Nov. 27, 2013 community information meeting shares Inspiration Lakeview updates (I’ve added updates based on the Auditor General’s report regarding OPG)

[Updates related to a recent Ontario Auditor General report regarding OPG are available at the final section of this post.]

I was very pleased to have the opportunity to attend the Nov. 27, 2013 information update in Mississauga regarding Inspiration Lakeview.

Ontario Finance Minister and Mississauga South MPP Charles Sousa announced at the Nov. 27, 2013 meeting that Infrastructure Ontario has been procured to give expert project advice to Ontario Power Generation (OPG) on the Lakeview lands. Photo source: Nov. 27, 2013 article at Mississauga.com entitled: "Infrastructure Ontario joins Inspiration Lakeview."

A Nov. 27, 2013 article at Mississauga.com, entitled “Infrastructure Ontario joins Inspiration Lakeview,” provides an overview of the meeting.

Inspiration Lakeview had its beginning with the Lakeview Legacy Project in which the residents (including Jim Tovey) of the Lakeview community in Mississauga – with help from John Danahy of the University of Toronto faculty of architecture, landscape, and design, among others – played a defining role.

This in practice is a most unusual – and inspiring – approach to planning.

It serves as a model for planning initiatives elsewhere in Canada and around the world.

The Lakeview Legacy Project was based upon finding a way to build a vision for Lakeview from the ground up – by having the Lakeview community, located just east of South Etobicoke on the shores of Lake Ontario, come together in an organized way to develop a vision for the eastern Mississauga waterfront.

The Nov. 27, 2013 Inspiration Lakeview community meeting was a continuation of the original vision.

“3P” Strategy

Background about the Lakeview Legacy Project can be found at a Jan. 21, 2012 blog post.

The Lakeview Legacy Project is based upon the “3P” Strategy.

I first learned of the strategy when I attended a presentation by John Danahy of the University of Toronto on Jan. 18, 2012 at the Mimico Centennial Library in Toronto.

Jim Tovey, Ward 1 Councillor, City of Mississauga. Photo source: Nov. 27, 2013 article at Mississauga.com entitled: "Infrastructure Ontario joins Inspiration Lakeview."

Jim Tovey, now the Ward I Councillor for the City of Mississauga, invented and used the strategy in his role as president of the Lakeview Ratepayers Association.

The basic concept can be outlined as follows:

1. Proactive

Be proactive in identifying what negatively impacts your community, and more importantly, what may negatively impact your community in the near or distant future.

2. Persistent

Be persistent in gaining, and sharing with your community, the knowledge required to make fair, informed decisions, and to be able to engage all stakeholders in the discussion.

3. Positive

Never offer a solution to a difficult issue unless it is a positive solution. If you cannot find a solution where there are no losers, revert to the second “P,” Persistent.

[End of outline of the strategy]

Bottom-up approach to planning

John Danahy (in middle) at Nov. 27, 2013 Inspiration Lakeview community information meeting. Photo source: Nov. 27, 2013 article at Mississauga.com entitled: "Infrastructure Ontario joins Inspiration Lakeview."

John Danahy, in his Jan. 18, 2012 talk in Etobicoke, noted that some years ago the Lakeview community adopted a clearly defined set of operational principles, centred on the “3P” Strategy.

The principles are based upon a bottom-up – as contrasted to a top-down – approach to planning. A bottom-up strategy stands in contrast to a planning system that has, in the past, not been used to this form of community input.

In the planning model developed by the Lakeview Ratepayers Association, citizens serve as leaders in the quest for regeneration and sustainability.

For background about Inspiration Lakeview, visit:

www.Mississsuga.ca/lakeview

Update: Auditor notes that salaries, pensions and bonuses at OPG are “significantly more generous” than for comparable positions in the civil service

The collaboration of OPG in the Inspiration Lakeview project was discussed at length at the above-noted meeting.

With regard to OPG, a Dec. 10, 2013 CBC article is entitled: “Auditor finds OPG generous salaries, pensions, bonuses push up electricity rates.”

The Auditor General’s report regarding Ontario Power Generation can be accessed here.

A Dec. 10, 2013 Global News Toronto article is entitled: “3 OPG executives fired in wake of auditor’s report.”

A Dec. 10, 2013 Globe and Mail article is entitled: “Top Ontario Power executives fired after auditor’s revelations.”

A Dec. 10, 2013 Globe and Mail article is entitled: “Liberals feel heat as Ontario Power executives fired over auditor’s report.”

A Dec. 11, 2013 CBC article is entitled: “Wynne ‘deeply concerned’ about culture at OPG.”

A Dec. 13, 2013 Globe and Mail article is entitled: “Auditor’s report a wake-up call for entitled employees, OPG director says.”

A Dec. 18, 2013 Globe and Mail article is entitled: “Technicality let Ontario power utility hike managers’ pay despite freeze.”

Mississauga planning process

By way of an additional update to the previous post, a Nov. 9, 2013 Globe and Mail article is entitled: “On waterfront, Mississauga knows it takes shared vision to be a contender.”

The opening paragraphs read:

• On the surface, the transformation of Toronto’s Port Lands and Mississauga’s Lakeview should follow similar paths. They’re both stretches of former industrial land, both on the northwest shores of Lake Ontario, and only a half-hour drive apart.

• Yet the ongoing evolution of these two urban waterfronts could not be more different.