I’m Bill Kingston with today’s commentary. Cornwall city council will hold a strategic planning session next month. If you remember it from two years ago, the councillors got together on a weekend for a full day and drummed up this document with a lot of the feel-good vibes of what they want to focus on. In case you missed it, it’s on every inside cover of a council agenda listing the five pillars of the city – social development, economic growth, quality of life, waterfront development and efficient services. But where this plan falls flat and where the corporation could learn from the private business world is the plans needs SMART goals. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results-focused and Time-bound. I’ll take one example from the existing plan – the waterfront master plan under the waterfront development pillar. The document says “enable recreational usage”. But it doesn’t say how it’s going to be measured, how you’re going to do it and it doesn’t set a timeline. There’s a lot of great ideas in there – that’s just one of the many pieces – but the plan falls short. With three years left in this council mandate, hopefully it will set some SMART goals and get their money’s worth out of the St. Lawrence College’s Center for Corporate Learning session on Oct. 4.
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