The mayor of North Battleford was on hand for the latest Battlefords Chamber of Commerce virtual meeting on Tuesday night.
Mayor David Gillan spoke to the chamber directors on the city’s Strategic Plan, outlining the goals and values of the City of North Battleford for the next four years.
As Gillan explained, the Strategic Plan serves as “a guiding document to allow management, really, to have some idea what this new council would like them to focus their additional energies on.”
The Strategic Plan was approved at the council meeting on May 10 and the document was posted on the city’s website soon after that. The strategic plan includes values, vision and mission statements; those are not a whole lot different than you see in a lot of organizations, Gillan said.
What Gillan called the “meat and potatoes” of the document were the seven key aspects of the Strategic Plan: to Provide Quality Infrastructure, Sustainability, Economic Vitality, Healthy and Safe Community, Organizational Excellence, Regional Hub, and Excellence in Governance and Citizen Focused Services.
It was those that Gillan focused his comments on. On infrastructure, Gillan pointed to their underground pipes and asphalt replacement program.
For sustainability. Gillan said council tries to look ahead “not just this year or next year, or even the four years in council, but try to look out five and ten years.” He cited the issue of new arenas to replace the Civic Centre as one example.
For economic vitality, Gillan said this was an item they were really focusing on. Gillan acknowledged they did not have an economic development person on staff at City Hall — “you’re looking at the ec dev director pretty much,” he said, referring to himself.
But he did raise the possibility that in the next budget cycle they could put some more resources towards economic development, perhaps hiring an economic development officer.
Gillan also told the chamber he believed it was really important to “bring fresh jobs to the community that are not minimum wage jobs”. He wanted to see good paying jobs on top of that to lift the real estate and service sectors.
On a healthy and safe community, Gillan said this referred to their policing, their downtown and their parks and recreation.
On policing, RCMP Insp. Tom Beck has departed and a new Inspector for Battlefords detachment will be hired in the coming months.
Gillan said that for the first time the city is directly involved in the process of hiring a new Inspector. The city has invited the Town of Battleford to be involved in the process as well.
“For the first time we are asking a lot of questions and we are putting forward the needs of the community for the RCMP to be responding to,” said Gillan.
On organizational excellence, Gillan spoke of making sure administration continued to operate efficiently.
On the regional hub aspect, Gillan spoke of the importance of fostering relationships. He also spoke of the challenges involved in collaboration and working together.
“It’s almost like, yes, we talk about it, but how do we do it with so many different governments,” said Gillan.
He said they would start with their biggest partner, the Town of Battleford, and go from there. Gillan also noted their waste management facility, the pool, the Civic Centre etc. were regional assets.
Gillan also pointed to “so many aspects that we duplicate” as neighbours, referring to the duplication in services.
“I can’t say that in four years that I’m going to fix it all because I’m not that good,” said Gillan. “But I think I can hope to make a dent in this issue before I leave this office.”
Finally, on excellence in governance and citizen focused services, Gillan said it was “really about us as council … us governing, and governing correctly, and caring and being there and supporting, and actively debating and engaging with our management here to make the best decisions possible going forward. That takes a council that’s engaged as well, and looking deeply at the issues.”
