Our History

Cornerstone Planning Group is a strategic planning, feasibility, and advisory firm that helps public sector and community-serving organizations make confident decisions about services, facilities, infrastructure, and investment. Established in 1973, we bring more than 50 years of experience, but our work is not defined by legacy. We are a modern, multidisciplinary practice known for sharp analysis, real strategy, practical modelling, and creative problem-solving.

We work where strategy meets implementation. Our projects help clients answer the questions that matter: What is truly needed? What is actually feasible? How do we prioritize?

Cornerstone has completed more than 1,200 projects across Canada for municipalities, health authorities, provincial and federal agencies, public institutions, non-profits, Indigenous communities, and private sector partners. Our work includes feasibility studies, needs assessments, strategic plans, service delivery reviews, functional and space programs, business cases, operating and capital cost models, engagement strategies, and implementation plans.

What sets Cornerstone apart is how deeply we engage with our clients’ challenges. We are not detached advisors or report writers. Our clients’ problems become our problems. We work alongside them with the care, urgency, and accountability of an internal team, while bringing the objectivity, structure, and specialized expertise of an external advisor.

Our strategy work is built for real-world decisions. We help clients navigate complexity, competing priorities, financial constraints, and political sensitivity by finding the path through. Beyond identifying trade-offs, we’re finding the win-win opportunities that create alignment, unlock momentum, and make best case scenarios possible.

The firm is led by partners Melanie Roskell and Quentin Talbot-Kelly, supported by a multidisciplinary team with backgrounds in planning, architecture, engineering, business analysis, operations, cost modelling, engagement, communications, and design. This breadth allows us to move fluidly between big-picture strategy and technical detail, translating evidence, stakeholder input, operational realities, and financial constraints into plans that make sense in increasingly pressured systems.

Cornerstone brings structure to complexity. We listen carefully, ask direct questions, test scenarios, surface what matters, and help clients understand not only what is possible, but what is worth pursuing. The result is work that is analytically sound as well as strategically useful.

Cornerstone is recognized as a trusted planning partner for organizations facing growth, change, service pressure, infrastructure renewal, and complex investment decisions. We bring the discipline of a long-established firm, the agility of a contemporary strategy practice, and the judgement required to support decisions that matter.

Cornerstone Services For Businesses And Communities

We are a consultancy focused on strategic, operational, and facilities planning for public sector organizations. Our work supports clients in defining service models, aligning resources with organizational priorities, and planning for long-term sustainability. Typical projects include feasibility and needs assessments, functional and space programming, organizational and operational reviews, and the development of long-range master plans and phased implementation strategies.

Our team also provides specialized services such as demographic and demand analysis, benchmarking studies, and space optimization strategies. We work closely with Indigenous communities, municipalities, health authorities, and public institutions to ensure that values, culture, and community priorities remain central to every plan. Each project is grounded in data, context, and collaboration, producing outcomes that are both practical and forward-looking.

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The Cornerstone Model

Our work is guided by a conceptual planning model developed from general systems and decision-making theories. The model views an organization’s resources, including human, facilities, equipment, information, and financial resources, as interconnected elements that together support its mandate and services.

By examining how these resources interact, we are able to identify how changes in one area influence others, and how facilities can best support evolving needs. This approach provides a structured and holistic understanding of organizational function and enables us to define planning solutions that are adaptable to an uncertain future.

Our Projects

Cornerstone specializes in strategic planning for public sector organizations; in particular, the infrastructure and organizational requirements that support them. Cornerstone has designed and carried out over 1,000 projects in support of a wide range of high-profile planning initiatives for the public and private sector organizations throughout Western Canada.

Our projects span sectors, from health to education, communities to operations, justice to fire halls. We service partners in government, Indigenous communities, and the private sector. As our projects typically have long range timelines of 20+ years, our commitment is to provide our clients with the tools needed to make informed decisions about resource requirements to meet their mandates in an ever-changing environment.

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