Introduction
The city recently announced with great fanfare the launch of “Horizon 2050 – Shaping Burlington’s Future”.
The purpose of this initiative was explained in the official launch announcement:
“We are creating our next long-term vision and strategic plan – Horizon 2050 and we want to hear from you!
Horizon 2050 will guide the choices City leadership makes today and over the next 25 years. Help us plan for a Burlington that is future ready, community focused and a thriving city for current and future generations.
What you share with us will help City staff and Council set the priorities that shape policies, programs and investments across the city.”
A Trip Down Memory Lane
If the wording around this program sounds eerily familiar, you are probably not alone. Like me, you likely have a sense of déjà vu. Didn’t we see something like this previously?
Focus Burlington filed a Freedom of Information request and we learned that this project is being led by the consulting firm Deloitte, and their selection came as the result of a sole-source contract initiated by the City of Burlington. When the city rents out pool time, a request for quotation process is used, but when buying consulting services for this project, the contract is awarded to Deloitte without the opportunity for any other companies to bid.
Back in April 2016 Burlington Council approved a 25-year strategic plan. This plan, which was to cover the years 2015 – 2040, was the culmination of many hours of community workshops and consultation sessions.
At the time, Councillors extolled the new plan as the advent of a bright new era. Indeed, Burlington’s Mayor at the time, Rick Goldring, was quoted as saying:
“Building a great city requires thoughtful planning developed with strong community engagement. I look forward to working with council, staff and our residents and businesses to get started on initiatives across Burlington outlined in our Strategic Plan. Together, we can achieve greatness.”—Mayor Rick Goldring
Indeed, our current Mayor, Marianne Meed Ward, a councillor in 2016, offered the following evaluation:
“Residents have told us that “a city that grows” doesn’t mean anything goes for development. Residents want to protect urban greenspace and neighbourhood character, and have meaningful input into how our city is developed for the future. Our strategic plan captures these aspirations and more. Our task now is to live up to them.” –Ward 2 Councillor Marianne Meed Ward
All of which begs the question: if it was such a great plan, then why do we have to go through this exercise again, and why does it require the hiring of a consulting firm at $100K to coordinate it?
State Planning
Former Russian Communist leader Josef Stalin was the architect of state planning. Beginning in 1928, his government initiated centralized planning as a means of setting production targets for the economy. The goal was to radically transform Russian society through industrialization, farming collectives, centralized state control, and the prioritization of heavy industry. Historians and economists agree that this program was an abysmal failure that resulted in population displacements, economic imbalance, forced labour and widespread privation.
I’m not suggesting that Burlington Council’s planning exercise will lead to anything similar, but I will submit that it will likely end up with the same unsuccessful label.
To begin with, a 25-year timeframe is completely unrealistic. No one, probably not even Nostradamus himself, can forecast that far out with any degree of accuracy or realism. Back in 2016, who would have predicted the 2020 COVID pandemic or the housing affordability crisis? Who would have bet on the election of Donald Trump as President in 2016, let alone his subsequent re-election in 2024? Who would have guessed the impact that Trump’s tariffs have had, and are having, on the Canadian economy?
Most businesses don’t bother with 25-year forecasts because, quite frankly, there are just too many unknowns, variables, uncertainties and imponderables. Governments and researchers can make projections, but to think that public servants have a crystal ball that enables them to concisely gauge future events, public policies, or economic and financial conditions with any degree of accuracy over a 25-year timeframe is naïve.
Second, there are multiple research organizations, think tanks and economic analysts who spend their time conducting research and analysis. If governments need to develop models of future behaviour, why not rely on these entities? Why do we need to engage consultants to redo additional research?
Third, when the 2016 strategic plan was launched, it was supposed to cover the period 2015 – 2040. Why, less than nine years in, is it being rewritten in its entirety? If the plan was so good and the vision so incredibly compelling, why not just update those elements that may require refinements, as was apparently done in 2021? Why do we need to start from scratch?
Here’s the 2016 Strategic Plan, updated in 2021:
It is filled with lots of homilies, nice pictures and visionary idealism. There are four strategic objectives upon which the plan is predicated:
- A City That Grows
- A City That Moves
- A Healthy and Greener City
- An Engaging City
My question to city officials would be: if the plan was so good in 2016, and was updated only as recently as 2021, what has changed so dramatically that it warrants the hiring of an external consulting firm, the expenditure of $100K, and the deployment of more staff time and citizen resources, to review and revise it?
A Waste of Time, an Exercise in Futility, or a Higher Purpose?
Strategic plans fail for a variety of reasons. Economists and think tanks have written reams on the reasons for their failure.
In Burlington’s case, I would submit that three of the major reasons are a lack of clear, tangible goals and reporting, an absence of accountability, and the absence of evidence-based decision-making.
A strategic plan needs someone to champion and shepherd its implementation. By my count, Burlington has had six City Managers/CAOs in the past twenty years (i.e. Tim Dobbie, Roman Martiuk, Jeff Fielding, James Ridge, Tim Commisso, Hassan Bassit). Curt Benson, the new CAO, makes seven. That kind of churn at the senior management ranks does not instill either continuity or consistency.
A strategic plan also requires a process by which goals are evaluated, and performance is measured and assessed. My colleagues in Focus Burlington can cite multiple examples of budgetary and financial targets that lack transparency, or for which answers aren’t forthcoming.
Opinion – Engagement and Transparency – Burlington’s 2026 Budget Process.
So, rather than go through another convoluted consultation process to revise, yet again, the strategic plan, why don’t we just communicate, promote and measure the goals embodied in the current one?
I can think of a million different things that could be done with the money that is being spent to retain Deloitte for this project. Rewriting another 25-year plan isn’t one of them.
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