City of Powell River council voted to release its draft strategic plan during the council meeting on Thursday, December 20. The draft document was prepared by a consultant after two sessions on November 28 and 29, which were closed to the public. Council had a first look at the draft plan during an in-camera committee-of-the-whole meeting on Thursday morning, then decided to release it to the public that evening.
The plan, which will guide city operations for 2013 and 2014, lists six strategic priorities: live within our means; governance; economic revitalization plan; sustainability; asset management; and liquid waste management plan.
Each strategic priority defines desired long-term results and lists objectives/work plan.
For example, under economic revitalization, the first objective is listed as direct flights to oil sands. Tourism is second, followed by community power (the proposed Freda Creek run-of-river project), economic development, build out waterfront, smart city technology, twinning/sister city, BC Ferries/home port; Townsite revitalization, beautification, airport technology/runway and youth family opportunities.
Under asset management, objectives include library, fire halls, relocate museum, sale and lease surplus lands and PRSC Partnership Ltd. land acquisition.
The draft strategic plan is about the six priorities, Mayor Dave Formosa said, letting residents know about them and finding out if they think council is on the right track. “Those are the things we want to deal with in our last two years,” he said. ”We have to try to get a fire hall, we have to try to get a library, we’ve got to get the sewer built and we only have 24 months left.”
When asked about direct flights to the oil sands, Formosa said he’s had talks with Daryl Smith, president and CEO of Pacific Coastal Airlines, to ask how much it would cost to charter flights to Fort McMurray, knowing that there is a small base of people from Powell River who work there already. Part of the plan is for Formosa, along with other community representatives, to host information meetings in Fort McMurray about Powell River for people interested in looking at the community, the real estate and a direct flight from work to home. “We think Powell River would be a safe place for a husband or wife who is away working and their family is left behind,” he said. “They know that they’re safe here in Powell River. We can prove that and promote that. Housing is very affordable.”
Having charter flights to Fort McMurray wouldn’t necessitate an expansion of the airport runway, but that is another objective in the strategic plan. Formosa said the idea there is exploring the possibility of using the Powell River airport as a centre to rebuild or repair aircraft or aircraft equipment. “One of the things we’re looking at, depending on the size of aircraft that would come in to do that kind of work, is do we need to extend the runway for something like that,” he said.
Formosa said it was good that the old landfill located at the east end of the runway is included in the list of landfills contained in the Powell River Regional District’s solid waste management plan that need to have closure plans developed.
There are six items on the economic revitalization objectives list that came from ideas that will be developed through the Mayor’s Task Force on Economic Revitalization, Formosa said.
Council passed a motion at the same meeting to establish a task force for the purpose of creating an economic revitalization plan by June 30, 2013. Participants in the task force include Formosa, councillors Chris McNaughton and Debbie Dee, members of the Powell River Regional Economic Development Society board and two members of the public, to be determined by council. The motion also stated that the chief administrative officer, Mac Fraser, will prepare a report to advise of the city support and resources needed for the task force.
The next steps for the draft strategic plan is a report from Fraser by the end of January to provide information about the status, timeline, resources required and staff responsibility for each objective. Staff have also been directed to organize a town hall meeting in late February or early March 2013 to solicit public input about the draft plan.
Formosa said he encourages residents to read the draft plan and attend the town hall meeting. “This is a draft,” he said. “These are some ideas that were thrown out by councillors on what we can do to revitalize our economy.”
Formosa also said he has spoken to people about each of the ideas under economic revitalization. “We’re not talking about things that are unachievable, but they take work and we need the community to help us do it.”
The 2013-2014 draft strategic plan is available here.