City of SJ News
12-15-2008, 09:30 PM
For Immediate Release
December 15, 2008
Integrated Community Sustainability Plan presented to Common Council
Plan key to translate Community’s Vision and Goals into action
The City of Saint John Integrated Community Sustainability Plan (ICSP) was presented to Common Council this evening by Planner Holly McMackin of Dillon Consulting and Kim Graham, Corporate Program Manager with The City of Saint John. The ICSP is a long-term plan, developed in partnership with community members, which provides direction for Saint John to realize the sustainability objectives it has for the environmental, cultural, social and economic needs of our community, and is the key policy document needed to translate the Community’s Vision into action.
In early March 2008, Common Council awarded the contract for consulting services to assist in the development of the ICSP to Dillon Consulting Limited. Ms. McMackin has taken the lead for Dillon and has worked with City staff and over 30 members of the ICSP Stakeholder Committee to develop this plan.
“We are beginning to build momentum in our community when it comes to sustainability, and many of our on-going initiatives are already directly linked to the Vision and Goals of the community, our Sustainability Principles and Common Council’s priorities,” said Mayor Ivan Court. “The key challenge is to continue to translate our community’s Vision and Goals into action, and this plan is a key component to further this objective.”
“The purpose of the ICSP is determining what needs to be done to move our community from where we are today to where we want to be in the future,” said Ms. McMackin. “The challenge is not coming up with ideas or recommendations for actions – there are many excellent examples of those. The real challenge is figuring out which – out of the hundreds of things we could do – will do the most to move us towards the community’s vision for the future.”
“Sustainability is a long range philosophy requiring dramatic changes to the way we currently plan, design, construct and live in our community,” said Randy Hatfield, Executive Director of the Human Development Council, and a member of the ICSP Stakeholder Committee. “It is great to be able to work with the City and other community stakeholders as a part of the ICSP development process, to help transform the City of Saint John into a leading sustainable community.”
This plan identifies six primary community projects that will have the greatest impact for Saint John to achieve its vision of leading the nation as a sustainable community. These primary projects are community wide in scope and were determined by how directly they linked to the sustainability principles and the community developed and owned vision and goals. The projects are; Priority Neighbourhood Capacity Building, District Wealth Creation Strategy, Workforce Expansion, Marsh Creek Restoration Initiative, Safe, Clean Drinking Water, and Municipal Plan Review.
Five of the community projects identified in the ICSP are aligned with Common Council’s priorities. The Workforce Expansion Project is the sixth project. It is the primary economic community initiative and is the focus of Enterprise Saint John, the City’s economic development agency.
An approved ICSP is also an advantage to the City of Saint John when applying for funding from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and is one of the prerequisites for provincial grants and a common requirement for capital projects. Capital projects supported by a municipal sustainability plan that demonstrates the necessity or importance of the project may be considered to be exceptional, and may be eligible to receive funding for up to eighty percent of the applicable project costs.
The plan includes both actions that will require broad-based community cooperation, and those that can be implemented by individual community members. The City of Saint John will continue its leadership role in sustainability through a number of tangible steps identified in the ICSP, specifically by establishing ICSP partnerships to implement the plan and working with community partners to research, measure and monitor ICSP progress.
Vision 2015 is a shared plan for continuous improvement to make Saint John a national leader as a sustainable community by 2015. The Vision 2015 team is using an integrated approach of planning, strategy, action, and performance measurement to align City services to the vision, goals and objectives identified by the citizens of Saint John.
Dillon Consulting is a Canadian-owned company providing consulting, engineering, planning, science and program management services across Canada and abroad. Established in 1946, Dillon operates from offices across Canada and has a significant local presence in New Brunswick, with close to 50 staff in the province.
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More... (http://www.saintjohn.ca/article-details.cfm?ArticleID=3D3387B2-FD1F-B92F-95D7E349486C73BC)
December 15, 2008
Integrated Community Sustainability Plan presented to Common Council
Plan key to translate Community’s Vision and Goals into action
The City of Saint John Integrated Community Sustainability Plan (ICSP) was presented to Common Council this evening by Planner Holly McMackin of Dillon Consulting and Kim Graham, Corporate Program Manager with The City of Saint John. The ICSP is a long-term plan, developed in partnership with community members, which provides direction for Saint John to realize the sustainability objectives it has for the environmental, cultural, social and economic needs of our community, and is the key policy document needed to translate the Community’s Vision into action.
In early March 2008, Common Council awarded the contract for consulting services to assist in the development of the ICSP to Dillon Consulting Limited. Ms. McMackin has taken the lead for Dillon and has worked with City staff and over 30 members of the ICSP Stakeholder Committee to develop this plan.
“We are beginning to build momentum in our community when it comes to sustainability, and many of our on-going initiatives are already directly linked to the Vision and Goals of the community, our Sustainability Principles and Common Council’s priorities,” said Mayor Ivan Court. “The key challenge is to continue to translate our community’s Vision and Goals into action, and this plan is a key component to further this objective.”
“The purpose of the ICSP is determining what needs to be done to move our community from where we are today to where we want to be in the future,” said Ms. McMackin. “The challenge is not coming up with ideas or recommendations for actions – there are many excellent examples of those. The real challenge is figuring out which – out of the hundreds of things we could do – will do the most to move us towards the community’s vision for the future.”
“Sustainability is a long range philosophy requiring dramatic changes to the way we currently plan, design, construct and live in our community,” said Randy Hatfield, Executive Director of the Human Development Council, and a member of the ICSP Stakeholder Committee. “It is great to be able to work with the City and other community stakeholders as a part of the ICSP development process, to help transform the City of Saint John into a leading sustainable community.”
This plan identifies six primary community projects that will have the greatest impact for Saint John to achieve its vision of leading the nation as a sustainable community. These primary projects are community wide in scope and were determined by how directly they linked to the sustainability principles and the community developed and owned vision and goals. The projects are; Priority Neighbourhood Capacity Building, District Wealth Creation Strategy, Workforce Expansion, Marsh Creek Restoration Initiative, Safe, Clean Drinking Water, and Municipal Plan Review.
Five of the community projects identified in the ICSP are aligned with Common Council’s priorities. The Workforce Expansion Project is the sixth project. It is the primary economic community initiative and is the focus of Enterprise Saint John, the City’s economic development agency.
An approved ICSP is also an advantage to the City of Saint John when applying for funding from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and is one of the prerequisites for provincial grants and a common requirement for capital projects. Capital projects supported by a municipal sustainability plan that demonstrates the necessity or importance of the project may be considered to be exceptional, and may be eligible to receive funding for up to eighty percent of the applicable project costs.
The plan includes both actions that will require broad-based community cooperation, and those that can be implemented by individual community members. The City of Saint John will continue its leadership role in sustainability through a number of tangible steps identified in the ICSP, specifically by establishing ICSP partnerships to implement the plan and working with community partners to research, measure and monitor ICSP progress.
Vision 2015 is a shared plan for continuous improvement to make Saint John a national leader as a sustainable community by 2015. The Vision 2015 team is using an integrated approach of planning, strategy, action, and performance measurement to align City services to the vision, goals and objectives identified by the citizens of Saint John.
Dillon Consulting is a Canadian-owned company providing consulting, engineering, planning, science and program management services across Canada and abroad. Established in 1946, Dillon operates from offices across Canada and has a significant local presence in New Brunswick, with close to 50 staff in the province.
-30-
More... (http://www.saintjohn.ca/article-details.cfm?ArticleID=3D3387B2-FD1F-B92F-95D7E349486C73BC)