TRCA’s New Strategic Plan 2023-2034

November 10, 2022

With our Five-Year Update to the Strategic Plan now coming to an end, I am pleased to announce that TRCA’s new Strategic Plan (Plan) 2023-2034 has been endorsed by our Board of Directors.

Serving Many Needs: The Purpose of Our Strategic Plan

The very best strategic plans are collaborative. I want to thank the Strategic Business Planning and Performance (SBPP) business unit staff who have enabled this work to flow and evolve and thank all the staff that have spent time engaging in our process, thinking about our work and goals, and sharing ideas and collaborating internally – this has been a long and valuable process. Since our last update, the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) continued to meet with divisional staff along with our Board members to listen to diverse perspectives and develop and refine the Plan’s content while progressing through iterative revisions.

The result of this consultative phase is a well-informed plan that strikes the right balance and is high-level enough to provide broad but orienting direction. It is informed enough by our expertise and legacy considerations to chart the most suitable course and is flexible enough to account for the higher-than-ever likelihood of unanticipated changes.

Timing is Everything: Framework Refresh

We are charting TRCA’s future course while remaining flexible by implementing our adaptive strategic plan framework. The new Plan is built to last 12 years, starting in 2023. The 12 years are further divided into three four-year terms, which have been aligned to match our municipalities’ terms of council. The conclusion of each of these four-year terms is where the Plan’s flexibility is most evident. These phases will encourage us to evaluate and report on progress, assess changes to address contextual factors including new government directives, and provide an opportunity to course correct as necessary. Finding this balance can be challenging, but we believe this new Plan provides a solid framework to be nimble in the pursuit of our steadfast goals.

What We Stand For, Who We Are

We have never been clearer about our core behaviours, incorporating them directly into the Plan for the first time. ICARE – Integrity, Collaboration, Accountability, Respect and Excellence – encompasses what we believe matters most to the way we pursue change. These are our non-negotiable principles and behaviours that speak to who we are. These values are embedded into our work, driving us personally and professionally, and they signal to those outside TRCA what they can expect from us.

If you have ever struggled to convey “Who is TRCA?”, especially to someone unfamiliar with our work or other conservation authorities, you will appreciate how challenging being brief can be. We aim to be comprehensive and clear. In our Plan, we have refreshed this statement through four direct sentences. They cover:

• our legislative beginning in 1957 through the Conservation Authorities Act;
• our role as the region’s first line of defence against natural hazards;
• the way we mobilize a science-based approach for policy and action across all levels of government; and
• how our jurisdiction covers an impressive nine watersheds, 21 upper and lower tier municipalities, and nearly five million people.

Having others understand who we are is essential so that our current relationships continue to thrive, and new opportunities can grow.

What’s New: Plan Highlights

We have indicated that this new Plan would revisit our past vision and mission statements. I am pleased to reveal our new vision and mission:

TRCA’s new vision lays out our ideal future state. Achieving this goal in its truest sense will require our collective effort and a significant amount of time. It is a statement to rally us around what matters most. The mission statement, brief but also meaningful, signals the “how” of our work. These two statements are used broadly to share TRCA’s most basic aims and activities.

Our new Plan orients all our work around four strategic pillars, condensing the 12 strategic directions of our past plan. Each pillar contains an overarching goal statement to sharpen the intent of the pillar in one succinct sentence. A total of 16 outcomes – four per pillar – follows suit.

For the first time, the 16 outcomes each have a single performance measure. This means we are setting a unified target for the entire 12 years and are committed to reporting on our progress at the conclusion of the Plan. You can view these performance measures on the Plan’s page.

Playbook: How We Will Make Things Happen

Strategy, at its core, is a plan of action. And our answer to operationalizing action is through TRCA’s new Strategic Plan Playbook (Playbook). The Playbook is not a static guide. Instead, it’s built to evolve as needed while keeping the Plan’s overarching pillars and outcomes in sharp focus.

Click on the chart below to view full-sized.

As part of the consultation work for the Plan’s development, many of you have already directly and indirectly influenced the current contents of the Playbook. Your perspectives ensure that we are effectively linking our tasks and on-the-ground activities in alignment with our identified outcomes. Moving forward, the Playbook will be available for all staff to view at any time. It may also be refined based on changing factors and input from staff. Conversations with your leaders regarding alignment and changes to make the playbook even better are always welcome.

Measuring What Matters: Results

Performance measures are intended to spur analysis, facilitate learning and lead to improved decision-making. Measuring and reporting on our work is also necessary to meet our partners’ expectations and ensure best business practices. Our measures may have a 12-year time horizon, but we are committed to continuing our usual annual reporting. Our new Plan framework introduces new and enhances existing outcome-focused measures. Each measure will have an established target and we will report on progress against that target through the impact reports that conclude each 4-year phase. We have provided the Board with a list of proposed impacts and targets that represent the measures that best reflect our playbook initiatives during the first phase. Ongoing development is encouraged with opportunities for staff engagement through team leaders.

2023 Deployment

With the endorsement of our new Plan, SLT and SMT will ensure that our new strategic direction informs all our work moving forward. This begins with a refresh of the divisional priorities’ framework, whereby we will be using the Playbook to guide our PDP objectives, which will ensure alignment to our Plan. Every new initiative and ongoing series of activities will be strongly aligned with the Plan. The responsibility to oversee this alignment in the Playbook will rest with members of SLT and SMT. The Plan and the Playbook will guide even the most specific tasks and activities.

While SLT is responsible for the ongoing and fulsome incorporation of our Plan in the oversight of Playbook decisions, each staff member will benefit from understanding our shared outcomes and identifying those which their business unit, projects and programs impact most.

Your Role: Learn, Reflect, Engage

• For an overview of the plan, I encourage you to view the Board presentation.
• I also encourage you to review the Plan in more detail. Where and how do you see your job responsibilities reflected and aligned? The deliverables within the Strategic Playbook will be consolidated by division and made available on the Staff Hub in the coming weeks. The divisional deliverables will assist you in your personal goal/objective setting through PDP in January.
• Mark your calendars and engage directly through the upcoming SBPP webinar.
• SBPP will be hosting a webinar on November 15 to ensure there is ample opportunity to gain more familiarity with the Plan, the Playbook, and how they will operationalize and align all our work. An invitation to this webinar has been sent out via email. You can also find it on the Learning Management System. Future divisional sessions with tailored content are also in development.

It has been rewarding to shape TRCA’s future together with all of you. There is no greater force than a group of committed individuals like yourselves working together to put our ideas into action and achieve a future that we can be proud of.

Sincerely,

John MacKenzie, M.Sc.(Pl) MCIP, RPP
Chief Executive Officer
Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA)