Despite the regular trend of municipal business slowing down a little during the summer months the CCRC is chugging full steam ahead. We have finally started our Sustainability Self-Assessment project and we have retained Mr. Stephen Quinton as our Project Coordinator. Stephen will be responsible for all the logistics and reporting for the project and he will be in contact with every municipal office over the coming months to arrange a time for each council to go through the Sustainability Self-Assessment tool kit.
The process should take about 3 or 4 hours and we are flexible to arrange these sessions around the schedules of councillors and staff. Summer is a difficult time to start a project of this nature but we have to get it off the ground now and it will run for approximately 5 months. We are asking that all municipalities take the time to engage in this process because it is a great opportunity to step back and take an honest look at long term sustainability issues and it is a first step toward developing ICSPs as mentioned in previous posts.
If you would like to be proactive you can give Stephen a call here at the MNL office at 709-753-6820 and he can begin setting up meeting times that work for you. Otherwise expect a call form him in the near future.
The CCRC is also continually involved in the Functional Regions research project as mentioned here. That project involves multiple researchers and research assistants including Ann Marie Cashin working out of the MNL office under the direction of the CCRC. She is conducting some follow up work on the 2007 Census that the CCRC completed recently.
Beyond those two projects is the work on regional cooperation that the CCRC is continually involved with and the work related to building our resource centre and having it searchable online. Unfortunately it is not yet searchable from the CCRC website but we're working on it.
Cheers to a safe and happy summer all around.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Monday, June 16, 2008
What's in a plan?
Dwight D. Eisenhower is reputed to have once said that "Plans are worthless, but planning is everything."
The intent of the message is not lost on those who have shelves of pans but no method to implement, monitor or revise them. Instead they sit, collecting dust and providing nothing but a distant reference point to a conversation that includes "Yeah we've got one of those plans.......somewhere around here." Municipal operations are no different. Many times legislation simply requires that you have a plan but nothing more. Enter the Integrated Community Sustainability Plan.
With the "new deal for cities and communities" the Federal Government has designed a program to flow gas tax monies back to local governments for infrastructure projects. One of the issues is the desire to enhance the sustainability of communities and also to ensure that funding is spent on sustainable projects in sustainable communities. One of the ways to accomplish this is through the development of long term sustainability plans or ICSPs by all municipalities in Canada.
While it is an obligation of gas tax funding to complete ICSPs the most important note is that it is an opportunity to improve the planning processes and possibly even enhance some planning capacity in the province. ICSPs must be integrated and must be "living" plans that are continuously consulted, maintained and revised. They must be flexible and useable and involve goals and directions as developed by the community. Obviously this is a different approach that requires more community engagement and simply more work up front. However the advantages are exponential to the amount of work required.
Recently the CCRC arranged a session for the senior administrators from the municipalities in the province with more then 4000 residents. This session was intended to give these administrators an opportunity to speak with senior staff within the Provincial Department of Municipal Affairs and Infrastructure Canada regarding their perspectives on ICSPs and the specific requirements involved. The main points that developed from this discussion included the need for ICSPs to be a living document, the importance of building on existing planning processes and the importance of identifying infrastructure needs.
Also of note is the recent education session delivered by CCRC at a NLAMA session in Clarenville. The session was very well attended and the feedback from that session will help the CCRC work with the Department of Municipal Affairs to determine some of the specifics of ICSP development for Newfoundland and Labrador.
The CCRC is committed to ensuring that the ICSP process focus on planning as opposed to just developing a plan that sits on a shelf!
Stay tuned for further details.
The intent of the message is not lost on those who have shelves of pans but no method to implement, monitor or revise them. Instead they sit, collecting dust and providing nothing but a distant reference point to a conversation that includes "Yeah we've got one of those plans.......somewhere around here." Municipal operations are no different. Many times legislation simply requires that you have a plan but nothing more. Enter the Integrated Community Sustainability Plan.
With the "new deal for cities and communities" the Federal Government has designed a program to flow gas tax monies back to local governments for infrastructure projects. One of the issues is the desire to enhance the sustainability of communities and also to ensure that funding is spent on sustainable projects in sustainable communities. One of the ways to accomplish this is through the development of long term sustainability plans or ICSPs by all municipalities in Canada.
While it is an obligation of gas tax funding to complete ICSPs the most important note is that it is an opportunity to improve the planning processes and possibly even enhance some planning capacity in the province. ICSPs must be integrated and must be "living" plans that are continuously consulted, maintained and revised. They must be flexible and useable and involve goals and directions as developed by the community. Obviously this is a different approach that requires more community engagement and simply more work up front. However the advantages are exponential to the amount of work required.
Recently the CCRC arranged a session for the senior administrators from the municipalities in the province with more then 4000 residents. This session was intended to give these administrators an opportunity to speak with senior staff within the Provincial Department of Municipal Affairs and Infrastructure Canada regarding their perspectives on ICSPs and the specific requirements involved. The main points that developed from this discussion included the need for ICSPs to be a living document, the importance of building on existing planning processes and the importance of identifying infrastructure needs.
Also of note is the recent education session delivered by CCRC at a NLAMA session in Clarenville. The session was very well attended and the feedback from that session will help the CCRC work with the Department of Municipal Affairs to determine some of the specifics of ICSP development for Newfoundland and Labrador.
The CCRC is committed to ensuring that the ICSP process focus on planning as opposed to just developing a plan that sits on a shelf!
Stay tuned for further details.
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