Our City. Our Future.

New Strategic Plan Our City, Our Future tabled at Committee of the Whole, March 20, 2019 along with list of 2019 Actions. Final approval provided at regular meeting of Council. March 25. Check out both documents in the document library.

Understanding the needs and expectations of the community is key to good city strategic planning.

In March 2018 we undertook our first citizen satisfaction survey which provided a benchmark of how we are currently performing, and a snapshot of what residents think about the services they receive, value for money, capital spending, and engagement and communications.

We learned that residents believe St. John’s is a good place to live, where they have good quality of life and enjoy a variety of services. We also heard more about the areas where residents believe we need to make improvements. While the survey was one tool we used to inform the development of a new strategic plan and a new three-year budget, hearing from a variety of voices was an important part of the process.

Between April and October 2018, through a series of nearly 50 in-person and on-line engagement activities, there were several thousand points of engagement including the voices around the city’s advisory committees. Regardless of the stakeholder, key themes started to emerge from the engagement process and people indicated what was important to them.

Combined with the feedback from the citizen survey, this information helped shape the new vision and strategic directions. Following the release of the What we Heard document in July 2018, we started working internally to frame up the plan, its directions and goals, and then worked across departments and with Council to confirm the Action Plan for 2019.