In two 4-3 votes, Tantramar council has given the go-ahead on hiring consultants to create a new recreation master plan for the municipality, and also an implementation plan for the municipality’s recently created strategic plan.
After a discussion at their special meeting on Monday, council opted to pay Alberta-based RC Strategies about $50,000 to create a new Recreation Master Plan for the amalgamated municipality.
RC Strategies were the only bidders on a request for proposals (RFP) that went out in June.
Active Living Director Matt Prdye told council the maximum cost limit of $50,000 in the RFP could have put off other potential bidders, and that since RC Strategies have already done work in the South East region, the project may have been more appealing to them.
Just four councillors voted in favour of the recommendation, including Deputy Mayor Matt Estabrooks, and Councillors Greg Martin, Allison Butcher, and Mike Tower.
Three councillors opposed outsourcing the recreation plan, including Councillors Debbie Wiggins-Colwell, Bruce Phinney, and Barry Hicks.
“I don’t like to see all this money going for outsourcing,” Hicks told his colleagues on Monday. “I feel that we have staff that are capable of this. I would like to see it done in house.”
Pryde told council he felt the new municipality would benefit from an outside perspective for the five year recreation plan, and that having consultants on board would also be less disruptive to the department’s normal workflow.
Councillor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell attempted to postpone a decision on awarding the Recreation Master Plan contract until council could discuss it at its next committee of the whole meeting. But with no support beyond councillors HIcks and Phinney, her motion did not pass.
CHMA caught up with Pryde after the meeting, and started off asking him about the former town of Sackville’s recreation plan, which was created in house by town staff, and passed in 2019.
Pryde says the biggest reason to outsource the plan-making this time around is Tantramar’s recent amalgamation. “We’re a new municipality. We’re much larger geographically… With the former LSDs and the village of Dorchester, I guess there’s more feet in the water, so to speak,” says Pryde. “So we just want to make sure that we do it right.”
Pryde says neutrality also comes into play. When he worked on the Sackville recreation plan in 2018, he had been with the town for a few of years. Now he’s 11 years in, and feels that some outside perspective will benefit the plan, especially when it comes to hearing public feedback and comments on what the municipality is currently doing and what it should be doing.
“It does go a long way to having somebody who’s more neutral,” says Pryde.
As part of their pitch to create a new recreation plan, RC Strategies has also included an option to acquire smartphone GPS data, which could help inform active transportation components of the plan.
“I’ve seen it used before,” says Pryde. “We have some for the rail trail already that we got from the Trans Canada Trail folks. It’s interesting to see how people are moving, where they’re going and how they’re getting there.”
Strategic plan implementation plan also approved
Also at Monday’s meeting, council approved another consultant’s contract. The municipality will pay another Alberta-based company, Strategic Steps Inc, $15,000 to create a corporate plan–a document to outline how senior staff can implement the strategic plan developed by the same consultants last summer and fall.
The same pitch came to council at its July 8 meeting, but councillors decided to wait on the decision, citing some of the same concerns expressed over the recreation plan, namely that staff had the expertise to complete the plan in-house.
Director of Community and Corporate Services Jeff Taylor presented the $15,000 corporate plan proposal again on Monday, and echoed Pryde’s argument that the project would also benefit from a fresh perspective.
“It’s important to not just avoid bias, but avoid the perception of bias when it comes to things like organizational capacity,” said Taylor. “And it’s really nice to get an outside perspective that brings forward best practices from around the country.”
Councillors Wiggins-Colwell, Hicks and Phinney reprised their argument against outsourcing the work, saying that existing staff were capable of planning how to implement the strategic plan, which was just passed in ***.
Councillor Allison Butcher reprised her argument in favour of approving the staff recommendation.
“As I said, with our discussion around the recreation master plan,” said Butcher, “if we are going to put our trust and belief in our staff and believe that they are capable of great things, then I think we also have to believe them when they say that this is something that should be outsourced.”
Councillor Bruce Phinney had a different take.
“I agree that we have good staff,” said Phinney. “I don’t agree with the fact that we should approve everything they bring forward.”
Councillor Mike Tower said he felt that since there was currently a vacancy on senior staff, with the position of clerk open, that there was a good argument to hire an outside firm to support their work.
In the end, council approved hiring Strategic Steps to create a corporate plan for a cost of $15,000.
