In recent articles, I’ve talked about the work we’ve done since the October 2024 municipal election with governance training and strategic planning with Dr. Gordon McIntosh. The result of this work is called “Strategic Priorities”, which will guide Council and Administration through our four-year term. Of course, these priorities need to be adjusted as circumstances can change very quickly these days, whether it be the provincial election in late 2024, the most recent US election and/or an upcoming federal election in Canada. These events can affect the Canadian and provincial economies and cause us to revisit the priorities as we change with what we are dealing with. In fact, we will be reviewing the priorities on a quarterly basis at a minimum. So, we stay on point as well as adjust as needed. We have had some very good discussions as a council and this will continue as we move forward.

Let’s get into what this means for Lanigan? As Council, we are focused on growing our community while maintaining what we already have. There are 14 key topics that arose from the strategic planning sessions, such as housing supply, daycare expansion, recreation, arts and culture opportunities, highway commercial development, industrial land development, main street enhancement, aging and future infrastructure, development readiness, business retention and expansion, secondary industry opportunities, bylaw and policy review, staff succession plan, mobility van services and medical services. When you put this into a list such as this it is a lot to digest.

That’s a long list of issues and opportunities to consider and we believe that it’s necessary to tackle them in a strategic way. So, we start with the top five priorities and focus on that without sacrificing the main issues to deal with. As each top priority reaches completion, the next priority in waiting joins the top 5 and so on. This will evolve as we go.

The top 5 priorities include:

• Zoning bylaw updates to improve development readiness
• Residential development to start addressing the need for new housing supply
• Daycare expansion to assist with improving the labour market
• Highway commercial development
• Arts, culture & recreation needs analysis

Council and I, with the help of our town team, are committed to moving forward with initiatives for these top five priorities in the first quarter of 2025. Stay tuned as I will continue to provide you with updates as we move forward. As always, we are open to discussing and listening to any ideas you have.

Regards,

- Mayor Tony Mycock