The Monitoring Reports for the Strategic Plan and the Official Plan primarily reflect the performance of senior city staff—not City Councillors. These reports should serve as a tool by which Councillors assess staff performance in delivering the outcomes outlined in the Strategic Plan and OP, which Council itself sets.
As Joanne rightly observed, there are far too many strategic goals and initiatives—over 94 between the Strategic Plan and the Official Plan, not to mention 16 additional City strategies, each with their own exhaustive lists of objectives. This level of proliferation suggests a lack of focus and points to the need for Council training in public sector management—particularly in outcomes-based accountability, which is being revived in the federal public service under Prime Minister Carney.
Staff often avoid measuring outcomes—that is, the real-world impacts of public initiatives—because these results are beyond their direct control. Instead, they report on outputs (the deliverables they produce) and explain away the absence of outcome data by referencing complexity or the roles of other partners, such as the Chamber of Commerce in the case of the Byward Market. We’ve seen a similar dynamic with 15-Minute Neighbourhoods.
But this misses a fundamental principle: meaningful outcomes in the public sector always require collaboration. If the City fails to lead these partnerships by clearly articulating desired outcomes and agreeing on how to measure progress, then it is not fulfilling its responsibility to create public value.
I agree with the D, not for my own or some of the Councillors’ hard work but for Council as a whole, for not pushing whichever level of government they need to push (including the mayor) to raise the kind of money really needed to stop the chronic slow deterioration of so much infrastructure that we are reaching crisis with some older facilities. Are staff given the resources they need to do the job Council expects of them? The income disparity in this city is so evident - some spending considerable money on vacations and meals out, while so many others, transit-dependent- are needing food banks and even shelters because their income is too low. The BESS discussion today seems not to have encouraged re-location of these really important structures. Why not in industrial parks close to where electricity needs to be available? I am really disturbed that Lansdowne is even a discussion in this time of huge need to fix transit! Sports companies should be prepared to run their businesses without taxpayer support. Ms Amilcar was given an impossible task of trying to shoehorn service into a budget far too small to hire all the drivers, mechanics and acquire the number of buses we truly need. Charities are bearing too much load to provide for the shelters and food banks which the city and province should be covering. There is “magic money - it is called raising the HST or GST or something which hits those with lots of discretionary income to support the most vulnerable in society, a Canadian value, not the US model of every individual for himself.
I've been researching the topic of downtown revitalization myself, and the ideas for revitalizing are there... but where is the action? Do you have an ideas for how to push this forward faster, like as a regular citizen, where could I influence the leaders most effectively? I know it's not an easy question to answer....
How does the panel see Council moving the needle so we can increase taxes in a real way to address the real needs.
And, are e-scooters still a pilot project? A quick google search finds at least 6 other pilot projects. How long do these go on? Until we nod or shrug? What is the cost of monitoring (if we in fact monitor:) Not IMPORTANT, but could be a fun dive.
Yes, they are still a "pilot". We talked about this in a previous episode. In all fairness to the City, it's largely because of where the province is on this file.
I'll try to squeeze that first question in. We're recording in a few hours.
The Monitoring Reports for the Strategic Plan and the Official Plan primarily reflect the performance of senior city staff—not City Councillors. These reports should serve as a tool by which Councillors assess staff performance in delivering the outcomes outlined in the Strategic Plan and OP, which Council itself sets.
As Joanne rightly observed, there are far too many strategic goals and initiatives—over 94 between the Strategic Plan and the Official Plan, not to mention 16 additional City strategies, each with their own exhaustive lists of objectives. This level of proliferation suggests a lack of focus and points to the need for Council training in public sector management—particularly in outcomes-based accountability, which is being revived in the federal public service under Prime Minister Carney.
Staff often avoid measuring outcomes—that is, the real-world impacts of public initiatives—because these results are beyond their direct control. Instead, they report on outputs (the deliverables they produce) and explain away the absence of outcome data by referencing complexity or the roles of other partners, such as the Chamber of Commerce in the case of the Byward Market. We’ve seen a similar dynamic with 15-Minute Neighbourhoods.
But this misses a fundamental principle: meaningful outcomes in the public sector always require collaboration. If the City fails to lead these partnerships by clearly articulating desired outcomes and agreeing on how to measure progress, then it is not fulfilling its responsibility to create public value.
I
I agree with the D, not for my own or some of the Councillors’ hard work but for Council as a whole, for not pushing whichever level of government they need to push (including the mayor) to raise the kind of money really needed to stop the chronic slow deterioration of so much infrastructure that we are reaching crisis with some older facilities. Are staff given the resources they need to do the job Council expects of them? The income disparity in this city is so evident - some spending considerable money on vacations and meals out, while so many others, transit-dependent- are needing food banks and even shelters because their income is too low. The BESS discussion today seems not to have encouraged re-location of these really important structures. Why not in industrial parks close to where electricity needs to be available? I am really disturbed that Lansdowne is even a discussion in this time of huge need to fix transit! Sports companies should be prepared to run their businesses without taxpayer support. Ms Amilcar was given an impossible task of trying to shoehorn service into a budget far too small to hire all the drivers, mechanics and acquire the number of buses we truly need. Charities are bearing too much load to provide for the shelters and food banks which the city and province should be covering. There is “magic money - it is called raising the HST or GST or something which hits those with lots of discretionary income to support the most vulnerable in society, a Canadian value, not the US model of every individual for himself.
I've been researching the topic of downtown revitalization myself, and the ideas for revitalizing are there... but where is the action? Do you have an ideas for how to push this forward faster, like as a regular citizen, where could I influence the leaders most effectively? I know it's not an easy question to answer....
How does the panel see Council moving the needle so we can increase taxes in a real way to address the real needs.
And, are e-scooters still a pilot project? A quick google search finds at least 6 other pilot projects. How long do these go on? Until we nod or shrug? What is the cost of monitoring (if we in fact monitor:) Not IMPORTANT, but could be a fun dive.
Yes, they are still a "pilot". We talked about this in a previous episode. In all fairness to the City, it's largely because of where the province is on this file.
I'll try to squeeze that first question in. We're recording in a few hours.
The Province has a file on e-scooters?
Hi Neil: Would you consider putting time markings next to the list of topics? That would really be appreciated!
OK, I'll try that out this week.