POLICY & PROJECT ADVISOR PF&R

Job ID: 48937

Job Category: Policy, Planning & Research

Division & Section: Parks, Forestry & Recreation, PFR Policy & Strategic Planning

Work Location: Metro Hall, 55 John Street, Toronto, ON

Job Type & Duration: Full-time, Permanent Vacancy

Salary: $93,734.00 - $123,449.00

Shift Information: Monday to Friday, 35 hours per week

Affiliation: Non-Union

Number of Positions Open: 1

Posting Period: 04-OCT-2024 to 21-OCT-2024

Job Summary: 

The Parks, Forestry & Recreation (PF&R) Division’s mission is to improve the quality of life of Toronto's diverse communities by providing safe, beautiful parks; a healthy, expanding urban forest; and high quality, community focused recreational experiences. The Policy and Strategic Planning Branch supports the PF&R Division to deliver on its services and priorities, drive evidence-based decision-making, and evaluate outcomes and performance to advance continuous improvement through strategic policy development, data analytics and governance, and program evaluation.

Reporting to the Director, Policy and Strategic Planning (PSP), the Policy & Project Advisor will effectively manage issues, policy, communication priorities and projects for the PSP Branch working collaboratively with all work units and across the division. 

 Major Responsibilities:

• Develops and implements detailed plans and recommends policies regarding program specific requirements.
• Manages assigned projects, ensuring effective teamwork and communication, high standards of work quality and organizational performance and continuous learning.
• Conducts research into assigned area ensuring that research considers developments within the field, corporate policies and practices, legislation and initiatives by other levels of government.
• Provides strategic support for the development and implementation of the division’s issues management processes including effective strategies to respond to, manage and track a broad range of divisional issues and critical occurrences.
• Writes correspondence on behalf of the Senior Leadership Team to members of the public, members of Council and staff.
• Prepares and drafts briefing notes, presentations and reports on emerging issues, requests for information, and reports for presentation to senior management, standing committees, partners, and Council for strategic decision making.
• Manages agenda items to Community Council, Committees of Council and City Council, ensures coordination of responses from appropriate staff, direction to the division is identified and analyzed for divisional impacts and reviews reports to ensure they are appropriate and accurate before processed in a professional, thorough and timely manner.
• Acts as a common escalation point for service requests that require multiple functional team inputs and perspectives to resolve.
• Analyzes complex issues and identifies potential root causes, with the support of relevant technical subject matter experts.
• Monitors issue resolution, ensuring work is complete, and updates stakeholders and systems, as appropriate.
• Mobilizes cross functional staff to review issues, and to present solutions and resolution.
• Provides support with on-going strategic planning, priority setting and development of branch annual work programs, city-wide service direction, functional standards, policies and procedures, in consultation with other City divisions, government agencies and community stakeholders.
• Provides recommendations, operational support and professional judgment on complex and contentious issues to support management functions and improve efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery.
• Cultivates effective working relations, represents the Branch and division as a subject-matter-expert and consults with Members of Council and their staff, internal and external stakeholders, other divisions and members of the public on community and project committees, programs, services and in cross-divisional strategic planning and activities.
• Leads a variety of assigned and special projects.
• Manages a high volume of work in a fast-paced environment requiring independent decision making, significant judgement and experience managing issues.
• Ensures project expenditures are controlled and maintained within approved budget limitations.
• Manages and tracks all Freedom of Information requests for the division, including assessing the request and determining its nature; assigns request to division staff where appropriate and meet legislated time frame requirements.
• Deals with confidential, sensitive, and urgent information affecting operations, assets and resources.

Key Qualifications: 

Your application must describe your qualifications as they relate to:

1. Post-secondary education in Public Policy and Administration, Public Relations, Planning or a relevant discipline or equivalent combination of education and/or experience. Experience in the public sector is an asset.
2. Considerable project management experience with a demonstrated ability to take initiative and work independently to meet deadlines, handle multiple and diverse projects, and function as a strong team player in fulfilling the branches' and the division's goals.
3. Considerable experience in preparing communication materials for all levels of government, stakeholders, and the public through a variety of platforms (memos, briefing notes, presentation decks, emails, etc.).
4. Considerable experience in issues management, public relations, media relations, internal staff communications, stakeholder relations and monitoring key strategic partnerships.
5. Excellent presentation skills and outstanding writing, editing and communications skills with the ability to structure and present information clearly, concisely, and logically, to both internal and external stakeholders, through a variety of communication platforms, while ensuring corporate branding and messaging.
6. High degree of judgement, political acumen and discretion; ability to analyze, problem solve and mediate complex situations with multiple stakeholders; strong networking and relationship building skills; and ability to handle matters of confidential/sensitive nature as it relates to Council, senior staff, management and unionized employees.
7. Knowledge of municipal operations, Committee and Council proceedings, collective agreements, City guidelines, policies, municipal bylaws, and relevant legislation including Employment Standards Act, Human Rights Code and Occupational Health & Safety Act, AODA, and a general understanding of issues facing divisions and the City.
8. Ability to identify needs; conduct research and interview subject matter experts to develop communication materials, produce concise reports, and responses to queries; and initiate coordinate, make recommendations and manage the implementation of solutions in response to corporate/division issues developing resolution focused actions. Outstanding attention to detail without losing sight of the bigger picture.
9. Ability to thrive in a highly demanding, rapidly changing and very creative environment with frequent and completing priorities, deadlines, and multiple tasks.
10. Proficient in a variety of computer platforms, including MS Office, SharePoint, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, WebEx, Slido, internal/intranet technologies, digital asset management systems and various databases.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

The City is an equal opportunity employer, dedicated to creating a workplace culture of inclusiveness that reflects the diverse residents that we serve. Learn more about the City’s commitment to employment equity.

Accommodation

The City of Toronto is committed to creating an accessible and inclusive organization. We are committed to providing barrier-free and accessible employment practices in compliance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). Should you require Code-protected accommodation through any stage of the recruitment process, please make them known when contacted and we will work with you to meet your needs. Disability-related accommodation during the application process is available upon request. Learn more about the City’s Hiring Policies and Accommodation Process.