County approves approach to ‘refresh’ strategic plan

GUELPH – County council has agreed on an approach for refreshing the county’s strategic plan.

During the previous term of council, a strategic action plan entitled Future Focused. People Invested was developed.

The 2019 process involved council and staff participating in interviews and two working sessions, involving both strategic listening and strategic planning exercises, led by an external consultant at the Hillsburgh Library.

“With the advent of a new council elected in October 2022, a process for refreshing the current county strategic action plan for 2023-26 is being proposed,” states a staff report from county clerk Jennifer Adams.

The report proposes an approach building from the 2019 plan.

An invitational competitive bid process will be used to select consultants to assist with the process.

To assist with public engagement, the proposal calls for a customer satisfaction survey of municipal services to be conducted by a professional public opinion firm.

Administration finance and human resources (AFHR) committee chair councillor Chris White said the idea of the refresh is to “take a look at where we are, what we’re doing, what successes we’ve had.” 

At the Feb. 21 meeting, council approved the AFHR committee’s recommendation that the report be received for information, and the proposed approach be endorsed, with a budget of $100,000 to be funded through general capital reserves and that consultants be selected in accordance with the county’s purchasing policy. 

Strategic planning sessions are scheduled to be held before June 29 and the public survey results received by May 1.

Reporter