The direction of the City of Yorkton is driven by the people, and the recent Yorkton 2020 Community Strategic Planning Conference is part of the way the community can guide the city. Approximately 50 people from a variety of groups and interests participated in a recent event, which took place October 28-30.
The session saw many large issues such as education, healthcare, recreation, and technology touched on by the participants, says Mayor James Wilson.
The process now is for council to analyze the information learned in the process, and put it together into the final action plan for the upcoming decade, Wilson says. The completed plan will be presented to those who participated in the session, and then the community as a whole. The plan will be brought to all levels of government and stakeholders in the city as well, to show the areas where people think the community needs to go.
"This is a community strategic plan, the ownership of this belongs to everyone, not solely to city hall," Wilson says.
This is a long term planning session, and as a result it will likely be 2012 before some of the action points are worked on, as the city integrates the plan into the planning process for future years, Wilson explains.
"This evolves into the next step of departmental budgeting and business plans for the various parts of city hall."
Given the nature of the plan, the conference would not have been a success without the community. Wilson says that the conference showed how much people care about the community and were it is going.
"There was a difference of views, but everyone was respectful of one another, and there was very open communication with one another. I see that people care and love our community, and that is why they were there, to do their part," Wilson says.
Wilson expects that the final plan from the conference will be shared early in 2011.
