Owen Sound Committee - Strategic Planning Ad Hoc Meeting Transcript — April 30, 2025

00:00:14 Speaker 01: Okay, so this is the City of Owen Sound Strategic Planning Ad Hoc Committee.

00:00:20 Speaker 01: It is April thirtieth at nine o'clock and four minutes, not nine o'clocks.

00:00:24 Speaker 01: We'll call the meeting to order.

00:00:27 Speaker 01: And first question is: Are there?

00:00:28 Speaker 01: Oh, Austin is.

00:00:29 Speaker 01: Are there?

00:00:29 Speaker 01: Oh, and I point out that everyone is here except for Trish Meekins and Steve Lowe, I believe.

00:00:38 Speaker 01: Call for any additional business if there's anything that we need to add.

00:00:43 Speaker 01: Seeing none, is there any declaration of interests?

00:00:48 Speaker 01: Of course, you can declare as the meeting goes on if you run into something.

00:00:51 Speaker 01: And I don't see anything.

00:00:53 Speaker 01: Confirmation of minutes from February twelfth, two thousand and twenty-five.

00:00:58 Speaker 01: Everyone have a look at them?

00:01:01 Speaker 01: Can approve them, Councillor Deputy Mayor Greig.

00:01:05 Speaker 01: I move the recommendation received.

00:01:10 Speaker 01: Any questions on those?

00:01:12 Speaker 01: Call the question.

00:01:13 Speaker 01: All in favour?

00:01:14 Speaker 01: So that's carried.

00:01:16 Speaker 01: We have no deputations at number five on our agenda.

00:01:19 Speaker 01: Public forum.

00:01:21 Speaker 01: I don't think we've got any questions.

00:01:24 Speaker 01: We have no correspondence received.

00:01:27 Speaker 01: And so we are down to number eight, which is probably the big reason why we're here, and that is the report from Michelle.

00:01:38 Speaker 01: So, pass the torch to you.

00:01:43 Speaker 01: Thank you, Mr. Mayor Boddy.

00:01:45 Speaker 02: So I'm here today to present report CM 25-01-0, which is the engagement summary report.

00:01:52 Speaker 02: So as you remember, this project is a multi-phase project.

00:01:54 Speaker 02: As a multi-phase project, we've completed phases one, Tell Us Your Vision, and phase two, Shape the Vision, and are currently in phase three, which is Develop the Vision.

00:02:03 Speaker 02: Throughout the first two phases, there was a number of opportunities for community members to engage in a variety of means, and the intent of this was really to identify opportunities, challenges,

00:02:14 Speaker 02: provide comments on the identified priorities, learning from community experts, and brainstorming on potential actions.

00:02:22 Speaker 02: The survey report, which was a significant body of work, was reported or presented, pardon me, to the Strategic Planning Ad Hoc Committee in November 2024, and the engagement summary report,

00:02:33 Speaker 02: which is attached to this report, is intended to provide an overview of all of the engagement processes, the methodology, and the key findings.

00:02:42 Speaker 02: So, I want to highlight that a crucial component of this project was to undertake community engagement in different ways than we had done previously,

00:02:50 Speaker 02: and to seek out information and co-create at various stages throughout the project.

00:02:57 Speaker 02: Within the community engagement summary report, it does highlight the Strategic Plan Survey, the Business Engagement Workshop, the Community Capacity Building Workshops, the Strategic Plan Sessions, and it also talks about a campaign,

00:03:10 Speaker 02: a community photo shoot that we had held.

00:03:14 Speaker 02: Additionally, although not as detailed, they also talked about the additional community engagement initiatives that the engagement initiatives that Jay Peter and her team had undertaken, particularly the one coordinating and co-hosting in collabouration with Trish,

00:03:28 Speaker 02: an informal lunch with leaders and knowledge keepers from Saugue Nojibuy Nation, primarily Chipewyan Naiwash.

00:03:35 Speaker 02: She's also spent some time reaching out to local nonprofit organisations and their leadership to set up conversations about the project and about the initiative itself.

00:03:45 Speaker 02: I won't read through the entire report by any means.

00:03:48 Speaker 02: You don't want to sit here and listen to me read.

00:03:51 Speaker 02: I know, but I will highlight the layout of the engagement summary report.

00:03:57 Speaker 02: So it talks through the engagement collabourators, key highlights.

00:04:02 Speaker 02: As I mentioned, it goes through the various formats that were used, and then for each of those initiatives, it sort of talks about what the key feedback was from each.

00:04:11 Speaker 02: So, for example, the Business Engagement Workshop, it gives an overview of how the workshop was run at the approach, and then it gives you the key feedback that was included,

00:04:22 Speaker 02: and it does the same for each of the things.

00:04:24 Speaker 02: It also talks about the Strategic Planning Sessions.

00:04:26 Speaker 02: These were the sessions that were held November eight till ten.

00:04:30 Speaker 02: Doesn't that feel like so long ago now already?

00:04:33 Speaker 02: At the Bayshore Community Sessions, and those were where we had a session for each of the strategic priorities, and had community members come, and we did some different engagement activities to spark the conversation,

00:04:45 Speaker 02: and then had folks work through potential actions and potential community partners that could work with us on those actions.

00:04:55 Speaker 02: I always like to highlight.

00:04:56 Speaker 02: I think a really unique part of those visioning sessions was that JSTM had partnered with the University of Toronto Urban Studies Programmememe,

00:05:05 Speaker 02: and those students got to be involved and they helped do note taking and sort of facilitate the room.

00:05:11 Speaker 02: And it was a great example, I think, of something that wasn't originally planned, and sort of an opportunity that came out, and an opportunity for us to utilise students in the process,

00:05:23 Speaker 02: and they got a lot of value out of it, and I think we saw a lot of value out of it.

00:05:33 Speaker 02: Yes, at the end of it, there is a little bit of an evaluation where they highlight some of the comments from people that people had shared about the sessions.

00:05:41 Speaker 02: It also included evaluations from those students, which I thought was really interesting.

00:05:48 Speaker 02: And this is really the groundwork for the engagement summary as a whole.

00:05:53 Speaker 02: Will provide the groundwork for what comes forward in the draft 2050 Vision.

00:06:00 Speaker 02: So Jay and her team have been working hard on taking all that information that was gathered throughout those various engagement processes, pulling that into a document that is both ambitious but real.

00:06:11 Speaker 02: Ambitious but realistic in terms of actions that we can achieve over the immediate, midterm, and long term, and then the intent is that Jay's team will bring that to the City,

00:06:22 Speaker 02: and then I'll bring that forward to this committee in June.

00:06:25 Speaker 02: Thank you for accepting our rescheduled date, as with an implementation plan for how we're going to start to begin to implement those actions, and I'm happy to take any questions that you may have.

00:06:38 Speaker 02: Questions?

00:06:39 Speaker 02: Go ahead, Clark.

00:06:40 Speaker 02: Go ahead, Flur.

00:06:44 Speaker 02: Just wondering.

00:06:45 Speaker 02: So, what's the status of this report?

00:06:47 Speaker 02: Does this have to go to council, be approved before distribution, or the engagement summary report?

00:07:02 Speaker 02: So, it will flow through.

00:07:03 Speaker 02: So, with the minutes from this committee meeting, the minutes will flow through to Council for acceptance of the minutes, but the report itself doesn't need approval.

00:07:17 Speaker 02: I'm on now.

00:07:25 Speaker 02: Okay, sorry.

00:07:26 Speaker 03: Just wondering about the distribution to the participants, because there's a lot of interest from those who took the time to be in the engagement sessions, and it has been a long time.

00:07:36 Speaker 03: So, if they could receive, if we have their contact information, if they could receive one directly as opposed to passively on the website, I think that would be important.

00:07:48 Speaker 02: So, you, Chair Mayor Boddy, thank you, Member McFarland.

00:07:52 Speaker 02: I think that's a great suggestion to send it out directly to those participants, and I'd be happy to do that.

00:07:59 Speaker 02: Good.

00:07:59 Speaker 02: Other questions, other comments.

00:08:02 Speaker 02: Go ahead.

00:08:04 Speaker 02: Two questions.

00:08:05 Speaker 02: The first is effectively the seven strategic pillars.

00:08:10 Speaker 04: Six are largely just reinforcing strategic pillars that we already had in place in our last plan.

00:08:21 Speaker 04: We've spent significant dollars in developing this new plan.

00:08:23 Speaker 04: Can you speak to what is the material that just you know?

00:08:29 Speaker 04: What are the actions that we've done?

00:08:30 Speaker 04: What are the contributing considerations to essentially just moving forward with actions or pillars that we've already had in our last plan, and not deviating a lot?

00:08:43 Speaker 04: Like I guess we didn't identify anything to really create a need to deviate too much.

00:08:51 Speaker 04: Just wondering if you could comment on bringing forward six or seven that are essentially the same as our last plan.

00:08:59 Speaker 04: Second question is...

00:09:03 Speaker 04: It's already.

00:09:05 Speaker 04: I mean, we're looking at this is kind of a twenty-five-year plan.

00:09:07 Speaker 04: Obviously, we have no idea what 2050 will look like.

00:09:12 Speaker 04: There's not a whole lot of discussion yet about heritage value in our community at this point.

00:09:17 Speaker 04: And I've now had my own business for around twenty years, and I look forward to how fast it can go by.

00:09:27 Speaker 04: I'm just wondering: has there been any consideration in terms of the heritage value of our community, as well, in any of the discussions, like our downtown is effectively quite unique.

00:09:38 Speaker 04: When you look at some other communities, I think of Burlington, right off the top of my head, that really doesn't have a downtown anymore,

00:09:45 Speaker 04: and it does create a place of being and an identity for the community.

00:09:52 Speaker 04: I'm just wondering, has there been any conversation about that anywhere?

00:09:57 Speaker 04: Does that have a place in the strategic plan for different initiatives?

00:10:04 Speaker 04: I mean, this is just the pillars.

00:10:06 Speaker 04: There'll be a variety of initiatives.

00:10:08 Speaker 04: Have you had any conversation around heritage value?

00:10:14 Speaker 04: See you, Mr. Boddy.

00:10:15 Speaker 04: Thank you for the question.

00:10:16 Speaker 04: So I'll start with the first one regarding the priorities.

00:10:19 Speaker 02: So one of the initial steps within the engagement was to do that Folsom survey, which we had a great response to, and that was really to flesh out:

00:10:28 Speaker 02: do these priorities still resonate with the community?

00:10:31 Speaker 02: So we wanted to make sure we were starting from a place of: do these priorities still make sense?

00:10:36 Speaker 02: Do we need to change them, amend them?

00:10:38 Speaker 02: And from that body of work, that's how it came out to add the additional one different priority.

00:10:45 Speaker 02: Pardon me, related to mutually beneficial relationships, and as well as part of that work was to come back and said, you know what?

00:10:56 Speaker 02: Some of these priorities still resonate with the community, but we need to flesh out a little bit of what does that actually mean and what does that look like in the future.

00:11:05 Speaker 02: So that is the priority setting, and then those priorities were then used for the basis for the visioning sessions to come up with the actions.

00:11:14 Speaker 02: In regards to the heritage value, I would say yes in terms of placemaking.

00:11:24 Speaker 02: Terms of placemaking, I think in the pillar city building, and in the pillar, I think celebrating and embracing culture within those two pillars.

00:11:35 Speaker 02: Pardon me, sorry.

00:11:37 Speaker 02: I think there's been discussion around how do we, you know, and probably in Safe City too, actually.

00:11:43 Speaker 02: Now that I think around how do we create spaces for people and how do we work with our partners to create spaces for people, which would include...

00:11:50 Speaker 02: I don't know that the word heritage is like.

00:11:53 Speaker 02: I'm trying to think if I've seen the word heritage specifically,

00:11:57 Speaker 02: and that one I'm not sure that I. So I'd have to go back and look at like sort of the draft documents that's coming forward to see if that resonates.

00:12:04 Speaker 02: But definitely in terms of placemaking and creating safe spaces in our city spaces, I think that's definitely included.

00:12:14 Speaker 02: Okay, thanks for the response.

00:12:15 Speaker 05: I just I think it's important to always consider the value architecturally of our downtown, and means of being able to reinvest back into those properties, not letting them become stale, run down,

00:12:36 Speaker 05: in need of repair to a point where it's cheaper to level unique and beautiful buildings that have built the community.

00:12:49 Speaker 05: Yes, I guess that's just my comments.

00:12:50 Speaker 05: It's something to consider as we're developing initiatives.

00:12:53 Speaker 05: I guess it's just the importance and value of not so much the exterior area outside, but the buildings themselves too, because we have a beautiful downtown.

00:13:04 Speaker 05: So, okay, thanks.

00:13:05 Speaker 06: Suneet Kukreja, just a quick question in terms of the timelines.

00:13:12 Speaker 06: So now we have the engagement summary with us, the feedback phase three done.

00:13:18 Speaker 06: So we are looking at the implementation of phase four.

00:13:21 Speaker 06: So the reports somewhere mentioned that the strategic plan would be available May 2025.

00:13:27 Speaker 06: Are we still within that time frame, or like are we looking at further ones?

00:13:36 Speaker 06: Thank you, Madam Boddy.

00:13:37 Speaker 06: Thank you, Councillor Kukreja.

00:13:40 Speaker 02: So the draft report will come forward to the city in May, and then our schedule for this group to come forward in June,

00:13:50 Speaker 02: so with our timeline being that the report will come to staff to myself, and then I'll bring that forward with a report that will outline our implementation of how we're going to...

00:14:00 Speaker 02: And I'll just take this opportunity.

00:14:02 Speaker 02: It might be good just as a refresher for all of us.

00:14:05 Speaker 02: We had talked about as part of this process a sort of term of council priorities.

00:14:09 Speaker 02: So, this plan is, as Mayor Boddy mentioned, a long vision plan, and it's going to have immediate action.

00:14:16 Speaker 02: midterm actions, and long-term actions.

00:14:19 Speaker 02: And so our intent is that when we bring forward the 2050 vision document, that we lay out how we're going to address those immediate actions,

00:14:27 Speaker 02: how we're going to build those into our 2026 work plan, and that will carry us through until the end of this term of council.

00:14:34 Speaker 02: Then after we have an election next fall, then after that we would do a workshop, likely with council again, to say, okay, for this term of council now, how are we going to address the...

00:14:44 Speaker 02: the remainder of the immediate actions and potentially an interim action, depending on the timing of those, to say how we're going to move those forward.

00:14:57 Speaker 07: I'm just thinking about those pillars, Scott, and I think some of them are probably bedrocks that have been there for years.

00:15:09 Speaker 07: Green City, certainly since the seventies, if not the sixties, prospect.

00:15:12 Speaker 07: Not the sixty-s.

00:15:13 Speaker 07: Prosperous city.

00:15:14 Speaker 07: We're busting to boost Owen Sound with Captain Owens, Marion and I. Remember it.

00:15:18 Speaker 07: No one else, maybe.

00:15:23 Speaker 07: Safe city.

00:15:23 Speaker 07: Obviously, always transit, city building.

00:15:30 Speaker 07: Those types of things.

00:15:31 Speaker 07: Some of those are bedrocks that have always been there and probably always will be there.

00:15:36 Speaker 07: It's building respectful relationships and embracing different cultures that have changed in our lifetime.

00:15:46 Speaker 07: We have welcomed new Canadians from all over the world to our country and hopefully to our city,

00:15:51 Speaker 07: and all those things that future councils are going to be able to build on and add to those bedrocks, and perhaps change over the next 25 years,

00:16:04 Speaker 07: and bite off different pieces of those to fix, depending on what's burning a hole in people's bonnets.

00:16:14 Speaker 07: Perhaps at the time, and I read those the first time.

00:16:20 Speaker 07: I kind of smiled.

00:16:22 Speaker 07: I can see Jay's thoughts in a lot of them, so I'm happy.

00:16:30 Speaker 07: Heritage value.

00:16:31 Speaker 07: I agree.

00:16:31 Speaker 07: That's, I guess, part of the city building, or perhaps part of culture.

00:16:35 Speaker 07: But that physical thing that goes with the idea, with the identity of downtown, the identity of the city.

00:16:43 Speaker 07: Any other, Marian?

00:16:44 Speaker 07: Go ahead.

00:16:47 Speaker 08: Just a few comments regarding heritage value.

00:16:50 Speaker 08: I think somewhere in there, we certainly have captured historical aspects of the city with Billy Bishop and the Tom Thomson and all of those historical aspects that we do have,

00:17:03 Speaker 08: as well as some of the longstanding buildings and residential areas that have, like the Butchered Estate and various ones like that.

00:17:12 Speaker 08: So, as long as those are highlighted in there somewhere to recognize, I think that captures a lot of our heritage.

00:17:22 Speaker 08: Right there.

00:17:23 Speaker 08: Thanks.

00:17:25 Speaker 08: Sort of as a sub-pillar or something.

00:17:27 Speaker 08: Yeah, part of it.

00:17:31 Speaker 08: Go ahead.

00:17:32 Speaker 02: Sorry, I just—when you were speaking, I also had the thought.

00:17:34 Speaker 02: I know one of the themes that came up, or what—not a theme, sorry.

00:17:37 Speaker 02: One of the multiple comments that came up during the sessions was also around our waterfront, and when we think about our downtown and our having a vibrant city,

00:17:47 Speaker 02: and really embracing the waterfront that we have, and how do we utilise that to build on the prosperous city and to do city building and those types of things.

00:17:56 Speaker 02: So I think that sort of is pulled into that as well.

00:17:59 Speaker 07: And some of that space will get built out.

00:18:04 Speaker 07: It'll all be new, not part of the past heritage.

00:18:09 Speaker 07: Okay, anything else?

00:18:11 Speaker 07: So I think we probably need a motion to.

00:18:17 Speaker 07: Oh, Pat, if you—if you want to come to the microphone, sure.

00:18:26 Speaker 07: Okay.

00:18:26 Speaker 09: I don't have much to add other than it's been over a year since I came to council and said, "This is an opportunity, I think, to really do a deeper dive into public engagement."

00:18:39 Speaker 09: So, just congratulations.

00:18:42 Speaker 09: I think Michelle really took that to heart, and public engagement is a really tough thing to do right.

00:18:48 Speaker 09: It's often done wrong.

00:18:50 Speaker 09: I think because we have preconceived ideas about what we want to hear, and what winds up in the report is filtered through that.

00:18:58 Speaker 09: This time, I think by bringing in an external consultant and the massive amounts of opportunities for engagement, I think you've overcome that.

00:19:07 Speaker 09: That's a big hurdle.

00:19:09 Speaker 09: So how that gets filtered now, and certainly I heard lots about concern about maintaining the heritage of downtown Oceanside.

00:19:18 Speaker 09: But I also wanted to pick up on the suggestion of briefing some of the stakeholders, and I think maybe briefing some of those institutions, even people like Bruce Power, the hospital,

00:19:34 Speaker 09: getting them on board before next steps, because they've got to be part of the bigger picture.

00:19:40 Speaker 09: And I think the last thing I want to say is, you really surfaced a lot of resistance during this process.

00:19:49 Speaker 09: I think Michelle handled it well, but I think it's going to come flaring up as soon as you publish this report.

00:19:56 Speaker 09: So I think you want to anticipate one.

00:20:02 Speaker 09: You need to have your champions on board, speaking to this.

00:20:06 Speaker 09: How excited we are to welcome this plan, and I think you want to bring on board or have some clear next steps.

00:20:16 Speaker 09: And certainly, Michelle, you were at the Harmony Centre's Resilient Communities Conference, and I think that's an opportunity to pick up.

00:20:26 Speaker 09: They had very similar recommendations and priorities, so I think there is an untapped alignment there potentially.

00:20:36 Speaker 09: Otherwise, just soldier on.

00:20:40 Speaker 09: That's great.

00:20:40 Speaker 09: Thank you very much for your comments.

00:20:42 Speaker 07: And the last time I remember doing going out with a strategic plan, 2015, maybe 2016, but a long time ago, and the communication options weren't quite the same as they are now,

00:20:59 Speaker 07: and certainly because of that, the we'll call it a balance in feedback wasn't quite the same.

00:21:12 Speaker 07: But your comments are well taken, and thank you.

00:21:17 Speaker 07: So there is a recommendation there.

00:21:20 Speaker 07: Somebody needs to move it, Councillor.

00:21:25 Speaker 08: I'll move receipt for information purposes.

00:21:30 Speaker 08: Report number CM 25-01-0, respecting the engagement summary of the Vision 2050 strategic plan.

00:21:40 Speaker 08: Perfect.

00:21:40 Speaker 08: Thank you.

00:21:41 Speaker 08: Any other comments?

00:21:44 Speaker 07: Call the question on favour, and that is carried unanimously.

00:21:49 Speaker 07: It's a hard word to say, sort of like aluminum.

00:21:54 Speaker 07: Doesn't matter.

00:21:57 Speaker 07: So that completes eight in our agenda.

00:21:58 Speaker 07: We have no matters postponed at nine.

00:22:02 Speaker 07: We have no motions that were previously given at ten.

00:22:05 Speaker 07: We have no correspondence items that we've received for information.

00:22:12 Speaker 07: We didn't have any additional business to discuss.

00:22:15 Speaker 07: Are there any notices of motion being given?

00:22:19 Speaker 07: Seeing none.

00:22:19 Speaker 07: So that completes our business at 9:26.

00:22:22 Speaker 07: We're adjourned.

00:22:22 Speaker 07: Thanks, everyone, for coming in, and thanks, Michelle, Tim, and Jay, and everybody that's put so much effort into this to get us this far.

00:22:33 Speaker 07: Thanks.