Strategic Plan Progress and Initiatives for 2024

Our City, Our Future, the City’s 10-year strategic plan, enters its sixth year in 2024.

This plan includes four strategic directions and 12 goals which are reviewed with each term of Council. Annually, staff identify initiatives that advance the goals and directions, considering such things as the results of the biennial Resident Satisfaction Survey, employee engagement survey results, existing plans and strategies and emerging priorities.

Throughout the year, the City provides updates to Council and the public on the progress made towards these goals.

On March 13, a report was presented to Council at Committee of the Whole outlining progress made to date, for 2023 and for the first quarter of 2024.

Read the Report 

Overall Plan Progress

The following shows what percentage of initiatives have been completed to date for each strategic priority since the launch of the plan in 2018:

• Sustainable City: 89%
• City that Moves: 85%
• Connected City: 95%
• Effective City: 88%

These numbers change as new initiatives are added annually. A public dashboard shows real time progress on the plan’s strategic directions and goals as well as annual initiatives.

Recent Progress

Since the last report in November 2023, 18 initiatives have been completed. These initiatives include:

• Launch of a new Development Design Manual and new development policy
• Completion of Wetland Study (Phase 2) – Functional Assessment
• Plan for and implement Phase 2 and 3 of Goulds Servicing
• Develop Roadmap and Key Performance Indicators for Waste & Recycling
• implement regional themed signage strategy.
• 2023 implementation of Corporate Climate Plan & Resilient St. John’s Community Climate Plan
• Complete and adopt a zero-emission fleet plan for public transit
• Complete and adopt an accessibility plan for transit
• Complete collision report
• Upgrade Downtown Lighting to LED
• Raise awareness and educate on the impact housing needs have on our community
• Design and implement training for staff and Councillors on the Code(s) of Conduct
• Investigate partnership with Canada Games and STEP for purchase of volunteer management database system
• Implement a new temporary permit system for City Hall Parking Garage and other permit enforced city lots
• Augment the City Archives Online Presence

Update on Continuous Improvement

Since the last report, the City has completed three continuous improvement projects: 

• Map and streamline the Occupational Health & Safety training process
• Improve the process for traffic sign maintenance work orders
• Reorganization of the special events storage space using the 5S tool

Continuous improvement projects aim to reduce waste in processes (activities that do not add value from a customer perspective), thereby improving lead time, turn-around time, saving hard costs and ultimately improving employee engagement and customer experience. 

• Continuous Improvement: Progress at a Glance

A new cumulative report of progress from continuous improvements projects is also included in the snapshot which shows ongoing savings of process time, staff time and dollar value reinvested as a result of these improvements. Since 2018, continuous improvement projects have saved over 395,000 hours of processing time and helped improve capacity for employees by reinvesting over 13,000 hours of staff time. 

New Initiatives for 2024

This year, the City plans to start 53 new initiatives, bringing the total number of initiatives in the plan to 264. While these initiatives begin this year, some projects may have multiple phases and take several years to complete.

A few new projects of note for 2024 include:

• Route 10 as a wheelchair accessible service route on Metrobus
• Work with First Voice on the Community Action Plan (items pertaining to City)
• Wetland Study Phase 2B Functional Assessment
• Neighbourhood plans for two areas
• Intersection and pedestrian safety improvements
• Construction of three Shared Use Paths for which engagement took place in 2023
• Development of a crime prevention strategy
• Advancement of the Housing Accelerator Fund
• 2024 Resident Satisfaction Survey
• E-permitting for electrical, plumbing and building permits

Future reports will show project alignments with other plans such as Accessibility, Healthy City and Service Excellence.