Minden Hills council voted not to adopt the municipality’s five-year strategic plan when it met last Thursday (July 23).
The decision followed a lengthy debate, and recorded vote. Voting against adopting were: councillors Ivan Ingram, Shirely Johannessen, Tammy McKelvey, and Bob Sisson. Mayor Bob Carter, deputy mayor Lisa Schell and coun. Pam Sayne were in favour.
In presenting the five-year plan, spanning 2026-2031, CAO Cynthia Fletcher said it was built on “comprehensive community engagement” in 2024-25.
“The strategic plan sets the priority areas of focus that will guide decision-making to achieve the long-term vision for the community. The plan is intended to be future-focused or aspirational and includes a clear vision for the future of Minden Hills,” Fletcher said.
She added, “annual business and, or work plans and recommendations for resource investment will be built around the priority areas of focus and incorporate many of the ideas gathered through the engagement processes.”
The strategic planning process was led by Karen Jones Consulting Inc. and drafted after talking to council, staff, residents, local businesses, and community organizations.
She said it is centred on four key priority areas: responsible growth and community well-being; visionary leadership; quality infrastructure and service; and fiscal responsibility and sustainability. Jones added external pressures, economic vulnerability, momentum and confidence were identified as risks.
Asked to adopt the report, Johannessen said she thought a strategic plan would be more effective at the beginning of a council term.
“It sets priorities early. A newly-elected council can agree on its vision, goals, and key projects before budgets and major decisions are made,” she said. Johannessen added it provides accountability.
She thought adopting a strategic plan just months before October’s election could tie the hands of an incoming council that may have different priorities.
Fletcher said she would have liked to have had a strategic plan in place when she started with the municipality twoand-a-half years ago, but did not. She was concerned about the optics of deferring, saying a plan “had been long expected, with a lot of input from the community.”
Fletcher noted they would be reviewing the study early in the new council term, and annually, with a comprehensive review mid-term. She was further worried the new council would have a “huge” learning curve; and adopting a strategic plan “could be a bit daunting.”
McKelvey said best practice appeared to be undertaking a strategic planning process at the beginning of each council term. She wanted financial information updated as well. She was happy to accept the plan as information only, but refer it to the next council, which she hoped could adopt a plan in its first three months.
Sayne disagreed. “This is something that came from our community with a great deal of consultation, and with expertise doing the analysis and putting this together. If we talk about governance being slow, this is why governance is slow. We don’t make decisions.
“There’s some really good information and grounding information here that we can move forward with. (Staff) need some footing from us to say ‘this is where our community wants us to go’.”
Ingram responded, “I love the report. Everything in it, but I don’t think it’s our time to make the decision on this.”
Schell argued the community had input into the plan and “their seats aren’t changing come Oct. 26… The items listed are what our community wants to see. Regardless of who’s sitting here next, I would hope that they would follow the plan of what the community wants and not just go off on their own. I see this as a living document, a great roadmap for the new council to come in…” She did not see it as binding councillors.
Carter felt it was council’s responsibility to approve the plan, with the next council deciding how to execute it. He said it was something that had been worked on for years and “made no sense to push off.”
