EZT Strategic Plan: what has been done to date and what hasn’t

Priorities include supporting access to daycare and communication plan

By Lee Griffi, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Township of East Zorra-Tavistock (EZT) approved its first-ever strategic plan last year, a document that is intended to guide the municipality’s actions until 2028, when it will be updated.

A strategic plan is a high-level document that outlines an organization’s vision, mission, goals and key actions to guide its direction over a defined period, typically three to five years. The Gazette reached out to the township to see what progress has been made to date.

“I can confirm that staff and council review their work in conjunction with the six key strategic priorities daily,” said CAO Karen DePrest. “That is evidenced by the inclusion of those six priorities as a foundation for every report that is on the council agenda. Each report identifies which of the priorities it is related to.”

The six priorities are financial sustainability, good governance, infrastructure, service delivery, community vitality and environmental awareness.

DePrest expects township staff will likely provide an annual update report at the end of each fiscal year, leading into the following year’s budget development.

“For example, in developing this year’s budget, council and staff adopted a five-year capital budget forecast with key projects approved for 2025. This not only addresses the priority of financial sustainability but also was in keeping with maintaining a competitive tax rate.”

She added this year’s budget addressed five of the six pillars under good governance and several more under Infrastructure. 

“All of this to say, the strategic plan is at the core of how we review our work in the township, both staff and council.”

The Gazette wanted to dig a little deeper into several areas of the plan, including section 2.1 under good governance, which states, “develop a comprehensive communications plan/strategy,” something that has yet to come to fruition. A communications strategy or plan helps a municipality engage effectively with its residents by providing a structured approach to informing, consulting and involving the community in decision making, services and initiatives.

“We continue to work on the communications piece. We have sent a couple of staff to some training sessions and are becoming more and more regularly active on social media,” said DePrest. “We do have a community engagement tool called Social PinPoint, which was used for the strategic plan itself as well as the work done with the recreation advisory committee (RAC) thus far.”

She added members of the RAC will be engaging both in person and digitally with the community as they look at priorities for future township-organized activities to better serve ratepayers this summer. 

An issue top of mind for many young parents in EZT is the lack of available daycare spaces, specifically licensed ones, to take advantage of the federal government’s Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care system. The strategic plan has pillars under community vitality that require the township to help residents access daycare services, explore options for daycare availability and affordability, as well as coordinate with Oxford County to work on daycare solutions.

Zorra Township included 88 childcare spaces in its new administration building and South-West Oxford is planning a similar project should its new municipal offices go ahead as planned. DePrest said it was not feasible for EZT's new building in Hickson.

“The current property of the new administration building was not appropriate as a daycare site. It has a history of land uses that make it incompatible with that type of sensitive use. The township is always considering opportunities to partner with daycare providers and will keep that in mind if appropriate land or building opportunities occur in the future.” 

DePrest wouldn’t rule out some type of daycare initiative in a future budget but said this year’s focus was on the asset-management plan update, the secondary plan completion and work on a drainage master plan. 

“Those projects are all expected to be completed this year, so a communications plan could be proposed for the 2026 budget. We also expect to be getting recommendations from the RAC for consideration in the 2026 budget for organized activities and we continue to work on the parks and rec master plan recommendations as well as our strategic plan rollout. The communications plan would dovetail nicely with that ongoing work.”

The township has been resistant to adding a part- or full-time communications professional to staff and there is no indication as to how it would develop a plan or strategy should council decide to go in that direction.

The plan is available on the EZT website at www.ezt.ca/media/s0gdq5xz/strategic-plan.pdf.