Future tense: Nunavut capital builds wish list for strategy plan

The city of Iqaluit is paying a consultant $30,000 to help facilitate workshops so the city can develop a comprehensive strategy plan that will guide future spending and programming, a plan that has been virtually absent for the past five years. (FILE PHOTO)

Following an intense weekend of deliberation between Iqaluit’s elected officials and city administrators, Mayor Madeleine Redfern says the city is well on its way to drafting its first comprehensive strategy plan in nearly five years.

“I think everyone that was at the meeting recognized that there was value, not only in the exercise, the process in which we took the workshop, but also that the plan gives us clear direction in what we’re going to attempt to do in the next few years,” Redfern told reporters Aug. 9 after a regular council meeting at Iqaluit’s City Hall.

Redfern said she expects a completed strategy plan to be drafted by this coming fall.

That strategy plan is a set of guidelines agreed upon by city council and senior staff that spells out priorities and areas of concern to be addressed over a multi-year period.

However, no such document has led city policy for nearly two election cycles.

Last May, Deputy Mayor Romeyn Stevenson told Nunatsiaq News that the city had been relying solely on its budgetary process to guide council decisions since at least 2012.

Since that time, first under mayor John Graham and later mayor Mary Wilman, the city has amassed an estimated deficit of $8.2 million, approved the construction of a $34 million aquatic centre and it’s fallen behind in upgrading its infrastructure.

Redfern said the city’s aging pipes, roads and waste management infrastructure topped the priority list during the two-day, 16-hour workshop held Aug. 6 and Aug. 7.

Councillors and staff then identified “at least 50 different types of actions.” Those actions were broken down into land, infrastructure and human resource needs for the city.

One of those needs: to improve city communications both internally and with residents, Redfern said.

To that end, rhe city will draft a new media policy and has already hired a new communications director, she confirmed.

“There’s everything from very large projects to much smaller ones but they overall are very important,” Redfern said.

“We’re already starting and that’s good news.”

One thing they didn’t talk about was the city’s money problems.

Redfern said the city’s budget was intentionally left out of the first meeting so “it didn’t hamper the discussion or brainstorming and visioning exercises” and instead focused on “priorities based on what the community needs.”

City directors were asked to estimate the costs of the proposed actions from the workshop and report back during a second phase of discussion.

Once these estimates have been completed, actions will then be prioritized based on the city’s fiscal capacity, and according to which ones the city can do themselves and those that require financial help from other levels of government.

“Some things might be able to happen internally, because we don’t have the resources,” Redfern said.

“Other projects, like closing the dump and opening a new landfill, are going to require funding from two different levels of government. Some of those things are beyond our control.”

But by ratifying a strategic plan, Iqaluit will be in a stronger position to lobby for more federal and territorial funding.

“It adds to our ability to advocate on behalf of the city [for] the resources it needs because its not just the mayor saying this without referring to a document that was done through a process which involved administration, council and ultimately was approved,” she said.

Councillors Terry Dobbin and Jason Rochon, as well as the city’s human resources director, Robyn Mackey, were not present during the first strategy planning session.

Redfern said absent councillors and staff will be brought up to speed on the weekend’s discussions and given time to present their own input at a later meeting.

“It’s important that this strategic plan is owned by everyone who has shared responsibility in implementing it,” she said.

The city is paying $14,900 to have its strategic planning session moderated by a trained facilitator, the mayor confirmed.

Iqaluit’s next city council meeting is scheduled for Aug. 23.