Description

In 2019, Gatineau began developing the new municipal strategic plan, which is based on a renewed and updated diagnosis. Gatineau held consultations to reach a wide range of audiences, which helped to inform the diagnosis. 

A steering committee guided and improved the process and the strategic plan. It was made up of the mayor, Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin, municipal councillors Renée Amyot and Maude Marquis-Bissonnette and Gilles Carpentier, and citizens Sylvie Daigle and François de Bellefeuille.  An advisory committee made up of several of the city's directors also contributed to the development of the strategic plan. The city's management team also actively participated in the work. The public's contribution was solicited for both parts (I and II) of the strategic plan development process. 

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Part I - Diagnosis

As part of the first part of the process, carried out in 2019, the document  " Dialogue sur l'avenir " (Dialogue on the future) guided the numerous consultations. The aim of this stage was to document the process, but above all to take stock of the situation of the City and the issues it was facing. At the end of this first phase of consultation, several consultation reports were produced and fed into the strategic diagnosis.The various activities allowed participants to :

• Relate their experience of life in Gatineau;
• Express their views on the challenges facing Gatineau and the opportunities that have arisen;
• To initiate a reflection on the future of the city. 

From this consultation exercise, certain needs emerged: 

• Strengthen the sense of belonging: people consulted expressed the wish to enhance nature, to build a common sense of belonging to their city, by enhancing the local heritage and by multiplying the opportunities for meeting in public spaces. 
• Preparing for climate change and prioritising environmental preservation: Gatineau residents wanted their city to become more involved in environmental preservation. Several proposals emerged: greening, stormwater management, land use planning, active and public transportation, electrification of transportation, regulations on the use of plastic bags and pesticides, better waste management and the development of agriculture and local consumption. 
• Improving transportation and mobility of people: people shared the need to move more easily between different parts of the city as well as to Ottawa (Gatineau's neighbouring city), where many people have to go every day. They also expressed the need for a better transport network, with alternatives to car travel. Other initiatives relating to carpooling and the improvement of infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists were proposed. 
• Combining economic diversification and development of the territory: several people consulted, spoke about the diversification of the economy, the possibility of putting in place measures to facilitate the establishment of new businesses.  They  expressed a desire for a better framework for urban planning practices in order to build more mixed, dense neighbourhoods that are accessible to all, particularly by integrating affordable housing; Improving the quality of life through the provision of leisure, culture and community life: the desire for better promotion of local art and culture emerged, particularly public art and the organisation of festivals. The sports and leisure offer was also mentioned; 
• Focus on exemplary participatory governance: people expressed their desire to be part of the reflections, upstream of the City's decision-making. Particular attention was paid to the participation of different publics (young people, Aboriginals, cultural communities, etc.), as well as to the follow-up and transparency of the political authorities' decisions. 
• Ensuring effective communication and offering quality services to the population: people consulted asked for better information on the activities and services offered, as well as better and more diversified communication tools. 

In addition to these activities and the consultations held within the municipal apparatus, specific activities were held with representatives of seniors, members of the Youth Commission, organizations, institutions, the business community and people with disabilities. 

Gatineau has entrusted the INM (L'institut national du monde) with the mission of consulting various groups within its territory: young people, organizations (agencies, businesses and institutions) and residents of the various sectors of Gatineau. The INM is an organization whose ambition is to increase the participation of citizens in democratic life and whose action has the effect of encouraging citizen participation and contributing to the development of civic skills, the strengthening of social ties and the enhancement of democratic institutions. 

As part of the development of Gatineau's strategic plan, the INM met with :

- 15 young people from the Youth Commission;

- 56 people representing 48 organizations

- 101 citizens.

The second phase of the consultative process followed.

Phase II - Strategic choices

Since January 2020, Gatineau has been working on the second phase of the municipal strategic planning process. This second phase consists of developing the final strategic plan itself. Building on the results of the first consultation phase, several workshops were held with : 

• The Strategic Planning Steering Committee (composed of elected officials and two community representatives) and 
• The Advisory Committee (composed of members of the City's management team) to define the strategic framework.

This second phase of internal and external consultations allowed for feedback from the various stakeholders on the draft mission, vision and strategic direction statements. The document Propositions – Plan stratégique de Gatineau  (Proposals - Gatineau Strategic Plan), which presents the proposals for the vision, mission, strategic directions and proposed strategies, provided some materials to discuss during the various public consultation activities, and was published in winter 2021. 

This phase was addressed to all the key players, particularly the citizens, who will be stakeholders in the realisation of the envisaged strategies and in the achievement of the desired impacts. 

The consultation focused on each of the components of the strategic plan envisaged for the period 2021-2025: 

• Inform and raise their awareness, as stakeholders, about the continuation of the strategic plan development process started in 2019 and its progress; 
• Obtain their feedback on the draft strategic plan;
• Enable them to contribute to and enrich the municipal strategic reflection and the initiation of the action plan that will enable its deployment;
• Validate their support for the new strategic plan being prepared;
  

In order to encourage the participation of as many stakeholders as possible while allowing for substantive discussions, the second phase of external consultation was carried out in four ways:

1. Consultation of the population through the digital platform Cocoriko between 22 February and 12 March 2021. The platform allowed citizens to comment on the content of the strategic plan being developed, in particular the proposed vision and mission, strategic directions and strategies attached to it. They were also able to state their priorities in terms of what was important to them for the future strategic plan or suggest ideas for improvements.
2. Three formal citizen focus groups, held on February 24 and 25, 2021 it was conducted in a virtual mode, with the participation of a representative sample of Gatineau residents, to obtain feedback on the preliminary statements of the proposed mission, vision and strategic directions.
3. Submission of reflections by citizens and representatives of organizations: via the Web site, citizens and representatives of organizations could submit a reflection or comment by email on the proposed vision and mission, strategic directions and related strategies. 
4. Online workshop open to all, held on 10 March 2021 as part of the strategic meeting, which took place in two stages: 

1) In the afternoon, there was a presentation of reflective texts by citizens or representatives of organisations, this was an opportunity to share points of view in public on the proposals of the strategic plan and each presentation was followed by a clarifying questions. The main themes addressed by the authors were: climate change and ways of dealing with it, including active transportation; the fluidity of public transportation; accessibility to waterfront and outdoor spaces for citizens; citizen participation; how to clarify and better link the various components of the strategic plan to other existing plans in the city, and how to monitor their implementation and impact;

2) In the evening, the public workshop, held online in virtual mode, allowed citizens to discuss in large groups and sub-groups the proposed vision and mission, strategic directions and related strategies. These discussions also focused on the implementation of the strategic plan.

Internal public consultation activities, for information purposes, were also carried out with municipal employees, departmental management committees, the management team and members of the municipal council. 

Subsequently, each component of the draft strategic plan, resulting from the work of the Strategic Planning Steering Committee and the Advisory Committee, was presented and explained in a dedicated section, followed by the results of the external consultations conducted on the subject.

Within the framework of the development of the plan a Mission, a Vision and a Municipal Strategic Thinking were defined: 

• The mission served to define as clearly as possible the principal role of the municipality. In this case, it was defined as the involvement of the City in making the lives of its residents better by relying on the collaboration of local stakeholders and on open and constant dialogue with the residents to whom "the city belongs". Gatineau is doing everything it can to offer a quality living environment that renews itself in the image of the creativity of its population. It innovates in the way it works with its partners and it shows boldness to promote its development and the diversification of its economy.
• The Vision has been defined as a clear picture of the future, serving to understand where the municipality wants to go and the objectives it wants to achieve. The vision must be ambitious in order to shape the future in the medium and long term, while at the same time being based on the common best interests of the whole community. In this case, with innovative and promising initiatives, particularly in the environmental field and in the fight against climate change, the Vision takes up the challenge of developing its economy while improving the quality of life of its population, in particular that of the most vulnerable citizens. It offers an attractive living environment. 
• The municipal strategic reflection process has made it possible to target five strategic directions that would have constituted the vectors of action for achieving Gatineau's vision: intensifying the sense of belonging and strengthening Gatineau's identity; exercising inspiring and influential leadership at the regional, provincial and national levels; leading the fight against climate change in an exemplary manner; creating the essential conditions for a prosperous economy, in line with balanced development of the territory; and becoming an agile organization that performs well and strengthens itself in a complex and changing environment. 

The results of the internal and external consultation activities for part I "Diagnosis" of the strategic planning revealed gaps between expectations and reality. A number of issues therefore emerged and, among them, the issues deemed strategic for Gatineau were identified. These are the foundations on which the strategic directions and strategies should be based. These strategic issues are grouped under four headings: social, development, positioning and organizational.

The conclusion of the strategic plan process was expected with the adoption of the strategic plan by the City Council presented to the Council at the Committee of the Whole on 15 June and to be submitted for approval at the City Council on 6 July.

Sources : 

• Development of Gatineau's new strategic plan
• Official website: Phases of the process 
• Consultation reports for both phases: 
  • Dialogue sur l'avenir (Dialogue on the future)
  • Propositions – Plan stratégique de Gatineau  (Proposals - Gatineau's strategic plan)
• Continuing the dialogue for the future