Strategic plan charts course for city

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This article was published 09/02/2023 (1035 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Over the next four years, Brandon City Council intends to prioritize homelessness, addiction, economic growth and community well-being, as outlined in its new strategic plan approved at its regular meeting Monday.

In essence, the strategic plan outlines council’s overarching direction it wants to take between now and the next municipal election in October 2026.

It lists six main priorities that council wants the city to pursue, which city manager Ron Bowles described as “pillars” at Monday’s meeting.

Under each of those pillars are several strategies council will chase to accomplish the high-level objectives.

“I know that they sound pretty broad, but there’s things that we know we’re going to be working on and other things we know that we need to be working on better,” Mayor Jeff Fawcett said in a Wednesday phone interview.

“Basically, that’s how we got to our six key areas.”

For instance, the first priority is to “work collaboratively to address the evolving trauma-informed opportunities within the community.”

There are three strategies listed under that priority: to develop a net-zero homelessness plan, to actively lobby for continuum of care treatment and to ensure public safety.

To tackle homelessness, the city states it will partner with local groups to develop a plan toward net-zero homelessness in 2023 and 2024 and will seek support from higher levels of government for the plan in 2025-26.

According to Fawcett, the goal is to minimize the amount of time a person experiences homelessness and has to rely on facilities like shelters.

Continuum of care treatment, the plan explains, will be pursued through lobbying the province for the establishment of a sobering centre in Brandon in 2023-24, to build an Indigenous wellness centre between 2023 and 2025 and to lobby higher levels of government for assistance with mobile outreach, addiction and mental health services in 2023 and 2025.

To encourage safety, council wants a trauma-informed training program to be developed for city staff.

The second major priority is to “foster an environment that supports economic growth and development.”

To accomplish that, council wants to facilitate growth in both existing and emerging neighbourhoods. Finishing the ongoing work to develop a new city plan is part of this as well.

Council wants downtown priority sites, like the former Strand Theatre property, to be developed. It also wants two incentive programs created for downtown: one to attract residential housing and another to encourage property renewal and address derelict buildings.

When it comes to downtown housing, Fawcett said the goal is to create market housing on top of the affordable housing initiatives the city is working on with its charitable partners.

That includes the city’s continuing work with Habitat for Humanity, with which it signed a memorandum of understanding at Monday’s council meeting to build houses in the north end.

On derelict buildings, Fawcett said residents should notice progress being made on known sites along Rosser Avenue in the next couple of months. The goal is to incentivize people to have their properties contribute positively to the community.

Priority three is to “explore alternative sustainable delivery models.”

By this, council means it is looking for new ways to fund the services it provides as well as reassessing how it manages assets.

This includes a review of parking fees and evaluating whether development services charges need to be increase. A review of the latter was supposed to be completed last year, but it has yet to be finished.

The fourth priority is “promote community well-being.”

It includes plans to build or improve facilities like the new outdoor sports complex, promote culture by creating a large-scale music or cultural event, add recreation and service facilities in neighbourhoods that lack them and to target a Vision Zero approach to traffic safety.

Included in this section are plans to create both an Indigenous cultural centre in the city as well as a tourist landmark to attract visitors. Fawcett said what those look like has yet to be determined, as it is still early in the process.

Fifth on the list is “improve the communication and collaboration amongst stakeholders.”

To accomplish that, council wants to enhance how the city communicates with residents on items such as answering questions, providing updates on city activities, better promoting upcoming construction projects and better promoting the city’s successes.

Council also indicated it wants to explore new ways to collaborate with the Brandon Police Board.

One of the suggested items is to hold semi-annual joint meetings between the board and council.

That, the mayor suggested, would be done with an eye toward improving residents’ understanding of the work of the police board as much as it is to facilitate the two groups’ co-operation.

The final section aims to “address the long-term impact and sustainability of the environment.”

Its three main goals are to adopt the climate change action plan the city is currently creating, develop an active transportation strategy and to see how the ridership can be increased for Brandon Transit.

“It is anticipated that as our strategic initiatives move forward, there will also be the opportunity for not only input and feedback, but for the community to have a tangible impact in supporting these strategies,” the strategic plan report reads.

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