County to use Municipal self-assessment tool kit

Times Contributor     

 

County councillors accepted the use of the Municipal Sustainability Self-Assessment Toolkit, put out by the Alberta Government, at the May 21 council meeting. 

It is mandatory for municipalities to supply the government with planning and financial information. The toolkit supplies recommendations and guidelines to standardize the submitted information, and can be used as a tool to evaluate the municipality’s financial health and planning initiatives. The information collected also gives comparative feedback to other similar municipalities.

“From what I can see, we are in really good shape, compared to some others that I have seen,” said Alan Parkin, Wheatland County chief administrative officer (CAO).

The Municipal Affairs website stated the implementation of the standardized information might be challenging for some municipalities. It developed the toolkit to assist municipalities in reaching the targeted goals. The format was developed by many of the impacted stakeholders. Members of the Alberta Chapter of the Government Finance Officers Association volunteered many hours of their time and expertise in the development of the recommended guidelines and other project materials.

Wheatland councillors praised Wheatland staff for their due diligence, because many of the requirements were already in place.

“I am proud reading this and I compliment staff. It makes us look good and they keep council up-to-date on these kinds of things,” said Councillor Ken Sauve.

Part of the reporting includes areas of collaboration with other municipalities and grant applications.

The government is making collaborative projects one of the deciding factors in awarding upcoming grants.

“Once this is in place, it will be a good step stone for obtaining future grants,” said Reeve Glenn Koester.

County Financial Officer Pat Leitch reviewed financial indicator graphs with the councillors, which were compiled by Municipal Affairs from financial information sent to the ministry. She clarified the information that could be gleaned from the summaries and comparisons. She also asked council if there was any beneficial information that could be added. 

“You are the ones these financial reports are for,” said Leitch. 

She added that she hoped the reports  were helpful to their management and decision making processes. She cautioned that there may be differences in parameters for operations and reporting by the various counties. For example, there might be differences in goals, priorities, taxation, population, industry and geographic parameters that would affect the results on the graph. She said there were some factors that may skew the results slightly or introduce anomalies. Leitch expected those would be ironed out in future reports.

Koester asked if cost sharing or cooperative projects between counties were recorded and Leitch replied that those were not indicated on the graphs. Councillors indicated that more breakdowns under each area may be helpful. They gave suggestions like a breakdown of transportation costs, taxation dollars per person and replacement costs versus new investment costs. They also thought employee wages and benefit comparisons would be helpful. Leitch felt that the government would be open to the suggestions offered by council, and she would ask to develop them on future reports. 

She summarized that the County had higher transportation costs, due to the number of kilometers of road system in Wheatland County. The lower debt load and higher surplus funds put the County in good financial shape by comparison. She suggested the County had a high reliance on tax revenue compared to other revenues and other counties, and it may be an issue to address in the future. Leitch indicated that the County might want to consider specific designations for the funds in the Capital surplus. 

Koester qualified that the County did not require as many municipal funding grants as other counties. He suggested it would be nice if the province offered financial incentives for fiscal responsibility. He thanked the CAO for the information, and Council approved that the information be included in their financial packages in the future.

“It is one of our duties here to understand this information. We need to take the time to review this instead of just relying on our staff to provide it,” said Koester.