Six months in and no strategic plan guiding Nunavut’s capital

Iqaluit city council are struggling to overcome a few derailments from their first six months in office. Deputy Mayor Romeyn Stevenson said that’s just part of being in public office. (FILE PHOTO)

(Updated May 16, 8:40 a.m.)

More than six months into its three-year term, Iqaluit’s city council is still struggling to draft an overarching strategic plan: a critical document guiding policy through its elected term.

Deputy mayor Romeyn Stevenson confirmed to Nunatsiaq News that city councillors recently agreed to schedule a strategy plan goal consultation, but the date for that meeting is a moving target and they are still far from drafting a document.

On May 11, Iqaluit mayor Madeleine Redfern informed council that administrators are currently trying to get a facilitator for that meeting.

So what does that say about the City of Iqaluit’s ability to govern in a planned and predictable way?

Stevenson says council “absolutely needs a strategy plan” but, for the time being, it isn’t directionless.

“Its not like we’re on an unguided ship right now,” Stevenson says.

A strategy plan is a set of guidelines agreed upon by city council and administration highlighting priorities and areas of concern to be addressed over a multi-year period.

A common practice across all levels of government, the city refers to its strategic plan for guidance as it drafts legislation and addresses issues outlined by an agreed-upon list of priorities — such as reducing a deficit, improving infrastructure or approving big ticket spending items.

But the City of Iqaluit has not had a strategy plan of any kind since 2012.

Since 2012, the city has amassed an estimated deficit of $8.2 million, approved the construction of the $34 million dollar aquatic centre — despite protests from some that the city can’t afford it — and has fallen behind in repairing aging infrastructure.

In October last year, when Redfern was running for the mayor’s job, she said a strategic plan was critical to the long-term success of the new council and future of the city.

“The challenge, of course, is without that type of strategy or commitment to work together in place — and not only for the short term but the long term — we’ve seen that there are projects that are being funded but not necessarily with any appreciation to being much more strategic about it,” she said in a Nunatsiaq News story last October.

We tried to ask Redfern, now the mayor, to explain the delays and get an update on the process but she declined, instead referring interview requests to the deputy mayor.

We tried to talk to the Muhamud Hassan, the city’s chief executive officer, but he also declined to be interviewed.

Redfern explained later, in an email to the editor, why she declined to be interviewed.

“When I referred the last interview request it was explained — that due to my absence [on vacation] and lack of briefing, I simply did not know where things stood… I thought Steve should speak to Romeyn [Stevenson] rather than subjected to further delays in waiting for me to be briefed or available,” her email said.

Stevenson said the city’s “very intensive” budgeting process, developed early in council’s tenure, helps steer the city’s priorities in the short term.

That “budgeting process” template was used in Iqaluit’s previous city council, headed by former mayor Mary Wilman from 2012 to 2015. It didn’t work out so well.

Several high-interest loans borrowed in that period by administration to correct budgeting shortfalls did serious damage to the city’s line of credit.

Hassan, Iqaluit’s CAO, gave the grim news to city council during their first council meetings last year.

“If we went to any financial institution right now, they would just look at us and laugh,” Hassan said Nov. 24.

“I feel like [a strategy plan] really would have helped the last council if we had one,” said Stevenson, who also served as deputy mayor under mayor Wilman.

So what’s happening with this so-called strategic plan to help guide Nunavut’s capital into the black? That’s unclear.

Several city councillors confirmed to Nunatsiaq News that drafting the plan has been confusing, partly because of misunderstanding between councillors and city staff.

Consider that a drafted strategy plan, presented by the CAO in March and obtained by Nunatsiaq News, was drafted without consultation from councillors.

But that plan was meant to be a “template” to guide councillors, explained Stevenson.

The so-called “template’s” internal release confused many councillors, since it read as though it were a done deal.

“The strategic plan is a collaboration of the city council, city staff and community to create a shared mission, values and strategic priorities,” read a letter from the CAO to the mayor and council, in the strategic plan template.

“…I would like to thank city council and staff for having the foresight and dedication required to develop a shared purpose and plan to achieve significant and sustainable success for the City of Iqaluit,” the letter continued.

“By no means was it created to be the strategy plan of the city, it’s just a template to facilitate those discussions when [councillors] come in the meeting,” Stevenson explained. “It’s my understanding that everyone is on the same page now.”

In a later email, Redfern also said that document was never intended to serve as the final strategy plan.

“The *draft* not a *completed* strategy plan was given to councillors with explanation that it was open to changes and suggestions. This was immediately clarified the same day,” her email said.

Coun. Kuthula Matshazi recently weighed in on the subject.

“The expectations, what we’re expecting how the process would unfold, I didn’t think we communicated very well between administration and staff,” Matshazi said.

“There was a difference in expectation, what council was expecting from administration — because administration then went ahead and developed the template for us.”

That being said, Matshazi says administrators and council are “on the same page now,” concerning the strategic plan.

But the incident appears to be indicative of a disconnect between those hired to run the city’s day-to-day operations and those elected to govern.

That much was apparent in April, when multiple councillors voiced anger at city staff for not briefing council about a city worker who was gravely injured on the job April 18.

“It took Twitter to find out about this accident,” former-councillor Gideonie Joamie told council April 26, adding he was “taken aback” by the lack of information from city administrators.

At that same meeting, councillors repealed the city’s controversial “Waterless Wednesdays” policy, which had curtailed service to the city’s trucked water residents.

Coun. Terry Dobbin said at a council meeting that the city’s CAO had never properly briefed councillors on the decision to implement that water service cut-back.

Joamie also noted that senior administrators had promised the financial figures to justify waterless Wednesdays at council’s orientation in November 2015 — but those figures never materialized.

And miscommunication again proved a catalyst in the contentious battle over Redfern’s vacation travel assistance benefits, or VTAs, that ultimately resulted in Joamie’s resignation May 4.

Senior city staff and the mayor contend that the VTA benefits were included in 2012 council discussions when the mayoral post was made a full-time position.

But there is no mention of the VTA discussion in the minutes of that 2012 council meeting.

While Stevenson acknowledges that communication “can always be improved” between council and city staff, he doesn’t believe the relationship is damaging the city’s operation.

“No organization can say that they don’t need to work on their communication protocols,” he said.

“I wouldn’t say that stands out as a problem that’s hindering the proper functioning of the City of Iqaluit.”

Stevenson believes patience is a key attribute for serving in public office.

“The fact that it’s three months later than I hoped is problematic, but it doesn’t surprise me,” he said, regarding delays to the strategy plan.

“It’s life in government. Hopefully it’ll happen very soon and we can put the delay behind us.”

The next regular city council meeting is scheduled for May 24.

This version of the story contains two quotes from Mayor Madeleine Redfern that did not appear in the first version.