OPINION
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EDITORIAL
Spirit of the season shone through once again It’s easy to become jaded with all the bad news we’ve been bombarded with throughout the year. Berserk gunmen. Egomaniacal dictators. Religious fanatics. Corrupt mayors. Pedophile priests. The proliferation of scam artists. Global warming. Layoffs. A widening gap between the rich and poor. Reality television shows. Zombies. The ending of the world (which if it indeed did happen Dec. 21, you won’t be reading this). And closer to home: drought, fatalities involving drunk drivers, devastating fires, cats and dogs abandoned to fend for themselves, and thefts of Christmas presents made worse by the spray-painting of a family’s furniture. No wonder many people have become cynical and despairing of the future. Yet, when this time of year rolls around, faith in humanity is often renewed. That’s cer-
tainly the case in Arnprior. It’s difficult to remain negative in the face of so much generosity. While food banks in some communities approached the Christmas season with almost empty shelves, the Arnprior District Food Bank seems to be able to keep up a sufficient amount of supplies. The support is probably at least partly in reaction to how dedicated the food bank’s volunteers are. That support swells dramatically in December, as schools, industries, businesses, organizations and individuals line up to make donations. Those contributions are greatly appreciated, as they not only help those down on their luck have a merrier Christmas, they also enable the food bank to assist the needy right through the winter. The victims of the Dec. 14 fire on McGo-
nigal Street also found out how generous the community can be. Donations flooded in, many in appreciation of how kind the owner of the house has been to others in the past. What goes around, comes around. Playing a special part in the campaign were several Arnprior businesses who set up donation stations. It’s heartening to see the generosity of local businesses people. They could throw up their hands in frustration over the number of shoppers who are lured by the bright lights of the city malls, and some even to the discount stores south of the border. In doing so, they desert their hometown businesses who pay taxes here and support local children’s sports teams and many other endeavours that enrich the community. However, most local businesses do not respond by turning their backs on the commu-
nity, but instead accelerate their rate of giving this time of year. As do many citizens. At Arnprior Giant Tiger five days before Christmas, a group of students from St. Joseph’s Catholic school were buying gifts for local children desperately in need of some Christmas cheer. Giant Tiger generously matched the money they had raised to enable them to buy twice as much. A woman shopper asked the students what they were doing. When told, she took five $20 bills out of her purse and gave it to them. The students, already setting an example of good citizenship, learned just how wonderfully generous their community can be. It’s impossible to become too jaded when things like this happen to brighten up our Christmas. Thanks Arnprior and area. We’re smiling again.
LETTERS
Strategic planning process not inspiring town improvements To the Editor: Re. draft strategic plan for Arnprior. Bureaucratic mumble jumble. Here they go, serving their selves first, I thought. And the important interesting things are pushed far off into the future. By then the town leaders will be musing about developing a new strategic plan because the last one fell short and is now SPOTS (Strategic Plan On Top Shelf). In my experience, SPOTS is where most plans end up because their lifespan is about 11 months on average. The strategic plan lifecycle usually mirrors the annual budget planning cycle in most organizations. The one positive aspect about a good strategy discussion is the possibility of some shared values and views about future direction emerging from the process. Selective use of the agreed upon shared values and views can be used by leaders to forge and fashion future debates. For that reason alone, it is usually worth the effort for any entity to attempt developing a strategic plan even though it will end up as SPOTS. I read the draft through several times trying to find the real shared values and vision, not one about tweaking the org chart, HR and budget processes. I was hoping to see a vision like: “By 2017 the Town will be the preferred place in the Valley to live, work, play, shop and contribute to the community.� Furthermore, rather than honesty and integrity, which are sine qua non for any public official, elected or appointed, I would have expected to see words about service, value offered and excellence. Apparently the creators of the shared values statement believe that mediocrity is an acceptable value. If fixing HR and the budget process is the key enabling step to a solid management base and staying out of a debt/deficit/no-growth trap, then why not call it the “management model� for the Town and include some concrete but objective goals and measurements for both the bureaucrats and the political leaders of the Town.
Concrete goals and measurements will tell us if we are making progress rather than platitudes from politicians and pliable performance measures. A true Management Model includes all of the Town actors, what their “value creation� proposition is, and how it is going to be rigorously measured and funded. A robust management model has other important elements as well the planners could consider. The seven priority areas in the draft are about 2 or 3 too many. Sure they are spread over five years in three phases that I would re-label as “consolidating/enabling, investing/ growing, and spending.� But if everything is a priority, then nothing is a priority. Focusing on too many little things will mean nothing big and important is accomplished. Perhaps they can be re-aligned into fewer “buckets� and whipping the Town staff into shape and figuring out a financial and capital budget model remains the starting point. But I would argue that it needs to be tied to a real vision and have actual milestones and true benchmarks in an overall “management model.� Since fixing HR and the budget process is what the planners want to do anyway, the townspeople just have to hold the town managers’ feet to the fire and make sure they measure and report on their progress. Simply put, if you do not rigorously describe and measure it, you cannot understand and manage it, and if you cannot manage it, you cannot afford it. I participated in the earlier public consultation supporting the updating of the strategic plan for the Town. At my table I learned a valuable lesson in lobbying from one of the non-resident land developers. Each time another participant made a comment, he intervened to drag the discussion back to and repeat his single concern: the speed and efficiency of Town Hall staff in pushing through his permitting and development requests. See TOWN Page 9
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Web Poll A) Yes. I’m organized and have finished my Christmas shopping.
B) No. I’ll be hitting the shops at the last minute this weekend.
C) Yes. I will have my friends and family near and that is all you really need for a Merry Christmas.
D) No. I don’t celebrate Christmas.
25% 37%
Do you make New Year resolutions?
A) Yes. They help me to focus and prepare for the year ahead.
B) No. They just add pressure and set you up
25% 13%
for failure.
C) Yes. They are a helpful reminder of a healthier lifestyle.
D) No. They’re a waste of time.
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8 Arnprior Chronicle-Guide EMC - Thursday, December 27, 2012
THIS WEEK’S QUESTION
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