Strategic Plan 2023 - 2026
The County of Prince Edward delivers a variety of services and programs to more than 25,000 people each year. The Strategic Plan is the guiding document that helps ensure Council and staff work together toward achieving the outcomes that meet the needs of the community.
Setting the Vision
Before creating a new Strategic Plan for the County, the municipality set out to understand the community’s vision for the future. Residents, business owners, and community groups were asked: “What should Prince Edward County look like in 10 years?”
Through an extensive consultation process, the municipality heard about the community’s hopes and concerns for the future. The conversations focused on the economy, community infrastructure, quality of life, climate change and local government’s relationship with the public.
The ideas generated through these conversations were distilled into a 10-Year Community Plan for Prince Edward County. This 10-Year Community Plan has been adopted by Council as the community vision.
As the pressures of change continue to bear down on us, we must look at ways to adapt while not losing sight of the values, and traditions that have come to define Prince Edward County over the years. -- Mayor Steve Ferguson
In 10 years, Prince Edward County will...
The local government is transparent, effective, and efficient, with robust public engagement practices.
Celebrate our rich history and creative culture, and invest in and protect our rural character and natural landscapes.
Well-maintained infrastructure supports a strong and diversified economy, providing meaningful options for living and work.
People, businesses and the public sector rise to the challenge of climate change and protect the local environment.
Residents care for and celebrate each other.
Achieving the Vision
With a community vision to guide them, Council and staff collaborated to establish priorities and create measurable goals that could be achieved in this term of Council. These priorities and goals make up the municipal Strategic Plan for 2023 to 2026.
Under each theme of the 10-Year Community Plan, there are a number of Council priorities and objectives.
Under the priorities are specific, measurable goals that the municipality will work toward during this term of Council.
Open and effective local government
Priority: Customer Service
- Set response time standards, aligned with resident expectations and relevant government regulations, and communicate standards.
- Ensure a high-performing municipal workforce that is well-trained, well-informed and adequately resourced to respond to both residents’ and internal stakeholders’ expectations for service standards.
- Build a corporate culture that fosters collaboration, innovation, a culture of learning and empowerment, and long-term investment in staff retention.
Priority: Resident-Council Relations
- Increase resident participation in the formal decision-making process by encouraging participation in meetings, committees and consultation efforts.
- Support resident participation in the budgeting process and Council business.
Priority: Budgeting
- Develop a tool to help Council and staff understand how discretionary resources are currently allocated across the diverse population and large geography of The County. Using this understanding as a baseline, inform future service standards and associated spending.
- Starting with the 2025 annual budget, present both operating and capital budgets in the context of a three-year forecast to provide a longer-term financial planning lens.
Priority: Council Operations
- Improve transparency and accountability to the municipality’s Code of Conduct by regularly reporting on the use of the Integrity Commissioner.
- Encourage cross-collaboration between Council and staff respecting their different roles, to set service area standards responding to resident expectations.
Invest in and protect our rural character
Priority: Recreation, Heritage and Culture
- Identify and celebrate The County’s vibrant heritage, arts and cultural assets by encouraging creative activation of our heritage and cultural spaces.
- Prioritize and invest in municipal heritage properties.
- Expand the reach of municipal consultation and actions through partnerships and support of groups such as Thrive, The County Foundation/Vital Signs and others to advance the County’s Strategic Priorities.
Priority: Agriculture and Rural Character
Limit severances on farmable lands within the Rural designation, and create policy tools to support the preservation of farmable land (Clas 1-3) for agricultural uses.
Good Infrastructure and Diversified Economy
Priority: Housing that is Affordable
- Through the Affordable Housing Corporation, complete the construction of 850 affordable housing units.
- Increase housing density and mix of housing types and encourage in-fill development in our towns, to help revitalize our communities and be consistent with the Provincial Policy Statement and Official Plan.
Priority: Community Infrastructure
- Follow asset management planning best practices, and achieve the legislated planning milestones to help manage municipal infrastructure assets and make sound investment decisions.
- Facilitate internet service providers’ expansion projects in Prince Edward County to ensure project milestones are met.
- Create and implement a Parks and Recreation Master Plan to invest in the creation and improvement of high-quality parks and recreation space across The County with particular attention to underserved communities.
- Support the timely construction of infrastructure to support approved growth and development.
Priority: Roads
- Increase transparency around the road maintenance and rehabilitation program through sustained communications and public engagement on service level expectations.
- Maintain high quality service delivery of emergency services to The County
Priority: Economic Development
- Develop and begin to implement an evidence-based Economic Development Strategy using data generated through the Business Retention and Expansion survey, Thrive PEC findings, regional economic development data, local workforce data and other sources to inform actions.
- Refresh The County’s public transit strategy in the post-pandemic context to meet current and future employment and educational transportation needs of residents, especially youth.
Rising to the Challenge of Climate Change
Priority: Take Action on the Climate Emergency Declaration
- Develop greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets and implement the plan resulting from the Federation of Canadian Municipality’s Partners in Climate Protection Work.
- Strengthen procurement policies to support sustainable purchasing.
- Maintain and increase the tree canopy in towns, villages and rural areas through policy and investment.
Priority: Sustainable Community
- Increase availability of electric vehicle charging infrastructure for resident and tourist use.
- Use educational programs to encourage sustainable community action on municipally managed services such as waste management, open air burning, water consumption etc.
A Community that Cares
Priority: Community Equity
- Consider the poverty-related implications of municipal policy decisions and attempt to mitigate negative impacts for people living in poverty.
- Collaborate with youth to determine how the municipality can help them feel safe in the community and remove barriers to success in high school and secondary education in Prince Edward County.
- Reduce the number of County residents on the Centralized Wait List for Housing (administered by PELASS) either through helping them improve their circumstances or through the provision of new housing units.
Priority: Community Cohesion
- Improve the structures and practices for volunteers to enable municipal-community collaboration.
- Develop a municipal Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, including adequate resourcing.
Priority: Community Health
- Begin the development of the former Queen Elizabeth school property as a community hub, prioritizing space for health and wellness.
- Develop innovative partnerships and initiatives to attract and retain high-quality talent required for municipal long-term care services.
Measuring progress
Staff and Council will set specific targets and determine performance indicators as part of regular planning and budgeting processes.
Staff will prepare an annual Strategic Plan progress report to Council at the start of the year to highlight efforts and celebrate our successes. As well, the quarterly reports from the Chief Administrative Officer to Council will outline collective work in these priority areas throughout the year.