is also organized into
the same 6 priority themes plus one additional theme for Effective and Efficient
Government. As part of the Business Planning process, each Department will also be
developing metrics to measure their accomplishment of the Strategic Plan initiatives aligned
to community and corporate priorities.
The end product will be a comprehensive report card to citizens and Council which
measures the health and well-being of the City on a term-by-term and annual basis. It will
contain metrics created by both the Compass Kitchener working group and the City's
Departments and will provide status updates on the various initiatives that support the City's
strategic plan. The Indicators working Group has the support of Corporate
Communications in developing its plans for broad dissemination of information.
(ii) Community Engagement Policy and Strategy
As confirmed through both Environics and Who-are-you, Kitchener?, citizens appreciate and
expect numerous, diverse opportunities for engagement in municipal decision-making.
While the City enjoys a relatively strong history of public engagement, that such is the case
precariously relies upon an informal policy expectation that is inconsistently applied across
processes, projects, departments and so on. Moreover, the practices generally employed
appeal to certain segments of our community who are comfortable with participating through
"usual" avenues; town hall meeting, focus groups, issue specific (and usually negatively
focused} meetings, appearing before Council and Committees as a delegation, and so on.
The broad goals for this initiative include; formalizing engagement policies and procedures,
ensuring staff and volunteers have the tools to translate policy into practice, and ensuring
we have enough different tools so that civic engagement options and processes appeal to
all segments of our community.
(iii) Advisory Committee Review
Compass Kitchener has chosen as a priority activity which is strongly supported by Council,
the review of City Advisory Committees in its current workplan, to ensure Council has the
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benefit of its findings in advance of the 2009-2010 appointment process. Specifically, the
initiative will review and make recommendations regarding; alignment of the City's Advisory
Committees to support the community's priorities, recruitment and appointment processes,
advisory committees' structure and mandate, representativeness, term of appointment, and
other pertinent issues that arise as a function of the review. Compass Kitchener has had
initial discussions with Corporate Services regarding this initiative and will work closely with
that department through the review. Corporate Services staff will sit at the Advisory
Committee Review table.
5. Compass Kitchener as a Partner
Finally, Compass K is participating as a partner in two further priority initiatives:
(i) Creating a Culture of Safety for Kitchener
P4HK articulates two clear and actionable recommendations specific to underscoring a
culture of safety across the City. Specifically, addressing perceptions of safety in the
downtown core and creating acity-wide culture of safety through capacity building and
social development in neighbourhoods. Staff are moving forward on initiatives specific to
the downtown core, through the internal Downtown Leadership Group (cross function
operating team}, and as active members of the Kitchener Downtown Community
Collaborative. More recently, the Office of the Mayor and Council hosted a meeting of
police, the Kitchener Downtown Business Association and City staff (bylaw, downtown and
community planning} regarding current bylaw and enforcement issues and potential
strategies to address them. All of this, at the same time as the City's Safe and Healthy
Advisory Committee considered and drafted its new workplan for their term of appointment.
Clearly -there was concerted focus and shared concern regarding community safety and
crime prevention in the City. And there was an opportunity to move forward together in
addressing it.
As such, and in partnership, the Mayor and Council, the City's Safe and Healthy Advisory
Committee, and the CAO's Office, Compass Kitchener will co-host a large scale, multi-
stakeholder community forum. Plans are in the early stages, however we are hopeful that
the forum will occur in early summer, 2007. The desired result; a 4-year, multi-sectoral
action strategy focused on community safety and crime prevention for the City of Kitchener.
(ii) Community Access, Equity and Inclusion Strategy
Continuing in its efforts to advance goals in the area of access, equity and inclusion of all
residents, Compass Kitchener and Safe and Healthy Advisory Committee will provide
support and direction to the development of a community diversity strategy that will include
the development of policy and strategic direction for the corporation. Our shared interest is
in working with the community to describe and remove barriers to full participation
experience by those who find themselves marginalized due to "differences" -language,
gender, religion, sexuality and other characteristics found in the human rights code.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS:
There are no financial implications beyond budget at this time for Compass Kitchener's
continued efforts in monitoring P4HK and implementing its components therein. Resources
(people and financial} are available through existing operating budgets. Funds ($15,000} to
support costs associated with planning and capacity building in the development of access,
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equity and inclusion strategy and policies at the community level were approved as part of the
2007 Budget.
COMMUNICATIONS:
Communications is both an "objective" and a process tool fundamental to developing a "healthy
community" infrastructure and to realizing the goals and objectives of a Plan for a Healthy
Kitchener (2007-2027}. Accordingly:
• Corporate Communications and Marketing sits at the Compass Kitchener table, provides
advice on outreach strategy, and is directly involved in producing and disseminating
information to the public at key junctures in our workplan.
• Communication and -where appropriate -collaboration between City advisory committees
is very important to the success of P4HK. The first of 2 proposed annual all committee
meetings was held in February 2007 and a second is tentatively planned for September of
this year.
• Staff are working to ensure internal communications are clear, regular and robust. As a
start, quarterly update meetings with staff from across the operating divisions will be held,
starting in early May.
• And finally, Compass Kitchener volunteers and staff endeavour to present P4HK, our
progress to date, and future directions to external groups (i.e., service clubs, conferences,
boards and committees external to the corporation} as often as is possible and requested.
CONCLUSION:
Compass Kitchener is extremely pleased to see the extent to which the community's priories, as
articulated in P4HK, have provided the framework for Council's Shared Agenda, have been
assimilated into the guiding principles of policy and program development, and in short order,
informed the initiatives and activities across the corporation. We anticipate that our first "annual
report card", anticipated for Council's review in February 2008, will show tangible progress and
provide direction next steps and beyond.
Carla Ladd Shelley Adams, Director
Chief Administrative Officer Community and Corporate Planning
CAO-06-020
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