UBCM announces latest Community Excellence Awards winners
The District of Central Saanich was recognized by the UBCM Presidents Committee for outstanding achievement in transparent planning and reporting at this year’s Community Excellence Awards. Photo: UBCM Flickr
The cities of Kelowna and Victoria and the District of Central Saanich are some the British Columbia municipalities recognized as part of the year’s Community Excellence Awards.
The awards are presented by the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM). The Community Excellence Awards recognize and celebrate UBCM member First Nations, regional districts, and local governments that have implemented projects or programs that go above and beyond in meeting the purposes of local government in B.C.
The awards are intended to showcase outstanding initiatives and share them with other members to implement in their own communities. Over municipalities that received awards include Nanaimo for excellence in sustainability.
Presidents Committee Choice
The District of Central Saanich was recognized by the UBCM Presidents Committee for outstanding achievement in transparent planning and reporting at this year’s Community Excellence Awards. The winning project took a disjointed and siloed planning process that caused frustration and confusion and turned it into an integrated framework to make collaborative progress on community priorities.
The district designed a new planning framework to help their council and staff keep communication open and clear with the community and provide a unified roadmap for delivering community priorities and aspirations.
In its submission for the awards, the district explained why a new planning framework was needed to help different departments better co-ordinate.
“Internally, departments were working in silos, often finding out their department would be affected by another department’s workplan well into the budget year. Staff resourcing was competitive and subjective rather than collaborative, integrated and based on shared metrics and corporate priorities,” the district wrote. “Feelings of frustration were high.”
The framework caught the eye of UBCM’s Presidents Committee for the blueprint it provides for other local governments, for demonstrating an evolution in planning by overcoming previous silos and resource allocation challenges, and for fostering interdepartmental collaboration.
The UBCM Presidents Committee – made up of the president, the first, second, and third vice-presidents, the past president, and the Metro Vancouver Representative – reviewed all the shortlisted award applications for the four Community Excellence Award categories. The committee determines each winner, occasionally awards an honourable mention, and chooses one project from among all the awards as the Presidents Committee Choice.
Excellence in Asset Management
The City of Kelowna was recognized for its new enterprise asset management system. To help manage its estimated $7 billion in infrastructure assets, Kelowna spent five years developing an enterprise asset management system that now connects the work of more than 700 staff members.
Asset management runs throughout almost every task, project and department that a local government is responsible for. Whether road signs or drain culverts, park benches or baseball diamonds, a local government needs to know where each asset is in its lifecycle to make accurate financial and operational plans.
“We have every sign in our inventory, every paint marking that’s on the road, every manhole, every catch basin, every water main, every hydrant,” said Greg Maier, the city’s asset management coordinator. “Every one of those assets has a lifecycle and the goal of the software is to help us extend that life cycle as safely and efficiently as possible.”
Kelowna’s system integrates up-to-date data, condition reports and more that feed in real time to staff to manage workflow, maintenance schedules, replacement timelines and financial planning. By integrating planning, finance, operations, and engineering, Kelowna created a line of sight between community expectations and infrastructure and services.
Victoria’s OUR DWTN Program
The City of Victoria won the award for excellence in service delivery for its “OUR DWTN” program aimed at revitalizing the city’s downtown core. The program was developed around a focus on beautification, programming, cleaning, and enhanced safety.
The program also received the International Downtown Association’s award for Excellence in Urban Place Management. The award recognizes unique organizational approaches and projects in the areas of clean, safety and hospitality, placemaking and activation, and facilities.
“We are honoured to receive not one, but two awards of excellence that recognize the exceptional quality and regional impact of the City’s OUR DWTN revitalization program,” said Mayor Marianne Alto. “Staff were tasked with exploring how to make Victoria’s downtown a destination for all to enjoy, year-round. Both awards recognize council’s vision of intentional transformation and the creativity and collaboration demonstrated – and delivered – by the OUR DWTN team. Actions like these, show how cities can make positive change in our communities.”
Since the program was established in May 2023, council has invested close to $2 million to activate and refresh downtown. The program is funded by the city’s parking revenue.
OUR DWTN initiatives have included two Scrub-Up events in partnership with the Downtown Victoria Business Association, pop-up indoor pickleball courts at Crystal Garden, free outdoor concerts, holiday craft workshops, and the popular Sleigh the Day family-friendly event. A free, multi-day winter arts festival was held over the Family Day weekend, and significant infrastructure upgrades and recreational and cultural programming have been implemented at Ship Point.
“Within a short time, we launched multiple interdepartmental OUR DWTN initiatives, often in partnership with community organizations and the arts sector, successfully revitalizing and attracting more people to come, stay and explore downtown as their own,” said Nichola Reddington, OUR DWTN Program Director and Manager of Arts, Culture and Events. “This model can be adapted for use by other municipalities in B.C.” MW
✯ Municipal World Executive and Essentials Plus Members: You might also be interested in Sarah Mazhar’s article: Brampton’s new standards for municipal policy innovation.
Ibrahim Daair is staff writer at Municipal World.
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