Council’s Strategic Plan Misses The Mark

Opinion Editorial submitted by Chad Krahn

It took a full year, but we finally have a glimpse into where Mayor and Council want to take Red Deer. This week they released their Strategic Plan … and it’s underwhelming. The plan is heavy on buzzwords and light on a concrete vision of where Council wants the city to be in four years.

Let’s start with the “vision” statement Innovative Thinking, Strategic Results, Vibrant Community. These six words do not tell us anything about where Council wants to take the city or anything specific Council would like to achieve in four years. Where is the inspiring vision with big goals to propel our city toward
greatness and make us proud to be Red Deerians?

There is also a complete lack of anything specific to Red Deer; this document could easily be the strategic plan for Medicine Hat or Lacombe. Every community should want to thrive and be healthy and connected, but what will Council’s focus be to ensure Red Deer grows into the great city we know it can be?

The focus areas of A Thriving City, Community Health and Well-being and An Engaged and Connected City are all wonderful, but they are tough to measure.

Many of the goals that Council hopes to achieve are minimalist and are not stretching the capabilities or the imagination of Red Deerians. Council wants to have a “vibrant downtown” and a “strong, respectful, and collaborative relationships” with citizens. That’s nice, but the indicators are so weak that one more event downtown and the goal was achieved. If the population grows by one person, another goal is achieved. Many of the indicators focus on the feelings of Red Deerians, which are virtually impossible to measure. Data-driven results are a great goal, but how does Council expect to get data on our collective feelings? Without numbers and benchmarks, this becomes a plan that is impossible to fail but also exceedingly difficult to make progress toward any difficult goal.

One of the top issues for Red Deer is crime. This does get mentioned in a roundabout way under Community Health and Wellbeing as a Safe and Secure City. It also comes with some indicators:

 feeling of safety
 number of calls for service (urban encampments)
 Reported crime statistics are within guidelines specified in the Annual Policing Plan

This seems passive for a huge issue. Feelings of safety are essential, but they are, by nature, hard to measure. My feelings of safety have a lot to do with how recently my garage was broken into. They also want to measure the number of calls for service, particularly around rough sleeper camps. Why not just measure the number of rough sleeper camps? Rather than specifying that crime statistics are within guidelines, where is the commitment to make sure our crime rate drops so Red Deer doesn’t appear on Canada’s most dangerous cities? What about committing to innovative ideas for our police officers to help get the crime rate down? Or even efforts to increase the number of RCMP members in the city. The Mayor has spoken several times about how community safety is a top priority, so one would have expected it to feature more prominently in the Strategic Plan.

The economy is another top issue in Red Deer, which is mentioned under Local Economy is Strong and Diverse. And there are some indicators:

 Net gain of businesses in Red Deer
 Business developer and local contractor satisfaction

Neither of these indicators speaks to the diversity of the economy. While a net gain is better than a net loss, it hardly represents an aspirational goal. Would council be satisfied if there was only a single more business in the city after four years? Where is a percent growth benchmark that the plan is striving to achieve? Where is the commitment to being a regional economic driver? What happened to Mayor Johnston’s push for hydrogen service hub development in Red Deer? Would that not be something that belongs in a Strategic Plan?

Red Deer’s biggest challenge is that it is a city that thinks like a small town. We are on the cusp of having the best of both worlds – a great community with a small-town feel. But I fear we won’t get there without a clear and distinct vision that will propel our city toward greatness. We can be so much more.

Chad Krahn is a former candidate for Red Deer City Council.

Related Topics:#ChadKrahn #RedDeerCityCouncil #RedDeerStrategicPlan

Up Next

Molly Banister extension is before council again on Monday for the umpteenth time. Exhausting.

Don't Miss

Did the Environment Minister announce the end of Alberta’s Oil and Gas Industry at COP 27?

Todayville

Todayville is a digital media and technology company. We profile unique stories and events in our community. Register and promote your community event for free.

Follow Author

JD Vance was one of the last people to meet Pope Francis

International / 3 hours ago

Pope Francis Dies on Day after Easter

2025 Federal Election / 6 hours ago

Carney’s budget means more debt than Trudeau’s

Business

Canada Urgently Needs A Watchdog For Government Waste

Published on April 21, 2025

Todayville

From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy

By Ian Madsen

From overstaffed departments to subsidy giveaways, Canadians are paying a high price for government excess

Not all the Trump administration’s policies are dubious. One is very good, in theory at least: the Department of Government Efficiency. While that term could be an oxymoron, like ‘political wisdom,’ if DOGE is useful, so may be a Canadian version.

DOGE aims to identify wasteful, duplicative, unnecessary or destructive government programs and replace outdated data systems. It also seeks to lower overall costs and ensure mechanisms are in place to evaluate proposed programs for effectiveness and value for money. This can, and usually does, involve eliminating some departments and, eventually, thousands of jobs. Some new roles within DOGE may need to become permanent.

The goal in the U.S. is to lower annual operating costs and ensure that the growth in government spending is lower than in revenues. Washington’s spending has exploded in recent years. The U.S. federal deficit exceeds six per cent of gross domestic product. According to the U.S. Treasury Department, annual debt service cost is escalating unsustainably.

Canada’s latest budget deficit of $61.9 billion in fiscal 2023–24 is about two per cent of GDP, which seems minor compared to our neighbour. However, it adds to the federal debt of $1.236 trillion, about 41 per cent of our approximate $3 trillion GDP. Ottawa’s public accounts show that expenses are 17.8 per cent of GDP, up from about 14 per cent just eight years ago. Interest on the escalating debt were 10.2 per cent of revenues in the most recent fiscal year, up from just five per cent a mere two years ago.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) continually identifies dubious or frivolous spending and outright waste or extravagance: “$30 billion in subsidies to multinational corporations like Honda, Volkswagen, Stellantis and Northvolt. Federal corporate subsidies totalled $11.2 billion in 2022 alone. Shutting down the federal government’s seven regional development agencies would save taxpayers an estimated $1.5 billion annually.”

The CTF also noted that Ottawa hired 108,000 more staff in the past eight years at an average annual cost of over $125,000. Hiring in line with population growth would have added only 35,500, saving about $9 billion annually. The scale of waste is staggering. Canada Post, the CBC and Via Rail lose, in total, over $5 billion a year. For reference, $1 billion would buy Toyota RAV4s for over 25,600 families.

Ottawa also duplicates provincial government functions, intruding on their constitutional authority. Shifting those programs to the provinces, in health, education, environment and welfare, could save many more billions of dollars per year. Bad infrastructure decisions lead to failures such as the $33.4 billion squandered on what should have been a relatively inexpensive expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline—a case where hiring better staff could have saved money. Terrible federal IT systems, exemplified by the $4 billion Phoenix payroll horror, are another failure. The Green Slush Fund misallocated nearly $900 million.

Ominously, the fast-growing Old Age Supplement and Guaranteed Income Security programs are unfunded, unlike the Canada Pension Plan. Their costs are already roughly equal to the deficit and could become unsustainable.

Canada is sleepwalking toward financial perdition. A Canadian version of DOGE—Canada Accountability, Efficiency and Transparency Team, or CAETT—is vital. The Auditor General Office admirably identifies waste and bad performance, but is not proactive, nor does it have enforcement powers. There is currently no mechanism to evaluate or end unnecessary programs to ensure Canadians will have a prosperous and secure future. CAETT could fill that role.

Ian Madsen is the Senior Policy Analyst at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.

Bruce Dowbiggin

Is HNIC Ready For The Winnipeg Jets To Be Canada’s Heroes?

Published on April 20, 2025

Bruce Dowbiggin

It’s fair to say everyone in hockey wanted the Winnipeg Jets back in the NHL. They became everyone’s darlings in 2011 when the Atlanta Thrashers, the league’s second stab at a franchise in Georgia, were sold to Canadian interests including businessman David Thomson. (Ed.: Gary Bettman’s try number three in Atlanta is upcoming.).

Yes, the market is tiny. Yes, the arena is too small. Yes, Thomson’s wealth is holding back a sea of inevitability. But sentimentalists remembering the Bobby Hull WHA Jets and the Dale Hawerchuk NHL Jets threw aside their skepticism to welcome back the Jets. The throwback uniforms with their hints at Canada’s air force past were an understated nod to their modest pretensions. It was a perfect story.

The question now, however, is will the same folks get dewey-eyed about the Jets if they become the first Canadian team to win the Stanley Cup since (checks his cards) Montreal and Patrick Roy did it in 1993. It would be helpful in this election year if something were to bind a nation torn apart by politics. The Gordie Howe Elbows Up analogy is more than shopworn, and Terry Fox can only be resurrected so often. So a Cup win might be a welcome salve.

But the approved script has long dictated that the Canadian team to break the schneid should be one of the glamour twins of the NHL’s Canadian content, the Edmonton Oilers or the (gulp) Toronto Maple Leafs. The Oilers and their superstar Connor McDavid barely lost out last spring to Florida while the Leafs, laden with superstars like Auston Matthews and William Nylander, are overdue for a long playoff run.

Hockey Night In Canada positively pants for the chance to gush over these two squads each week. When was the last time Toronto played an afternoon game so HNIC could showcase the Jets? Like, never. Same for the Oilers, who with their glittering stars like McDavid Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent Hopkins are the primary tenants of the doubleheader slot, followed by Calgary. Winnipeg? We’ll get to them.

But there’s going to be no ignoring them in the spring of 2025. The Jets in the northern outpost in Manitoba were the top team in the entire league in 2024-25. They’ll comfortably win the Presidents Cup as the No. 1 squad and have home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs. They have the league’s best goalie in Connor Hellebuyck (an American) and a stable of top scorers led by Kyle Connor and Mark Schiefele. Because Winnipeg is on a lot of No Trade lists, they have built themselves through the draft and thrifty budgeting.

But will the same people who swooned over the Jets in 2011 now find them as adorable if they ruin the Stanley Cup plot lines of the Oilers, Leafs and Ottawa Senators? Will the fans of Canadian teams in Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal not making the postseason take the Jets to their hearts or will they be as phoney as the Mike Myers commercials for the Liberals?

In addition, the Jets will be swamped by national media should they proceed through the playoffs. It’s one thing to carry the expectations of Winnipeg and Manitoba. It’s another to foot the bill for a hockey crazy county. We remember Vancouver’s GM Mike Gillis during the Canucks 2011 Cup run bemoaning the late arrivers of the press trying to critique his team as they made their way through the playoffs.

It will be no picnic for the Jets, however strong they’ve been in the regular season. No one was gunning for them as they might for the Oilers or Leafs. They will now get their opponents’ best game night after night. Hellebuyck has been a top three goalie in the NHL for a while, winning the Vezina Trophy, but his playoff performance hasn’t matched that of his regular-season version.

Already the injury bug that sidelines so many Cup dreams is biting at the Jets. Nikolaj Ehlers collided with a linesman in Saturday’s OT win in Chicago. Defenceman Dylan Samberg is also questionable after stopping a McDavid slap shot with his leg. A rash of injuries has ended the run of many a worthy Cup aspirant in the past. Can Winnipeg’s depth sustain the churn of seven weeks of all-out hockey?

As always for the small-market Jets time is of the essence. Keeping this core together is difficult with large markets lusting after your players. With the NHL salary cap going up it remains a chore to keep their top players. Schiefele and Hellebuyck are tied up longterm, but 40-goal man Connor is a UFA after next season while Ehlers is not signed after this season. Young Cole Perfetti will be an RFA in 2026. Etc.

So how much do Canadians love the Jets if they sneak in and steal the hero role by winning a Canadian Cup? Lets see Ron MacLean pun his way through that one.

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster. His new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed Hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org. You can see all his books at brucedowbigginbooks.ca.