BONNYVILLE – Bonnyville town council has put the building blocks in place for the future of the town.
The Community Vision Plan is a strategic document that outlines what council believes will assist in creating a vibrant and successful Bonnyville in the future.
Tim Duhamel, president of Bloom CME, who assisted in creating the document, said it answers four important questions: where the town is now, where they want to be, how they want to get there, and how they measure success.
“That’s the key to the process and the plan,” Duhamel told council during their Aug. 25 regular meeting. “In a sense, it’s a road map of the quality of life that you envisioned in the Town of Bonnyville. It’s long term in its hope, so it’s not a one or four-year plan. This is really about a decades (long) plan where we can start moving towards some things that are truly quantifiable and measurably.”
During a meeting with Duhamel earlier this year, council identified seven priority focus areas that could improve the life of residents. They include economic sustainability, regional collaboration, recreation and wellness, safe community, service excellence, financial sustainability, and community identity.
Council saw these as attainable goals and ones that could be easily reviewed to see if they were successful or not.
“What we heard from council was that it was important, from your perspective, to see tangible results and actual actions come out of this plan, rather than it just being a piece of paper,” explained Duhamel. “In a sense, you want to see actions that result in the community that you want from the Town of Bonnyville.”
The document states that economic sustainability will be supported through partnerships with local businesses, focusing on tourism and actions to diversify the local economy.
Creating strong recreation infrastructure to develop sports hub and tournament opportunities, recognizing the importance of Bonnyville’s proximity to nature, lakes, and trails to the town’s identity and tourism opportunities, reviewing the life cycle of recreation amenities, and identifying improvement and replacement initiatives are among the ways recreation and wellness will be addressed.
Creating a safer community is another focus area for council. Engaging the public through proactive initiatives, working alongside the Bonnyville RCMP to identify actions and programs to enhance crime prevention, and ensuring prompt and effective response to emergencies are some of the actions listed in the document.
Mayor Gene Sobolewski described the plan “as a really great start.”
“The emphasis I want to make is this plan is different from anything I have ever seen and participated in,” he expressed. “I’m really looking forward, not only to the financial aspects of it to give us that check and balance in terms of what we actually can do and get us a breath of reality, but the second one is to measure and give us the goals and objectives. But, how we measure it is that we know we and future councils are actually achieving success on the foundation that we’re laying today.”
Coun. Ray Prevost agreed, “When I look at this and when I read over it, it really boils down to a comprehensive approach to a better Bonnyville within the resources that are available.”
The plan will be at the forefront of strategic short and long-term decision making to optimize the quality of life in Bonnyville for years to come, according to council. It’s a concentrated effort to bring council’s vision to administrative action and strategic financial considerations, along with a new organizational structure.
Administration will now be working to develop plans that can help the town reach the desired outcomes in each of the focus areas council identified.
The Community Vision Plan is available on the town’s website at town.bonnyville.ab.ca.
