Letter: Where is the Strategy Behind Owen Sound's 'Vision 2050?'
In today’s Letter to the Editor, a reader questions recent population growth projections and argues Owen Sound’s Vision 2050 document outlines values, but lacks a strategy for achieving them.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Dear Editor,
Recent letters presenting a statistical analysis of Owen Sound’s imagined population growth led me to wonder why Mayor Boddy might choose to misrepresent Owen Sound’s projected population growth.
It’s reasonable and probably expected for a mayor to be positive about a place and people served.
What’s the point of promoting a false future, though?
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Consider Owen Sound’s past. The city grew due to 19th century area population expansion related to resource extraction and associated manufacturing and transportation. It also serviced regional agriculture, as it does still.
Longtime residents will recall the 20th century government incentives for companies — PPG and Goodyear, for example — to locate their manufacturing beyond major metropolitan areas in cities such as Owen Sound.
Like so many places throughout North America, Owen Sound’s economy faltered because globalization, automation and NAFTA took industry elsewhere. Associated transportation systems, such as rail and marine, were increasingly underutilized and obsolescent.
Non-retail businesses may be attracted to Owen Sound in the future; however, though some communications technologies allow geographic and demographic realities to be overcome, this place lacks the critical combination and proximity of people, services, businesses, industry and infrastructure that distinguishes and sustains diverse economies and settlement areas like the Greater Toronto Hamilton Area (GTHA).
Human population and economic growth favours concentration rather than dispersion. Accordingly, Owen Sound will prevail as a comparatively small-scale, regional hub servicing itself and its rural socio-economic network.
“Prevail” suggests “resilience,” one of the principles or values of “Future Owen Sound Vision 2050.” Population growth may be a worthy goal for some related to resilience. It could be a goal achieved as an outcome of government action.
Population growth is neither a strategy, nor essential to Owen Sound’s future.
Would it not be more constructive to identify the actions necessary for realizing the community’s vision; to actually devise a comprehensive strategy to uphold community values, for example?
The six principles to guide “A Long-term Strategic Plan for the City of Owen Sound” are common, if not essential, values for contemporary city governance and planning.
Similarly, the seven themes meant to inform strategic plan actions indicate an awareness of community growth priorities; priorities for an engaged citizenry essentially. Clear, strategic actions related to the city’s future are absent.
Consider Theme #1, “Prosperous City.” As with each theme, “Vision 2050” presents three things:
a theme “definition”
a description of what “by 2050, Owen Sound will…” achieve
“metrics” or measurable outcomes of unspecified actions.
Firstly, the “definition” does not define, it describes activity. That implies action certainly but for a plan to be strategic, there has to be a commitment to action, or a goal or objective; for example, as derived from the Prosperous City definition:
Increase economic advantages for current and new businesses.
Contribute to a good quality of life.
It is not enough to list goals; they have to be understandable, actionable and effective. How will we increase economic advantages? How will we contribute to a good quality of life? What is an economic advantage? What is a good quality of life? And for whom? Is economic advantage or a good quality of life measurable?
Secondly, the 2050 city condition is a restatement of principles or values which is fine when accompanied by a strategy or plan for reconciling, upholding, maintaining and enhancing community values. The future condition statement also suggests desirable actions or goals, in this example, for prosperity: “attract a … workforce.”
The description of a desirable future is positive certainly.
However, in the context of “Vision 2050,” a goal divorced from action leading to its achievement is a hollow statement.
Thirdly, metrics or measurable outcomes are used to determine the effectiveness of action.
“Vision 2050,” an official community document, neither presents the baseline metrics against which change will be compared, measured, interpreted, evaluated and understood, nor indicates how a measurable change is to be achieved.
In other words, we do not know what action will result in the outcome or metric/measure of success, such as: “Net increase in the number of businesses by 50 with every Census cycle.”
The strength of “Vision 2050” does come from Owen Sound citizens, as Mayor Boddy’s associated message states. He describes: “… a guide to help us navigate the years ahead, adapt to change, and seize new opportunities as they arise.”
“Vision 2050” is a questionable guide.
It’s definitely not a strategic plan. There is no strategy unless the lack of strategy is the strategy.
As the outcome of community engagement, “Vision 2050” could serve as a good background document for a strategic plan: as the Mayor imagines, a plan that: “… will serve as a crucial tool for the City… guide budgets, decisions, and daily work, while ensuring departments, Council, and partners are working in alignment.”
The “Vision 2050” document falls far short of that. It’s too vague and open to interpretation as presented.
Strategy requires goals indicating what is to be achieved: why, how, when and by whom.
Policy and financial implications of goals and associated actions should be made clear. Desired outcomes should be identified with accompanying metrics to substantiate and evaluate achievement.
Maybe population growth is critical to Owen Sound’s prosperity and city building as some imagine it. Rather than offer an unsubstantiated population growth vision, offer a strategy for population growth as part of a comprehensive strategy for achieving a desired and described future.
The city’s citizens have expressed their sense of place as documented by “Future Owen Sound Vision 2050.” Now we need an implementable plan that responds to and respects the vision arising out of the people and place called Owen Sound and Saukiing Anishnaabekiing before that.
Andrew Wilson
Owen Sound
Letters to the Editor do not necessarily reflect the opinions or beliefs of The Owen Sound Current and its editor or publisher.
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