Kevin Hanson – Division 1
Quick Bits
Last year, the Rural Crime Watch folks and our RCMP community liaison officer were invited to an evening session hosted in Elbow Valley to talk with and educate residents. The attendees were able to learn about the organization, and steps they could take to reduce their vulnerability and risk of crime against their property and/or person. I am arranging for a similar session hosted by Bragg Creek, targeting the last half of November. In addition to the education component, another objective will be to help the Cochrane Foothills Protective Association add to their membership. Their members are the “eyes and ears” of the community, monitoring and reporting suspicious activity to the police. Stay tuned for the date.
FireSmart Committee
Mid-September, we met for the second time this year, and we had the pleasure of two guest speakers, Laura Stewart the new provincial FireSmart Specialist for Alberta Forestry and Parks, and Rick Arthur who is a wildfire behaviour expert. Both presentations were very well received by the committee. We will see how we get Laura’s presentation posted on the RVC website, and I asked Rick if he would be available to make his presentation to the whole community at some point in the near future, and he indicated that he could.
Chief Hubbard also informed the committee that we have been successful recipients for 2 of our 3 grants through the Forest Resource Improvement Association of Alberta (FRIAA), the first of which will be used to update the 2012 Bragg Creek Wildfire Mitigation Strategy, and the second of which is a vegetation management grant to support private landowners in the Greater Bragg Creek and west Rocky View communities with debris disposal in 2025.
There is a third grant as well, that if successful will be used to develop a roadmap outlining programs and resources in line with the Rocky View County NW Wildfire Mitigation Strategy to assist with FireSmart education for those residents. The County is leveraging the success of FireSmart efforts in Bragg Creek as templates for other regions. Kudos!
Rocky View 2024 Service Book
Last month, I outlined in quite a bit of detail the new approach Rocky View is taking for our 2025 budgeting. This was setting the background for continuing this month – highlighting one of Council’s most important strategic deliverables this term – the creation of the inaugural Rocky View Service Book.
Administration presented the recently completed Service Book to Council at the September 17th Governance Committee meeting. The Service Book is a comprehensive reference for Administration, Council, and Citizens of the County’s 53 services and 164 sub-services, to be used during our 2025 budget deliberations. From administration’s report:
“For each Service, the reader is provided:
- Service Lead & Partners
- Service Description & Objectives
- Service Risk
- Service Revenue (including user fees, levies), Cost, and Net Cost
For each sub-service, the book provides:
- Sub-Service Role – defined on a four- point scale whether the service is:
- Core (e.g. legislated, required by policy, etc.), or
- Non-Core (e.g., critical, strategic, discretionary)
- Sub-Service Level – defined by:
- the scope of the service (“what” is provided),
- the capacity (“how much” is provided),
- customer acceptance (“satisfaction”),
- Service Levels – defined on a 5-point scale by Basic, Below Average, Average, Above Average, and Premium – all relative to other similar municipalities.
- Sub-Service Cost – organized by general cost categories:
- salaries/wages, contracted/general services, materials/supplies, maintenance, utilities, grants, amortization.
- 2024 Sub-Service Performance – a summary of how well the service has performed (e.g., has the service performed above service level, at service level, below service level).”
At the GC meeting I received confirmation admin’s next step is building a home for the 2024 Service Book on our website so we can openly share it with residents. I admit I am “nerding-out” on our approach to service delivery transparency and improvement, but we are truly head and shoulders above the vast majority of Canadian Municipalities with this new ability to Govern and Budget using the Municipal Framework Model. Stay tuned for news on when it will be viewable on the RVC website.
Contact: KRHanson@RockyView.ca or call 403.463.1166.
