EMBRUN – At their regularly scheduled council meeting on Mon., March 25, 2024, council received an update on the Township of Russell 2023-2026 Strategic Plan. The update included information on the six (6) objectives contained within the Strategic Plan, and for the most part, the objectives were indicated as being either on track, or completed. In the areas where a particular accomplishment was shown as being overdue, new deadlines were suggested.
The overdue objectives are shown in the chart entitled Appendix 2- Proposed adjustments to the Strategic Plan.
Councillor Lisa Deacon expressed her pleasure with having received an update on the Strategic Plan, but wondered if it was now possible to move to an additional stage of measuring impact evaluation.
“I was really pleased to see this update and to be able to ground our work again in the strategic plan,” said Councillor Deacon. “It serves as a major tool and a guide for me in the work that I’m doing and the decisions and how I make decisions. There’s a lot that’s been accomplished. I just want to acknowledge that there’s been so much work that’s happened.
“So, celebrating that, at the same time, recognising that we’re in an evolution towards what I hope is also impact evaluation. So not just what we did or what the township administration has accomplished and did, but what the impact was ultimately, on our bottom line or, you know, residents’ experiences etc. So, just so that we can say, you know, to get to that big vision statement, we’re not going to get there by ticking boxes, right? So, just acknowledging that where we’re at in applying the strategic plan, and I think that just I’m very proud to be working for a community of residents here that we can point to that as our guide.”
Richard Godin, Russell CAO responded to Councillor Deacon’s comments. “I just wanted to touch on some of Councillor Deacon’s comments,” said Godin. “I want you to know we appreciated these comments, and in this report, I have included a detailed summary of what has been worked on, what has been started.” He went on to say that the administration had already had discussion on KPI data that will be included in the future. “We will develop KPI’s to update those outcomes for each of these initiatives, so you can expect those in the future updates.,” added Godin.
Terry Tinkess is a professional photographer, educator and journalist. He has been making a living with a camera and keyboard since 1999 and has been featured in such publications as The Ottawa Citizen, Cornwall Standard Freeholder, The Globe and Mail, The Miami Herald, Ottawa Construction News, The Ontario Construction Report, Ontario Home Builder Magazine, Reed Construction Data, Canadian Potato Business and most recently, The Record and Eastern Ontario AgriNews. Terry lives in Ingleside, Ontario with his wife Brenda, Mia the anxious Pittie and cats Wally and Chubbers.
