Why?

An election is when citizens/taxpayers/corporation shareholders/voters get their opportunity to tell the previous Councillors what they thought of them and to tell the next slate of “officers” / Councillors what they need and want them to do to represent their interests.

When a new Council takes office, it must be aware that the past weighs heavily upon them. The administration officials remain. They are “holdovers” from the era of the previous Council, and often have their preferences for ‘what was in the past’, and often provide advice and recommendations to ‘continue in the present’ and ‘into the future’ what was done in the past. These biases can be a drag on changes needed to be made by the incoming Council as they were told by voters during the election campaign.

“The past informs the present and predicts the future.” [John Turturro]

“The best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour.” [psychologist B.F. Skinner & Mark Twain]

A “new start” plan

The Corporation of the Township of Wilmot is undergoing a review of its strategic plan. This is usually a process undertaken immediately after an election and is completed within 6 months. It is an opportunity for the corporation’s shareholders/taxpayers to provide detailed instructions to the Council regarding changes in its operational goals, actions, timelines and ‘accountability’ processes as a corporation – AT THE BEGINNING OF THEIR NEW TERM. The last election put its new Council in place on November 15, 2022. That means the review of the strategic plan should have been initiated immediately by the CAO, the process defined by the Counci. The review. for “best practice”, should have been completed by March or April of 2023. As of September 2024, the process was still underway and community “focus groups” are not expected until the fall of 2024.