Iqaluit City Council set to adopt new vision statement

Iqaluit City Council has approved a vision, mission and values statement that will added be later this year to their new strategy plan. (PHOTO BY STEVE DUCHARME)

The City of Iqaluit is set to adopt a new vision statement that celebrates the cultural diversity of Nunavut’s “hub” city and makes new calls for transparency and accountability, following an approved draft presented Aug. 23 to city councillors.

The document was drafted by a special committee consisting of Coun. Kuthula Matshazi; Deputy Mayor Romeyn Stevenson; the director of planning and development, Melodie Simard; and the city’s new communications officer, Andrea Spitzer.

The committee wrote the vision, mission and values statements after Mayor Madeleine Redfern, city councillors and administration met to draft the City of Iqaluit’s new strategy plan, during a special weekend workshop earlier this month.

The vision statement will preface the draft of the larger strategy plan presented to councillors Terry Dobbin and Jason Rochon — who were absent from the workshop — before city council ratifies the final plan at a later date.

A 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.

Coun. Dobbin, citing a previous strategy plan from 2004, called on council to adopt an action plan to ensure the city’s new mandates will be enforced.

“I find a lot of these feasibility studies, strategic planning, whatever you choose to call them, often get shelved and that’s where I’m really pessimistic in regards to these plans… there’s never that step forward to an action,” Dobbin said.

Redfern stressed that the strategy plan “will become part of this council’s agenda”, as well as part of every city director’s work plan.

“We very much recognized that this cannot be shelved and this is actually one of the action items that was identified as a priority,” Redfern responded, adding that city staff will meet again within two weeks time for another workshop finalizing the strategy plan.

The city’s value statement promises it will be “keeping score” of results and will build policy based on outcomes and, admittedly, some mistakes.

Redfern sought amending the “keeping score” line of the value statement, changing it to “celebrating our successes and learning from our mistakes,” but that amendment was ultimately dropped.

“I think that in some values or statements I’ve seen, if it is only celebrating successes and yet we have to acknowledge that we are going to have failures and we learn from those and ideally, they become successes,” Redfern explained.

The city also recognized the cultural values of Iqalungmiut, with the document stating “we embrace Inuit culture and traditions, and honour the diversity of our citizens.”

Coun. Joanasie Akumalik told council he hoped those statement are inclusive to new backgrounds and cultures relocating to Iqaluit.

“We certainly struggled with the idea to talk about, obviously the importance of the Inuit culture to our municipal government, but also acknowledging we have so many other cultures in this city. It’s becoming quite a diverse city,” Stevenson explained.

“That last clause of that sentence was to acknowledge that, not only do we have Inuit culture, which is important to us and stands alone, but that we also have another diverse population that needs to be acknowledges as well and respected.”

The City of Iqaluit, which has not had a functioning strategy plan since 2012, has amassed an estimated deficit of $8.2 million, approved the construction of a $34 million aquatic centre and has fallen behind in upgrading its infrastructure.

The document, as well as the larger strategy plan, will remain a work in progress — and not publically released— until the final document is presented at a later city council meeting.

Below is the draft Vision, Mission and Values Statement that council passed Aug. 24:

Vision

Iqaluit will be an inspirational arctic leader, grounded in the culture of our people, where knowledge and investment are encouraged, and families grow strong and healthy.

Mission

To provide services to citizens that promote a healthy, safe, economically vibrant and culturally rich city.

Values

Service Based — We deliver high standards of programs and services to our citizens.

Culturally Oriented — We embrace Inuit culture and traditions, and honour the diversity of our citizens.

Leadership — We motivate and inspire by demonstrating qualities that foster effective decision-making and promote success at all levels.

Respect — We treat each other and those we serve with courtesy, consideration, and fairness.

Integrity — We are honest, trustworthy and transparent.

Accountability — We take ownership of our decisions and responsibilities.

Result-Driven — We will create an organizational culture, built on outcomes and “keeping score” of our results.

Environmental Stewardship — We respect and care for the land, animals and the environment.