Abstract

PLANNING FOR PEOPLE: THE BUSINESS CASE FOR INVESTMENT

Sam Fulton and Nancy Jackson

In Canada, the traditional planning framework for guiding the future growth of a city is its “Official Plan.” While the pretext has always been to guide more than land use, transportation and physical infrastructure, these plans seldom address the human services component of growth. It is the human services that, for the most part, deliver the quality of life ingredients that residents most appreciate. While land use planning gives order to a city’s growth, it is services such as recreation, childcare, public health, social services, libraries and cultural events that make livable communities.

To compete for scarce municipal resources, cities must prove how investment in human services is as important as investment in roads, bridges and public transit.

The newly amalgamated City of Ottawa is transforming its traditional planning process. Based on City Council’s adoption of seven growth management principles following the 2001 Smart Growth Summit, three integrated plans will provide the basis for making strategic choices for municipal investment. The case for putting people first falls under one strategy—the Human Services Plan. This approach is already attracting the attention of many municipalities as a means of integrating their growth management planning.

In April 2003, Ottawa City Council approved its first Human Services Plan as a key element of its growth management plan for the year 2020. The 2003 Canadian Social Welfare Policy Conference is therefore an excellent venue for us to share our experiences.

What participants can expect

For the benefit of conference participants, our paper will explore how we:

• Found a common language so that planners, advocates and the community could explore a shared vision of the future,
• Applied a “business case” discipline to justify the investment in human services, and
• Established the plan’s credibility and authority among its stakeholders.

Bios

Sam Fulton is the Manager of the Strategic and Business Planning Division of the People Services Department with the newly amalgamated City of Ottawa. In this position he is responsible for providing strategic direction and setting priorities for the portfolio of human services for which the city is responsible. These include recreation, culture, libraries, social services, childcare, public health and social housing.

He has a Masters degree in urban planning, and has held management positions in the areas of neighborhood planning, community services and cultural development with the City of Ottawa, and worked as a planner in Ireland, New Zealand and the Province of Ontario. He has taught planning at York University and at the Alberta Institute of Technology.

Presently, he is involved in the development of the City of Ottawa’s first Human Services Plan, a growth plan for the City of Ottawa to the year 2020. This blueprint is part of the City’s ‘Smart Growth’ initiative.

Nancy Jackson has been working in municipal government for the past 14 years, and currently is a Senior Strategic Planner with the People Services Department of the City of Ottawa.

She was the project manager responsible for the development of the City of Ottawa’s Human Services Plan.

Nancy holds a Masters degree in Social Work with a concentration in social policy and administration. Prior to joining the City of Ottawa, she worked with various social service agencies in Ottawa including the Youth Services Bureau, Children's Aid Society, and the Ottawa Carleton Association for Persons with Developmental Disabilities.

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