Q. How did you arrive at this list of priorities?
A. The list of priorities was derived from an open review of over 200 existing, pending and new project priorities which account for approximately 10-20% of the city’s resources and capacity. The two review meetings took place in the fall.
Meeting 1: October 19, 2007 at the Cutten Club
Meeting 2: November 23, 2007 at the River Run Centre
Following the meetings, Councillors completed a survey to distill a set of findings for final review by members of Council.
Q. What criteria was used to identify the priorities?
A. The Strategic Plan was the primary driver behind all discussion about priorities.
More specifically, staff asked Councillors to consider those projects that, in their opinion, would:
best position the City to achieve an approved strategic goal (s) set a strong and balanced foundation for moving forward result in a measurable success
Q. How was the public involved in the priority setting process?
A. The Strategic Plan, developed from the input of hundreds of community members and stakeholders, was the primary driver behind all discussion concerning potential priorities. As well, many of the existing priorities have been carried forward from numerous other public processes during this and previous terms of Council.
Q. Now that you’ve identified priorities, how are you going to implement them?
A. High and medium level priorities will be integrated into 2008 Departmental workplans. Other priorities raised that relate to the high and medium priorities or are significantly underway will also be addressed in the 2008 workplans. Once approved, all of the priorities will serve as the basis for 2009 priority setting and workplan development discussions.
This priority-setting process is an important step towards the establishment of a more comprehensive strategic management system. This system will include strategic planning to set organizational goals, setting of priorities and development of work plans, development of budgets that align with goals, priorities and workplans, and systems to evaluate progress. Ultimately, this system will help ensure more effective and accountable decision making.
Q. This is an awfully ambitious list of priorities. Are you planning to complete them all in this term of Council? How do you plan to get all this done?
A. Our goal is to have made a substantial start on all of the high and medium priorities in this term of Council. Some of the priorities will be achievable in a relatively short period of time, while others (e.g. York District, CEP) are much longer-term projects. The list gives staff a clear indication of what Council’s priorities are; it will be up to staff to develop work plans to start addressing them.
Q. What is the price tag for all these priorities?
A. Many of the priorities are underway or already budgeted for, and many are large, multi-year initiatives (e.g. York District plan) that we don’t yet know the total costs for. The costing for each priority will be addressed through the workplan and budget processes.
Q. What impact will the priority list have on the Budget?
A. These priorities will be part of budget decisions in February but it is important to note that they are just one of the many inputs into the budget process. The priorities will also be integrated into Departmental workplans that are scheduled for completion in April 2008.
Q. Are you going to hire more staff to get all of these priorities done?
A. Staff resources should be addressed in departmental workplans. Many of the priorities are underway or already planned for so in many cases budget and staff resources are already in place.
Q. Why did items that only receive 2 votes (out of a possible 13- just 15% of Council) get listed as “medium” priorities?
A. Council and staff initially discussed a list of more than 200 potential priorities. Many did not get any votes at all, and several received one vote. In that context, the fact that these priorities received two votes is fairly significant. They merit further investigation and inclusion into departmental workplans.
Q. Why are the new main library, Baker St parking garage, Loretto Convent, Civic Square, new transit terminal NOT on the list?
A. These priorities are all part of the Downtown Action Plan, so they are incorporated within that priority. The downtown projects are not being pursued in isolation, but as part of an overall plan to enhance investment and activity in the downtown.
Some of the larger strategic initiatives like the CEP or Downtown Action Plan will have their own priority setting process. These sub-priority setting processes will help to further refine our priority setting process in the future.