Part 1: Strategic Planning, Housing Priorities, and Community Vision - 05/08/2023
- PECConnect
- May 8, 2023
- 7 min read
The County council held a special Committee of the Whole meeting on May 8, 2023 at 1:00 pm at Highline Hall in Wellington, with a hybrid setup and a live stream for the public. The minutes describe the purpose clearly: this was a working meeting focused on building a strategic plan for the current term of council.
View the entire PEC Council meeting, or continue to speaker comments and councillor votes>
Who Was There and Who Chaired the Meeting
The meeting was chaired by Phil Prinzen (Bloomfield-Hallowell), who opened by welcoming council, staff, media, and the public, and by explaining how the meeting would work. Mayor Steve Ferguson was also present, along with councillors from across the wards listed in the official minutes.
Prinzen noted that the meeting was being live streamed and that anything said would form part of the public record. He also reminded everyone that any motions made that day were not final until the May 23, 2023 council meeting, when council could approve, amend, defer, or otherwise change them.
Council confirmed the agenda, with no declared pecuniary interests, and there were no deputations and no registered public comments. Prinzen still invited anyone present to speak, but no one stepped forward.
Setting the Stage: Staff Explained the Point of the Day
The first major piece of the meeting was a set of opening remarks from Chief Administrative Officer Marcia Wallace. Wallace framed the day as part of a larger process that had already been underway for months with public consultation and internal staff work.
She told council that the first thing they would be asked to do was endorse the 10 year community plan, which she described as an aspirational direction that reflects what the community said it wanted the County to look like in about a decade. She emphasized that endorsement did not require council to agree with every detail, but that endorsement would recognize the consultation process and allow staff and community partners to use the plan as a shared reference point for future work.
Wallace also explained a second item coming later in the meeting: a staff report with examples of goals and metrics that could eventually support council’s own strategic plan for the term. She described that report as a toolbox, meant to show how broad priorities could be turned into measurable targets and tracked over time.
As the discussion opened up, Councillor Kate MacNaughton (Picton) pressed on process and structure, questioning whether there would be enough time for more open discussion and deeper collaboration, especially with directors in the room. Wallace responded by asking council to trust the approach and reinforced the division of roles: council sets direction, staff implements it.
Councillor Bill Roberts (Sophiasburgh) then boiled it down to a blunt question about outcomes, asking how council would know when it had “won” and what exactly they were trying to “win.” Wallace answered by pointing to the idea of defining what success looks like within the four year term, and making sure the plan describes what should be achieved before the next election.
StrategyCorp Walked Council Through the Strategic Planning Mindset
Next, consultant Aidan Grove-White (StrategyCorp) presented on the purpose and structure of the strategic planning process. He repeatedly stressed that this work is not meant to feel like regular council business, because it focuses on the big picture and the limited time horizon of the term.
He described strategic planning as a way to manage competing demands, avoid drift, and set priorities in a municipal environment that is often reactive. He also described how a clear plan helps staff decide what to recommend, and how it supports transparency by showing residents what council is focusing on and how progress will be tracked.
During questions, Councillor Roy Pennell (Ameliasburgh) raised a concern about how to explain the plan to residents in a way that actually lands, saying good ideas do not matter much if taxpayers never understand what council is doing. Grove-White agreed and said clear reporting back to the public should be reflected in the strategic plan.
Pennell also spoke about the challenge of a county with distinct communities spread over a large geography, and the risk that a consensus can feel uneven across north, south, east, and west. Grove-White acknowledged that tension and said part of the work after the session would be shaping what council shared into something with county wide application, while still recognizing that some issues may land differently depending on location.
Mayor Steve Ferguson asked where livability and affordability fit, focusing on the reality that people are under pressure to afford life in the County. Grove-White said those concerns had already come through strongly in the community work, and while the term livability can be hard to measure directly, council could choose practical initiatives that improve affordability, services, and access.
MacNaughton returned to the question of how general or specific the plan should be, and Grove-White said the next step would drill down into concrete initiatives, while leaving room to adjust the community pillars if council felt something important was missing.
Later, Councillor Janice Maynard (Ameliasburgh) raised the relationship between desired services and the tax base, suggesting the plan needs to reflect the reality that priorities have cost implications. Grove-White agreed that communicating limits and tradeoffs would be part of the work, and that council would ultimately have to make choices that fit within what the tax base can reasonably support.
A Staff Report Offered Examples of SMART Goals and Metrics
After the presentation, council moved to a staff report introduced by Emily Cowan, Director of Community Services, Programs and Initiatives. Cowan described the report as a set of examples showing how staff generated goals and metrics could be used to support council’s strategic plan once council identified its priorities.
She explained that goals should be framed as SMART goals and that metrics are the data points used to measure progress toward those goals. Cowan also noted that staff had been working across departments for a couple of months to develop examples and to identify existing plans and studies that would need to align with the eventual strategic plan.
Pennell asked about participation in the earlier community consultation. Cowan described multiple engagement methods, including a mailer survey with hundreds of responses, plus public and youth consultation sessions.
Council then received Cowan’s report for information, and the meeting recessed for a short break before moving into the workshop portion.
The Round Robin Workshop Happened Off Camera
The heart of the day was a structured round robin workshop where councillors worked in small pairs and rotated through table discussions to share priorities and capture each other’s ideas.
Because of the interactive format and room setup, this workshop portion was not live streamed. Council recessed at 2:00 pm and reconvened at 2:15 pm, then later resumed the live stream at 3:35 pm.
Debrief, Tweaks to the Pillars, and Endorsing the 10 Year Community Plan
When the live stream returned, Mayor Steve Ferguson took over as chair, and the meeting shifted into a group debrief. MacNaughton said she found the staff work thoughtful and noted that many of the priorities she heard in the workshop aligned with the pillars and the goals and metrics staff had prepared.
At that point, staff prompted Roberts to share small wording ideas he had raised earlier. Roberts suggested adding language about a diversified economy and wording that captured the idea that people, businesses, and the public sector rise to challenges.
Pennell raised a different kind of concern, pointing to misinformation on social media and floating the idea of the county helping residents find correct information and “the facts” when needed.
Maynard said she appreciated the small group format but noted she did not get to speak with every councillor during the workshop and wanted more opportunity to complete those conversations. She also raised specific themes she felt should be clearer in the overall direction, including infrastructure, roads, and emergency services. She also returned to the idea that housing needed to be captured in an explicit way, not just implied.
MacNaughton echoed that housing came up repeatedly as a top priority and said it should be stated clearly. Council then voted to endorse the County’s 10 Year Community Plan Report, and later adjourned the meeting at 3:50 pm.
Key Takeaways
Council used this meeting to move from broad community aspirations toward a term focused strategic plan, with a strong emphasis on defining what success looks like and how it can be measured and reported.
Councillors repeatedly returned to the same pressure points: affordability and housing, plus the need to connect priorities to real world limits like budgets, capacity, and what the tax base can support.
Even in a meeting about planning, council kept circling back to trust and clarity, including better public communication, dealing with misinformation, and making sure county wide priorities still reflect the realities of different communities across Prince Edward County.
Disclaimer: This article is based on a meeting with an approximate duration of 2:51:38. Due to the length of the meeting, our team was not able to independently review the full recording in its entirety. As a result, we relied on software-generated transcription, automated summarization, and automated recognition of speakers and participants, which may not be entirely accurate. All transcriptions, summaries, and related content are prepared by our team in good faith and on a reasonable best-efforts basis. The content is provided for general informational purposes only and is intended to support public understanding of the topics discussed. While reasonable efforts have been made to present the information accurately, automated processes may result in errors, omissions, or unintended misinterpretations. This article does not constitute an official, certified, or verbatim record of the meeting, and it should not be relied upon as such. Readers are encouraged to consult original source materials, official minutes, or recordings where available for confirmation or clarification. Questions, requests for clarification, or suggested corrections may be submitted to hello@pecconnect.ca for review and consideration.
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