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Town setting course with strategic plan

The Town of Athabasca's strategic planning process went well and had a notably high level of public engagement, according to consulting firm Transitional Solutions.
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Transitional Solutions president Erica Thomas presents the draft strategic plan to town council June 27.

The Town of Athabasca's strategic planning process went well and had a notably high level of public engagement, according to consulting firm Transitional Solutions.

The firm, which was hired to oversee the town's strategic plan, presented a draft version of the plan to town council during a special meeting June 27. The plan outlines the town's key strategic priorities, the tactics to achieve them and things to be achieved within 2018.

Transitional Solutions president Erica Thomas also reviewed the public engagement process the town undertook for the strategic plan.

"It was actually pretty successful. It took a little bit of time to get people out and it was slow-moving, but once we actually held the sessions it was quite positive," Thomas said during the June 27 meeting.

The public engagement process included a social media campaign, a survey and strategic planning workshops. The public engagement survey was able to get 130 entries, which Thomas said was fantastic for a community of Athabasca's size.

Thomas also said an engagement session with Edwin Parr Composite School graduating students, an age group the firm had not specifically done a consultation with before, went well.


Coun. John Traynor, who also teaches at EPC, complimented the firm for that session and said it really engaged the students there.

"They really felt like they were involved in the process and really made them think about their own town," Traynor said during the meeting.


However, the youth survey, which involved 15-20 students, had 89 per cent of respondents say they did not plan to remain in Athabasca after graduating. In addition, 50 per cent of respondents said they would not return to Athabasca after completing post-secondary studies.

"There's a lot to negativity to what they thought was available to them in our little town," Coun. David Pacholok said during the meeting.


But Coun. Michael Arychuk said the youth survey is information the town can work at and track.

"Now we know," Arychuk said. "We can trend this, we can take that same survey year after year, Grade 12 after Grade 12."

Strengths, weaknesses identified

The surveys collected were summarized into word clouds, identifying the most common responses to survey questions. Respondents commonly noted Athabasca's location, river front and Athabasca University as strengths, while business, development and housing were noted as weaknesses.

Thomas said the public engagement process did not identify any glaring holes in the plan requiring the town to go back to the drawing board. But she added an acknowledgement of Athabasca being on Indigenous treaty land should be included.

"That's something that comes up a lot these days. I don't think it needs to be a key priority or even a tactic, but shows in your strategic plan that you recognize that," Thomas said.

Powell said  the strategic planning workshops had more emphasis on poverty than council had in its own discussions.

"There is a little more emphasis on here dealing with poverty and low-income than we discussed," Powell said. "Something to put in the back of our heads and think thoughts about."

Planning for the future

The strategic plan includes a list of objectives for the town to complete to meet its priorities, including updating municipal plans, assisting the business community and investigating housing options for seniors.

The plan also notes key results to achieve in 2018, which include a volunteer appreciation event, usage for the Old Brick School, completion of a community engagement plan and a business visitation with ALPAC and Athabasca University.

Thomas said the municipality did significantly more public engagement than most.

"You did way more public engagement than a lot of municipalities do. Most municipalities throw it on Facebook and do the survey and that's about it," Thomas said. "So definitely kudos to you for taking the initiative to truly speak to your community and your stakeholders and listen."

No council motion was made regarding the draft strategic plan.

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