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© Western Principles, 2020. Call us at 1.800.578.4155 or email us at [email protected].
Addressing the top challenges facing
Alberta Municipalities in 2020 with
Project & Portfolio Management
(A.K.A. Do the right projects and do projects right.)
Western Principles, © January 2020.
Key Points:
• In 2020, Alberta municipal governments are faced with numerous competing challenges in
many large categories – not the least of which is massive funding cuts from the Province.
• Do the right projects. Do projects right.
o With limited budgets and limited experienced people to address these pressing
challenges, municipal governments need to make complex decisions to prioritize
projects and programs.
o Once projects and programs are selected, each municipality needs to have
processes and technology in place to help manage projects successfully to
completion.
• Selecting and configuring a project and portfolio management system to meet your needs
will help you ensure you do the right projects, do projects right, and that you have visibility
into the programs, resources, risks, costs, and progress for the entire portfolio of work.
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1. What keeps Alberta Municipal leaders up at night?
What are the top 3, 5, or 10 challenges facing municipal leaders in Alberta in 2020? Perhaps the
biggest is the rapid reduction in funding from the provincial government, and how that affects all
plans and programs – from assets like roads and buildings to recreation programs. Alongside that,
Municipal Governments are dealing with other funding challenges like managing declining tax
revenue from businesses and residents.
But that’s not all. A variety of external and internal pressures are also fighting for attention. These
range from the reality or potential of layoffs in the face of the financial challenges, to in-migration of
seniors (paired with out-migration of youth) and a need for more expensive services. Bigger factors
are also at play, like climate change and its contribution to more extreme weather events like forest
fires, flooding and drought, and international trade disputes which kill local economies for the O&G
industry, manufactured goods, natural resources, or farm products.
At the same time, municipalities have responsibilities to provide services and administration to the
population. Some of this is necessary to provide safety and economic benefits, and some is
mandated.
These funding challenges, pressures, and services and administration needs compound and
complicate decision-making processes for municipal leaders. We have outlined these factors in the
following diagram:
(See the details for these challenges in the appendix)
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2. What’s the solution?
Each of the problems and responsibilities described above are addressed with programs and projects.
These may be organized under portfolios or departments within a municipality. Within a
department, all work – plans, progress, costs, and resources – all must roll-up to a portfolio view
allowing visibility to efficient planning and delivery. Similarly, all of the departmental portfolios must
roll-up to the municipal view, allowing for transparency.
Sounds easy? Well, it’s not. Solving the challenges faced by municipalities is only restricted by time
and money. Who doesn’t have a lot of that? Easy answer – municipal governments.
In the face of tight capital, limited resources,
and high demand for change delivered
through projects, it is critically important for
municipalities to make the right choices, and
once programs are in place, that projects are
well planned and executed.
Selecting the right projects
An integrated project and portfolio management system (PPM) gives you the ability to select the
right projects and programs with respect to “the triple constraint” – strategy, budget, and capacity.
In this picture, new ideas are pouring into the
organization. These may come from elected
officials, municipal staff, provincial bodies, and
local community businesses or citizens. For a
municipality, these may include proposals like
“Build a new arena”, or “3-1-1 Technology
Upgrade”. Literally thousands of ideas a year
may flow into this funnel. Also, while the
annual budget is the “big show” for gathering
and selecting proposals, we all know that ideas aren’t
restricted by a fiscal period, and that they come in
throughout the year. Some of these may be mandatory
work – such as changes to a records management system
mandated by a regulator, or changes to the overall budget caused by an immediate change to
Provincial funding. As a result of the nature of some of these new ideas, the selected portfolio of
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projects needs to be frequently rejuggled and rebalanced throughout a fiscal period. The natural
progression of this process is to move from an annual budgeting cycle to an ongoing portfolio
analysis, repeated quarterly or monthly.
While hundreds of ideas may come into the funnel, proposals are either selected into the projects
and programs or rejected. If they are rejected, proposals may die completely or sit in a parking lot
for consideration later.
Projects and programs need to be selected based on the triple constraint of strategic fit, available
budget to do work, and the capacity of employees and contractors to get the work done.
• Strategies for municipalities can be found in the mission and vision statements, and often
reflect community engagement, transparency & accountability, economic growth, quality of
life, environmental responsibility, innovation and excellence, employees, regional
collaboration, and safety.
• Budget constraints are imposed by the Municipal Council on behalf of citizens. Further
constraints may be imposed by the Province. Which projects can be done with the available
bucket of funds? Are there some “must-dos” that force others out? What scenarios can you
create to optimize your mix?
• Capacity of employees and contractors dictate the ability to get work done. How much time
do they have available to do project work? Do in-house resources have the skills to do the
work? Do you need consultants or contractors to help? Are they readily available? If you
don’t have people available, can you get them by training available in-house people, hire new
people, or contract them? Again, what scenarios can you create to optimize the ability to get
projects done, and drive results?
Selecting projects based on the business strategy and doing what-if analysis based on budget and
capacity constraints, allows you to do long-term planning and to create balanced programs that will
drive success. Further, it will help you avoid selecting “bad” projects into the mix – those that aren’t
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aligned with the key business drivers and those which have unacceptably high risks. This helps to
improve the overall ROI of your project investment portfolio1.
Doing projects right
An integrated PPM also gives you the ability to do projects right. It has underlying business processes
for gating your projects through your defined project lifecycle, ensuring standards like basic project
information is gathered, approvals are granted, schedules are created, risks are collected, and so on.
The project management side of the PPM allows you to configure the system to align with your best
practices, so that each project conforms to a set of processes and standards that help you deliver
projects and programs successfully.
You may have several project types, each with their own workflow. For example, you may have
project types for:
• Engineering projects (such as a new road or interchange, an improvement to the water plant,
or a new pool),
• Parks and Recreation projects (such as an arena upgrade, or organizing a new seniors fitness
class),
• Community housing projects (such as renovating affordable housing),
• Fire Services (such as purchasing a new fire engine),
• IT (such as infrastructure, applications, and security), and
• Other municipal areas (like communications for educating the community about garbage and
recycling programs, and finance for collections activities).
1 For a municipality, the “ROI” is likely not a traditional return on investment. It may have more to do with a
balanced scorecard that reflects a non-profit strategy, and other strategies which come from the vision and mission
statements and the current mandate of the Council.
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The workflow provides an overall methodology for the project, with gating to ensure governance.
Within the workflow, you should have a defined schedule template with standard milestones –
providing a project team a place to start their planning and the ability to roll-up the project progress
for council and executive visibility. For larger projects, you must also have a cost controls template,
integrated into your PPM, where you can create and track your budget and changes, and easily
manage a project forecast. The workflow should also generate a standard project site, giving your
project team a place to store all working documents and drawings. The site also provides the
foundation for critical lists like risks and issues, where a project manager can document these items,
and track contingency plans and action to closure. Once again, these lists must roll-up automatically
for PMO and executive reports. Within the site, you can have forms and automated processes for
change requests, construction RFIs, status reports, lessons learned, HS&E observations, and more (all
kicked-off with the workflow and templates). Finally, all the information in this site must be available
for easy reporting at the project, program, PMO, and executive level – with reports and dashboards
crafted for people in each level.
This standardization and capabilities of the project management system
are important as they drive the ability to be predictable and repeatable
in project planning and execution, and to gradually mature your delivery
capabilities over time.
A great project management system blends process
and technology together and acts a big lever that will
improve your project outcomes and drive the
expected return on investment of each project, and their programs.
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What’s important?
Different departments, programs, and projects may have
different important metrics that they need to plan and track.
This may be dictated by the resources that are doing
the work, and the degree of control the municipality
needs for each project.
For example, on a small and low-cost project being done
in-house by IT to build a new report for the council, the
project manager will be focused on the schedule and
resources. In contrast, on an engineering project to
build a new road, which is primarily being done by
third-party engineering and construction firms, your Roads
Department may need primary visibility and control of the
costs – from the budget to the forecast, as well as tight oversight and approvals on any changes.
The tools to help you manage schedules, resources, and costs must all be part of your PPM system,
and through project types, must provide you access to the right planning and control systems.
See what?
Your PPM won’t manage itself. You need visibility into what
is happening on projects and programs, and how
resources are allocated so that you can gain insight that
drives decisions and actions. Other key performance
indicators, like project costs, risks, issues, and change
requests, also need to be part of this picture.
Your PPM analytics system must give you graphic and
tabular dashboards that quickly direct your attention to
problem areas and help you to make good and fast
decisions about how to resolve problems.
Why is this important? A PPM Analytics system
gives you roles-based visibility – so that
your executives, PMO team, project
managers, and other stakeholders can
get the information they need to find
and fix problems.
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Hook it up
A complete PPM integrates into your other line of business systems:
• Your finance system is the single-source-of-truth for costs, so your
PPM system should pull budget and actual cost information
from it.
• Your operations and dispatch system(s) let
you know where your crews are and what
they’re doing. These teams may also spend
some of their time working on projects and so
you need to be able to coordinate time – such
as pulling them off projects to respond to
outages.
• You may have a time reporting system, where your
team enters their daily or weekly time for approvals. This should be hooked up to the PPM so
that they can see what project work they are responsible for and can report back on what
they’ve completed.
• Your engineering & construction management teams need to track health, safety, and
environment observations and incidents. This information should be available to your PPM
system – much like tracking an issue or a risk.
• Your development teams may be creating new software using an Agile development
methodology. Your executive and PMO need to be able to initiate projects and plan
resources in that space, as well as get visibility to progress on the projects and additionally
the resource allocations. This should flow back and forth with your PPM system.
• There are a variety of other systems that you may want to integrate with your PPM system.
You may even need to integrate your PPM with other project management systems, to
provide a full view of what projects are going on in your organization, and who is working on
each. This may require two-way integration so that you can push project requests from your
portfolio management system and receive progress updates back into the project
management and analytics system.
Integration can be achieved in several ways. At the most sophisticated level, two systems may be
integrated with shared data so that both systems use the same tables. Data replication is another
approach, with one- or two-way integration either in real-time or batched. A simpler approach is to
integrate through reporting, bringing data together with analytics.
The value of integrating your PPM system and other core business systems is to reduce the
complexity of your business environment – ensuring a single-source-of-information, eliminating
double entries, and driving business value with better decisions.
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3. What does it look like?
What PPM
solution is going
to help you do the
right projects and
do projects right?
There are only a
couple of PPM
systems that are
up to the challenge. To suit the diverse and rich needs of a municipal government you will need to
organize your PPM with a series of tightly integrated components. This allows you the ability to
approach your PPM implementation through a “crawl-walk-run” philosophy, and to extend the
capabilities as you need them.
We’ll use Microsoft Project Online for a discussion of this modular approach.
Microsoft Project Online has rich capabilities to help you select the right
projects through its portfolio management module2. This powerful
functionality provides for proposal intake and scoring against your business
strategy and other factors which you define. Then it gives
you the ability to look at selected projects against available
budget, and available capacity. From there, you can do iterations of “what if”
analysis and build scenarios that can be used for making critical decisions.
Need more than what Microsoft Project Online comes with? Some
municipal governments might. You can extend the Microsoft Project
Online solution with partner products – like UMT360’s Program Manager
and Portfolio Manager. This gives you the ability to see beyond individual
projects and look at the impacts of selecting or modifying programs based
on constraints like budget and capacity.
For project management, everyone knows of the rich scheduling capabilities
inside Microsoft Project Online. But many people aren’t aware of the project
governance and controls it provides. When configured correctly, Microsoft
2 Most Microsoft Project users aren’t aware that this capability is right inside the solution they already have. It
simply needs to be configured.
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Project Online also helps you progress projects through gating and provides templated project sites.
The project sites can contain project documents, risks, and issues.
Similarly, Microsoft Project Online has some “white space” where you can use
partner products, like UMT360, to fill gaps and roll-out additional capabilities
– such as cost controls or integration to Azure DevOps. A great advantage you
enjoy with Microsoft is the rich set of partners that have developed out-of-
the-box solutions over the years, and consequently the ability to extend the
base PPM solution when you have needs.
Visibility to your projects is provided by some out-of-the-
box reporting within Microsoft Project Online, and
additionally with Microsoft Power BI and the included
content pack. This provides actional insights that can be
used to ensure the status of the portfolio, projects, and
resources.
Microsoft Project Online can also be extended further with customization provided through the
Microsoft Power Platform. This provides the ability to easily integrate Microsoft Project Online to
other systems and business
processes, and to create forms and
automated workflows. Microsoft
provides templates and samples of
the Power Platform capabilities
directly from their website. For
example, if you want to connect Microsoft Project Online to a help desk system like ServiceNow,
there are predefined models that you can use for starting this build, using Power Automate.
Microsoft Project Online is one of the world’s most popular PPM systems, for many good reasons. It
has matured over the years and Microsoft has expanded the capabilities to cover portfolio and
project management, and a range of project needs – from simple to sophisticated. Microsoft Project
Online can be configured to meet your needs whether for IT projects, complex capital projects, or
other business projects in areas like marketing, customer services, finance, and others.
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4. Your PPM Next Steps
Heres’ a three-step process to help you get your PPM system in place, to address the municipal
government challenges you face:
1) Evaluate your PPM capabilities:
a. Are you limited or plagued by spreadsheets for your portfolio or project
management?
b. Do you have a system – process and technology – to help you select the right projects
and to help your project teams do projects right?
c. Do you have visibility to your portfolio, projects, costs, and resources?
d. Are these systems integrated?
e. Does your PPM need to integrate with other systems, or be extended?
f. What’s your starting point? With answers to the questions above, assess your
business processes and supporting technology, along with your team’s competencies.
2) Set a goal. Now that you know where you’re starting:
a. Where do you want to mature your PPM capabilities to?
b. What’s the business case for making the move?
c. How long can you wait to get there?
3) Assess your options, build a roadmap, and start your implementation. Oh, that’s easy . In
truth, there are many PPM options available to you, but as you narrow your focus you will
find that there are only a handful that can really handle enterprise PPM, and even fewer
flexible enough to handle the broad range of PPM departments and the great many
challenges that a municipal government is up against in the next several years.
Western Principles can help you with your assessment of your current PPM capabilities, process
and technology – and help you build a business case and roadmap to start you on your PPM
implementation journey.
Western Principles can help you with this, regardless of the project management solution you use.
To start the process, call us at 1.800.578.4155 or email us at [email protected]. We
look forward to helping you.
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5. Appendix - Alberta Municipal Government Challenges
Funding
• Federal & Provincial Grants: Lack of long-term &
predictable funding for projects. “Predictable funding
allocations, fair-cost sharing, flexible fund stacking
rules, and streamlined administrative requirements
are keys to getting projects moving
in rural Canada.”3 “Municipalities
will take a hit to their infrastructure
funding over the coming years, as
well as to operational funding they
receive from the province. On
Thursday, the provincial government tabled
its 2019-20 budget.”4 “Low energy prices
revealed the royalty rollercoaster for the risky
and poorly maintained ride that it is. And to
address the province’s large and growing
deficit, the former PC and current NDP
governments began grabbing any feather they
could in recent years.”5
• Tax Hikes vs. Tax Stabilization vs. Tax Cuts. “Council initially approved a 3.03 per cent tax hike on
homeowners in 2020 as part of the previously approved four-year budget — but council members
have since signalled that they could be pushing for a budgetary freeze and cuts to services in the
year ahead.”6
• Limited Fiscal Capacity / Limited Financial Resources. Rural governments face formidable
challenges providing the infrastructure that’s needed to build the communities of the future.
“Municipalities shoulder 60 per cent of Canada’s public infrastructure” 7
• Lower ratepayer densities. In rural communities, municipalities are responsible for large
geographic areas with relatively low population densities.
3 https://fcm.ca/sites/default/files/documents/resources/report/rural-challenges-national-opportunities.pdf 4 https://www.mountainviewtoday.ca/local-news/mixed-news-for-municipalities-in-2019-alberta-budget-1823357 5 https://business.financialpost.com/opinion/trevor-tombe-not-all-taxes-are-created-equal-why-alberta-needs-the-hst 6 https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/2020-budget-city-tax-scenarios-include-cuts-to-police-and-fire-loss-of-236-workers 7 https://fcm.ca/sites/default/files/documents/resources/report/rural-challenges-national-opportunities.pdf
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• Shrinking Tax base. The non-residential tax base in Alberta municipalities has shrunk with the
roller-coaster ride of the oil & gas economy. In addition, out-migration and even lower ratepayer
densities have contributed to the shrinking tax base. As well, municipalities face changing taxation
rules. For example: “Before 2016, oilsands companies paid municipal property taxes that were 18
times higher than what those in rural residential areas were paying, accounting for at least 90 per
cent of past municipal budgets. However, the province in 2016 mandated that ratio shrink to 5:1.
The municipality has a 10-year plan to lower rural business taxes on oil developments to reach
that ratio.”8
8 https://www.fortmcmurraytoday.com/news/local-news/mayor-council-look-back-on-the-top-issues-of-2019
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Pressures
• Economic Development. “Economic development
initiatives will assist a municipality in meeting its
growth and sustainability goals.”9
• Strategic Planning. “The majority … are
planning, at most, a year or two ahead. ...
This indicates an operational, rather than
a strategic, outlook.”10
• In-migration of seniors. “Rural
communities are attracting a growing
number of retired Canadians who need
access to a range of goods and services,
such as preventative health and social
services and seniors’ housing. Smaller
communities have fewer resources to
help.”11
• Youth Out-migration. Youth retention is
critical to long-term economic vitality of rural
Canada. However, limited services in rural
communities and greater access to learning and
employment opportunities in cities have drawn young people to Canada’s metropolitan areas.
When young people finish training at Canada’s colleges and universities, they are less likely to
seek employment opportunities in rural communities.12
• Limited human resources. “One of the most significant challenges facing many rural communities
is limited human resources. FCM research found that roughly 60 per cent of Canadian
municipalities have five staff members or less.”13 “Developing managers and leaders for
tomorrow. The baby boomers are retiring, and new generations are getting ready to step into
their footsteps. Will they be prepared?”14
• Trade Disputes. “Trade disputes have had serious economic consequences for many rural
communities.” 15 Examples include the recent tariffs imposed by the US Government on Canadian
9 https://auma.ca/advocacy-services/programs-initiatives/economic-development-resources-hub 10 https://www.conferenceboard.ca/temp/6cc3814e-db5e-4f43-b322-865ecb1c49e4/9895_21-Insights_PublicSectorHR_RPT.pdf 11 https://fcm.ca/sites/default/files/documents/resources/report/rural-challenges-national-opportunities.pdf 12 https://fcm.ca/sites/default/files/documents/resources/report/rural-challenges-national-opportunities.pdf 13 https://fcm.ca/sites/default/files/documents/resources/report/rural-challenges-national-opportunities.pdf 14 https://www.conferenceboard.ca/temp/6cc3814e-db5e-4f43-b322-865ecb1c49e4/9895_21-Insights_PublicSectorHR_RPT.pdf 15 https://fcm.ca/sites/default/files/documents/resources/report/rural-challenges-national-opportunities.pdf
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resources, such as the softwood industry, and by China on Canada’s farming industries. Affects of
trade disputes have also been felt in mining, O&G, and others.
• Climate Change (flooding, wildfires, drought, etc.). “With over 80% of Canadians living in cities it
is the responsibility of our municipal governments to implement mitigation and adaptation
strategies to protect its citizens, and address significant climate related challenges.”16 This
includes risks such as extreme storms, flooding, forest fires, droughts, melting permafrost, rising
sea-levels and more.
• Cannabis Legalization. “New local responsibilities for keeping citizens safe and well served.”17
“Local governments are the order of government closest to Canadians’ daily lives and as a result,
municipalities are on the front lines of cannabis legalization. … Legalization has operational and
cost implications for as many as 17 municipal departments.”18
• Layoffs. “The new austerity promises to inflame tensions with public unions and mayors in a
province where years of economic stagnation has already caused rounds of layoffs and shrinking
municipal budgets.”19 “[Edmonton] Councillor Michael Walters is proposing the city reduce the
size of the workforce. He’s referenced the number 2,000 as a way of getting the city’s budget in
order.”20
16 https://climateforum.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/CCF-CCMunicipalities-PSD-April2015-FINAL.pdf 17 https://fcm.ca/sites/default/files/documents/resources/report/rural-challenges-national-opportunities.pdf 18 https://business.financialpost.com/opinion/legalization-is-here-but-municipalities-are-still-waiting-for-tools-to-handle-it 19 https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/alberta/article-alberta-budget-introduces-13-billion-in-cuts-elimination-of-200/ 20 https://globalnews.ca/news/6237189/edmonton-budget-2020-job-cuts-walters/
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Public Services
• Roads, Bridges, Sidewalks. Roads services provide affordable,
well-managed and safe traffic flow for pedestrians,
cyclists, drivers, public transit and commercial
traffic. A municipality’s transportation system
affects the economic vitality and quality of life
of residents by providing ease of access to
other residences, and institutional,
commercial, recreational and cultural
facilities. Transportation infrastructure
generally includes roads, bridges, culverts,
sidewalks, pathways, traffic control
systems, signage, medians and boulevards.
Roads services operations include
repairing/replacing road surfaces, marking the
road directional lane and other lines, clearing the
transportation network of debris to keep it safe and
convenient to use and keeping traffic signals and signage operational.” 21 “Municipal
governments own and maintain two-thirds of Canada’s stock of public infrastructure. This burden
is met by municipalities within the parameters afforded to them by their respective provinces.”22
• Water & Sewage. “As municipalities across the province are aware, water and wastewater
systems are an expensive service to provide. The cost of infrastructure, maintenance, and staff is
rapidly increasing along with Alberta’s booming population, and many municipalities are already
struggling to fund their systems.”23
• Recreation & Cultural Programs. “Investing in recreational and cultural infrastructure builds
strong dynamic communities, supports economic growth, helps celebrate Canada's diversity, and
promotes people's health and wellbeing.”24
• Fire Protection. “The aim of a Municipal Fire Service is to reduce the impact of events to people,
property and the environment by rapidly responding to fires, rescues, and hazardous materials
and other incidents with well-equipped and well-trained responders.”25 This includes a range of
21 https://www.lethbridge.ca/City-Government/Benchmarking/Documents/Roadways%20Report%20AMBI.PDF 22 https://www.policyschool.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/municipal-capital-infrastructure-tassonyi-conger.pdf 23 https://auma.ca/advocacy-services/programs-initiatives/water-management/planning-and-funding/full-cost-
accounting-and-pricing 24 https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/new-and-improved-culture-and-recreation-centres-coming-to-six-bc-
communities-862402237.html 25 https://www.lethbridge.ca/City-
Government/Benchmarking/Documents/Fire%20Protection%20Report%202017.pdf
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fire suppression and avoidance methods for a range of fire risks from structural fires to wildfires.
These costs can be extraordinary in events such as the forest fires in BC in 2018, or an event like
the Fort McMurray fire in 2016.
• Policing. “In many rural communities across Canada, residents depend on their local Royal
Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) detachment to maintain order and keep them safe.
Unfortunately, attracting and retaining police officers remains a challenge for rural communities
across the country.”26 In Alberta, the government has recently restructured funding for Police,
imposing new costs on municipalities.27
• Emergency Preparedness & Response. “Rural municipalities are acutely aware of the rising costs
of responding to and rebuilding from natural disasters. Local governments across rural Canada
are demonstrating leadership by developing plans to manage risk and continue to deliver services
in a world where many trusted system design approaches need to be revisited due to a changing
climate. Rural municipalities are working with limited resources to appropriately fund emergency
management systems.”28
• Snow Removal. “The rules about snow shoveling are usually contained in bylaws created by
municipalities.”29 “Municipal roads departments are usually responsible for the Snow and Ice
Control (SNIC) program. A SNIC program helps make the municipality safe for pedestrians and
vehicles according to a priority system along the developed roadways right-of-way (ROW). An
effective and efficient SNIC program is necessary to allow the municipality to function under
normal winter weather conditions, to reduce snow and ice hazards, and to provide reasonable
winter mobility on municipality roadways, in parking lots, and on sidewalks and pathways.”30
• Solid Waste & Disposal/Waste Management. Provinces set standards for waste management,
and municipalities are largely responsible for delivering on those.31 This includes waste reduction,
recycling programs and the operation of landfill sites.
• Affordable & Social Housing. “Preserving social housing is particularly important in small
communities, which are less likely to have private market rental housing affordable to low-income
households.”32
• Shared Services. “Intermunicipal relationships are complex in Alberta. As the province’s economy
and population continues to grow, this becomes more and more the case. Whether it is accessing
funds to expand critical infrastructure, providing an ever-growing list of services to municipal
residents, or addressing emerging land use and development priorities related to natural resource
26 https://fcm.ca/sites/default/files/documents/resources/report/rural-challenges-national-opportunities.pdf 27 https://rmalberta.com/news/government-of-alberta-releases-police-costing-model/ 28 https://fcm.ca/sites/default/files/documents/resources/report/rural-challenges-national-opportunities.pdf 29 https://www.law-faqs.org/municipal-law/neighbourhood-disputes/snow-shoveling-slackers/ 30 https://banff.ca/DocumentCenter/View/5949/Benchmarking---Snow-and-Ice-Control?bidId= 31 https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/environment/waste-management 32 https://fcm.ca/sites/default/files/documents/resources/report/rural-challenges-national-opportunities.pdf
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development, municipal issues are rarely contained within municipal boundaries.”33
“Strengthening Canada’s relationship with Indigenous peoples requires a long-term, national
effort from all orders of government. … Local governments know that tomorrow’s Canada must
unfold at a four-cornered table—with federal and provincial/territorial governments, alongside
municipalities and Indigenous communities as equal partners. It’s the only way to truly unlock our
potential as a country.”34
Administration
• Human Resource Management. “Quality human
resource management is essential to the
successful operations of a municipality. It is
advised that the CAO implement strong
policies and procedures to ensure
consistency and equity are principles
applied to all those who work, or
apply to work, for the municipality.
Policies and procedures should be in
place for items such as staff
recruitment, personnel, job
descriptions, evaluations, and
professional development.”35
• Records management. “Good records,
properly created, organized, stored and
classified are critical for government’s success across
the thousands of services that it provides, manages or authorizes. However, records do not need
to be retained by government forever and at the end of their operational life they are either
destroyed or retained … in the Archives consistent with legislative requirements.”36 “An area that
requires much attention is a municipality’s records management and protection of information. A
CAO is required to ensure all bylaws, minutes of council meetings and other official records and
documents of the municipality are kept safe.” 37
33 http://aamdc.com/convention-highlights/aamdc-reports/public-reports/1357-examining-municipal-government-
models-from-the-alberta-perspective-summary-report/file 34 https://fcm.ca/en/focus-areas/indigenous-partnerships 35 http://www.municipalaffairs.alberta.ca/documents/CAO%20Handbook.pdf 36 https://www.oipc.bc.ca/special-reports/1664 37 http://www.municipalaffairs.alberta.ca/documents/CAO%20Handbook.pdf
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• Freedom of Information & Protection of Privacy. “The Freedom of Information and Protection of
Privacy (FOIP) Act aims to strike a balance between the public’s right to know and the individual’s
right to privacy, as those rights relate to information held by public bodies in Alberta. … All
records that are in the custody or under the control of the municipality are subject to the FOIP Act
unless a specific exclusion applies. • A municipality has custody of a record when the record is in
the possession of the municipality.”38 “BC’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act
(FIPPA) sets out the access and privacy rights of individuals as they relate to the public sector. …
FIPPA also sets out the terms under which a public body can collect, use and disclose the personal
information of individuals. Public bodies are held accountable for their information practices.”39
• Risk Management / Insurance. “Municipalities are adopting risk management policies or
strategies which seek to minimize the effects and liability risks for a municipality.”40 Municipal
insurance is typically obtained through an association like the Municipal Insurance Association of
British Columbia or the Alberta Municipal Insurance Exchange.
• Information Technology. IT provides information technology planning, consultation,
procurement, implementation and support services to all departments of a Municipality. Among
other critical jobs, IT is responsible for overall cybersecurity and protection of electronic records.
“For municipalities, information technology (IT) needs are more than just setting up smartphones
and fixing laptops. At every turn, Canada’s cities and towns must think outside the box about
making things work better. An understanding and appreciation for how technology can achieve
this must be in a municipality’s corporate DNA, detailed and committed to in strategic plans. …
Technology empowers residents to have greater ownership in decision making, pull up a seat at
council chamber, and brainstorm solutions that produce real results. … Modern technology is
needed for the effective delivery of local services.” 41
• Liaison with the General Public. A municipal government has the responsibility to maintain open
communications with the public on “any matters that deal with bylaws, policies or procedures
established by the council or programs and activities involving the community.”42
• Public Access to Information. Ensuring that records management systems are in place to both
collect and protect public information, and to provide appropriate access to it.
• Transparency & Accountability. “The MGA includes provisions related to the transparency and
accountability of council and its local boards and committees. This includes the conduct of
meetings and the public’s right to attend. Transparent decision-making processes are seen as part
38 https://www.servicealberta.ca/foip/documents/faq-municipalities.pdf 39 https://www.oipc.bc.ca/guidance-documents/1466 40 http://www.municipalaffairs.alberta.ca/documents/CAO%20Handbook.pdf 41 https://www.municipalworld.com/feature-story/building-a-connected-city/ 42 http://www.municipalaffairs.alberta.ca/documents/CAO%20Handbook.pdf
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of the foundation of good governance of a municipality.”43 “All meetings of the council/board
must be open to the public except where meetings are permitted to be closed to the public.”44
• Financial Management. “Responsible financial management is a primary focus of Alberta’s
municipalities. The MGA outlines a financial management framework, which requires
municipalities to create a budget and engage the public on financial matters. Through the MGA,
municipalities are empowered to borrow funds and are responsible for making financial decisions.
Financial administration and accountability are key components of the MGA.” In BC: “All local
governments in B.C. operate within a legislative framework that governs their administration and
finances including financial planning, reporting, revenues (taxes and fees), liabilities, capital
financing, development financing, and property acquisition and disposition.”45 “Municipalities and
regional districts must annually adopt, by bylaw, a five-year financial plan, which includes capital
and operating items.”46
• Planning & Development. “Municipalities play a large role in the planning for the responsible use
of land, both within their boundaries and regionally. Planning and development involves the
appropriate use and management of land resources, provision of services and infrastructure,
orderly development of new growth, management of risks, and proper decision-making models
for land-related issues. With 86.5% of Alberta’s land mass located within rural municipalities, the
critical role that rural municipal governments play in both planning and development cannot be
understated.”47 “Local government planning establishes land use patterns that can last for
hundreds of years. … Local government land use regulations, such as zoning and other bylaws (for
example, parking and loading, sign and screening and landscaping bylaws) enable local
governments to implement the vision expressed in these plans. Many local governments include
planning policies in their official community plans that support positive economic, social and
cultural, and environmental outcomes.”48
• Assessment & Taxation. “Local governments obtain their revenues from these principal sources:
taxes on real property (land and improvements), fees and charges for services, development cost
charges, and transfers or grants from other governments.”49
43 http://www.municipalaffairs.alberta.ca/documents/CAO%20Handbook.pdf 44 https://www.ubcm.ca/assets/Services/Publications/2018/2018_UBCM_FactSheets.pdf 45 https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/local-governments/finance 46 https://www.ubcm.ca/assets/Services/Publications/2018/2018_UBCM_FactSheets.pdf 47 https://rmalberta.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Planning-and-Development-Position-Statements.pdf 48 https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/local-governments/planning-land-use/local-government-
planning 49 https://www.ubcm.ca/assets/Services/Publications/2018/2018_UBCM_FactSheets.pdf
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Settling for Subpar
Finally, making subpar investment decisions is an overarching problem for municipalities.
Municipalities (like many public and private organizations) habitually have made subpar investment
decisions. This means that they are biased toward investing in initiatives that provide immediate
payback, as opposed to investing for the long run. Subpar investment decisions are also caused by
investing in pet projects rather than more important projects, or small pilot programs that aren’t big
enough to make a difference. These problems are barriers to innovation and long-term delivery on
the municipal government’s strategies.
But wait, there’s more!
Undoubtedly this list is not comprehensive. It’s long; no doubt about it. But each municipality is
going to have its own challenges beyond this list.
This further underlines the need for a PPM system that allows you to pick the right projects and do
projects right.
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6. Bibliography
“Alberta Municipal Benchmarking Initiative – – Snow & Ice Control.” April 2018.
https://banff.ca/DocumentCenter/View/5949/Benchmarking---Snow-and-Ice-Control?bidId=
“Alberta Municipal Benchmarking Initiative – Fire Services.” November 2017. https://www.lethbridge.ca/City-
Government/Benchmarking/Documents/Fire%20Protection%20Report%202017.pdf
“Alberta Municipal Benchmarking Initiative – Roadways.” November 2017. https://www.lethbridge.ca/City-
Government/Benchmarking/Documents/Roadways%20Report%20AMBI.PDF
“City increases taxes, utilities in 2020.” BrooksBulletin.com. December 18, 2019. https://brooksbulletin.com/city-increases-
taxes-utilities-in-2020/
“Examining Municipal Government Models from the Alberta Perspective Summary Report.” Alberta Association of Municipal
Districts and Counties. April 2015. http://aamdc.com/convention-highlights/aamdc-reports/public-reports/1357-
examining-municipal-government-models-from-the-alberta-perspective-summary-report/file
“Read Alberta Finance Minister Travis Toews' Budget 2019 speech.” Edmonton Journal. October 24, 2019.
https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/read-alberta-finance-minister-travis-toews-budget-2019-speech
“Snow Shoveling Slackers.” Canadian Legal FAQs. The Centre for Public Legal Education Alberta. https://www.law-
faqs.org/municipal-law/neighbourhood-disputes/snow-shoveling-slackers/
Abraham. Jim. “The Impact of Climate Change on Canadian Municipalities and Infrastructure.” Canadian Climate Forum.
https://climateforum.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/CCF-CCMunicipalities-PSD-April2015-FINAL.pdf
Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties (AAMDC). “Planning and Development. Position Statement.”
https://rmalberta.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Planning-and-Development-Position-Statements.pdf
Alberta Municipal Affairs. “CAO Handbook. For Alberta Municipal Chief Administrative Officers.” March 2018. Government of
Alberta. http://www.municipalaffairs.alberta.ca/documents/CAO%20Handbook.pdf
Alberta Recreation and Parks Association (ARPA). “Public Funding of Recreation in Alberta. Final Report.” 2010.
http://s3.arpaonline.ca/docs/Public-Funding-of-Recreation-Final-Report.pdf.
Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA). “Water Management: Full cost accounting and pricing.”
https://auma.ca/advocacy-services/programs-initiatives/water-management/planning-and-funding/full-cost-
accounting-and-pricing
Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA). Economic Development Resources Hub. https://auma.ca/advocacy-
services/programs-initiatives/economic-development-resources-hub
Beamish, Laura. “Mayor, council look back on the top issues of 2019.” Fort McMurray Today. December 26, 2019.
https://www.fortmcmurraytoday.com/news/local-news/mayor-council-look-back-on-the-top-issues-of-2019
Bellefontaine, Michelle. “Budget 2019: Albertans to pay more as United Conservative government reins in spending. Cuts
coming for post-secondary, municipal grants.” CBC News. Oct 24, 2019. CBC.ca.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-budget-1.5332779
Conference Board of Canada. “Top Human Capital Challenges for Public Sector HR. Highlights from the Public Sector HR 2018
Conference”. September 2018. https://www.conferenceboard.ca/temp/6cc3814e-db5e-4f43-b322-
865ecb1c49e4/9895_21-Insights_PublicSectorHR_RPT.pdf
Crombie, Bonnie. “Building a Connected City.” Municipal World. https://www.municipalworld.com/feature-story/building-a-
connected-city/
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Denham, Elizabeth. “A FAILURE TO ARCHIVE - RECOMMENDATIONS TO MODERNIZE GOVERNMENT RECORDS MANAGEMENT”.
Information and Privacy Commissioner for BC. July 22, 2014. https://www.oipc.bc.ca/special-reports/1664
Federation of Canadian Municipalities. “Abacus Data polling results”. Spring 2019. https://fcm.ca/en/resources/abacus-data-
polling-results
Federation of Canadian Municipalities. “Indigenous partnerships.” https://fcm.ca/en/focus-areas/indigenous-partnerships
Federation of Canadian Municipalities. “Rural challenges, national opportunity Shaping the future of rural Canada.”
https://fcm.ca/sites/default/files/documents/resources/report/rural-challenges-national-opportunities.pdf
Giovannetti, Justin. “Alberta budget unveils $1.3-billion in cuts, elimination of 2,100 public sector jobs.” The Globe & Mail.
October 24, 2019. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/alberta/article-alberta-budget-introduces-13-billion-in-
cuts-elimination-of-200/
Giroux, Laurie. “State of Waste Management in Canada” Prepared for Canadian Council of Ministers of Environment. Giroux
Environmental Consulting. 2014.
https://www.ccme.ca/files/Resources/waste/wst_mgmt/State_Waste_Mgmt_in_Canada%20April%202015%20revised.
Goulet, Justin. “Lethbridge hosts Alberta Mid-sized Mayors’ and CAOs’ Caucus.” Sep 12, 2019. LethbridgeNewsNow.com.
https://lethbridgenewsnow.com/2019/09/12/lethbridge-hosts-alberta-mid-sized-mayors-and-caos-caucus/
Government of Alberta. “Municipal Affairs Annual Report 2018 – 2019”. Ministry of Municipal Affairs
https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/2c12785f-b426-44dc-aea5-f4be2e8f97ec/resource/e9e4413a-cf36-4a6a-a07c-
4a05900e99ff/download/municipal-affairs-annual-report-2018-2019-web.pdf
Government of BC. “Local Government Finance.” https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/local-
governments/finance
Government of BC. “Local Government Planning.” https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/local-
governments/planning-land-use/local-government-planning
Hamm, Vicki-May. “Legalization is here, but municipalities are still waiting for tools to handle it”. Financial Post. October 17,
2018. https://business.financialpost.com/opinion/legalization-is-here-but-municipalities-are-still-waiting-for-tools-to-
handle-it
Henderson, Jennifer. “Mixed news for municipalities in 2019 Alberta budget.” MountainViewTODAY.ca. Oct 25, 2019.
https://www.mountainviewtoday.ca/local-news/mixed-news-for-municipalities-in-2019-alberta-budget-1823357
Infrastructure Canada “New and improved culture and recreation centres coming to six BC communities.” Sep 06, 2019.
https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/new-and-improved-culture-and-recreation-centres-coming-to-six-bc-
communities-862402237.html
Johnston, Scott. “City of Edmonton must defend its oversized staff: councillor”. 630CHED/Global News. December 2, 2019 .
https://globalnews.ca/news/6237189/edmonton-budget-2020-job-cuts-walters/
Kirby, Jason. “The most important Canadian economic charts to watch in 2020.” Maclean’s. Dec 4, 2019.
https://www.macleans.ca/economy/the-most-important-canadian-economic-charts-to-watch-in-2020/ (B.C. softwood
lumber production cut down, Joel Wood; Alberta’s Double-Dip Recession?, Trevor Tombe; The growing gap between oil
supply and pipeline capacity, Rob Roach; Alberta’s resource revenue roller-coaster, Steve Lafleur and Ben Eisen;
Municipal governments are bucking the deficit trend, Farah Omran and Bill Robson)
McKenzie, Kenneth. “Altering the Tax Mix in Alberta.” The School of Public Policy. University of Calgary. September 2019.
https://www.policyschool.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tax-Mix-Alberta-McKenzie-final-version.pdf.
Municipal Government Act, Alberta Government. “Chapter 4: Municipal finances” https://mgareview.alberta.ca/wp-
content/upLoads/media/0214-MGA-Review-Workbook-Chapter-4.pdf
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Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (AB). “FOIP. Frequently Asked Questions for Municipalities”. Province of
Alberta. January 2007 https://www.servicealberta.ca/foip/documents/faq-municipalities.pdf
Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (BC). “Guide to Access and Privacy Protection under FIPPA.” Province of
British Columbia. October, 2015. https://www.oipc.bc.ca/guidance-documents/1466.
Potkins, Meghan. “2020 budget: City tax scenarios include cuts to police and fire, loss of 236 jobs.” Calgary Herald. November
12, 2019. https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/2020-budget-city-tax-scenarios-include-cuts-to-police-and-fire-
loss-of-236-workers
Province of British Columbia. “Waste Management”. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/environment/waste-management
Rural Municipalities of Alberta. “Bill 22 and the Implications for Municipalities.” 28 Nov 2019 https://rmalberta.com/news/bill-
22-and-the-implications-for-municipalities/
Rural Municipalities of Alberta. “Changes to Children’s Services Grants.” 20 Dec 2019. https://rmalberta.com/news/changes-to-
childrens-services-grants/
Rural Municipalities of Alberta. “Government of Alberta Releases Police Costing Model.” 6 Dec 2019.
https://rmalberta.com/news/government-of-alberta-releases-police-costing-model/
Tassonyi, Almos T. & Conger, Brian W. “An Exploration into the Municipal Capacity to Finance Capital Infrastructure”. The School
of Public Policy. University of Calgary. November 2015. https://www.policyschool.ca/wp-
content/uploads/2016/03/municipal-capital-infrastructure-tassonyi-conger.pdf
Tombe, Trevor. “Not all taxes are created equal — Why Alberta needs the HST”. Financial Post. July 20, 2016.
https://business.financialpost.com/opinion/trevor-tombe-not-all-taxes-are-created-equal-why-alberta-needs-the-hst
UBCM. “Local Government Fact Sheets. A reference guide to local government planning & operations.” November 2018.
https://www.ubcm.ca/assets/Services/Publications/2018/2018_UBCM_FactSheets.pdf
Page 25
© Western Principles, 2020. Call us at 1.800.578.4155 or email us at [email protected].
7. About Western Principles
Western Principles is Canada’s most experienced partner for the Microsoft Project & Portfolio
Management suite, SharePoint, UMT360, and FluentPro.
We have been in business and helping our customers with their PPM implementations for
almost 15 years and have done over 100 implementations of Microsoft Project from coast to
coast in Canada.
Ensuring client success in their project endeavours is our primary goal. Whether the project is
just beginning or needs to be guided towards a positive completion, our project team have
the skills and experience required to deliver results.
We partner to reduce risk and deliver great solutions:
We are a Gold Partner for Project & Portfolio Management. Even for the
largest firms in the world, Microsoft works with customers directly through
their Partner Network, and relies on partners to help deliver better solutions
to its customers. Microsoft Gold Certified Partners are Microsoft’s most
highly accredited independent solution providers.
We are a Gold Partner of UMT360 (and the only Gold partner in Canada).
UMT360 provides a series of solutions that extend the value of your Microsoft
Project Online or Project Server investment. Western Principles sells and
implements UMT360 solutions.
We are a FluentPro Preferred partner and reseller. FluentPro provides a suite
of administrative solutions that improve the capabilities of Microsoft Project
Online – such as your own backups and migration between environments, as
well as FluentPro PMO.
Western Principles offers a variety of services, including:
➢ Microsoft Project Online/Server
implementation
➢ Microsoft Project for the web
implementation
➢ Microsoft Power Platform services
(Power BI, Power Automate, Power
Apps)
➢ Partner product implementations
➢ Strategy Consulting
➢ Operations Assessments
➢ Project & Portfolio Visibility
➢ Cost & Change Controls
➢ Project Scheduling Portfolio Selection
& Management
➢ Project Risk Analysis
➢ Resource Optimization
➢ Migration to Microsoft Project Online
➢ Change Management Consulting
➢ Training and Support
➢ Staff Augmentation
➢ Sustainment Services
Call us at 1.800.578.4155 or email us at [email protected].
