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 of Central Saanich designed a new planning framework to help their council and staff keep communication open and clear with the community, and ensure that staff and partners have an agreed-upon roadmap for delivering community priorities and aspirations.
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.
Local governments operate within rapidly changing circumstances and are responsible for a wide range of community services, and so flexible and cohesive planning frameworks are necessary for them to govern deliberately and effectively.
Central Saanich’s designed their Integrated Planning and Reporting framework to connect the various planning processes, making them responsive to each other and external changes.
‘Feelings of frustration were high’
Historically, Central Saanich says planning for each department was done independently, leading to confusion, competition and frustration.
“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 in its submission. “Feelings of frustration were high.”
Now, its planning processes have been reorganized so that they’re developed in collaboration, with awareness of other organizational plans and goals, and final plans are clearly communicated to anyone affected. Staff resources and budgets are allocated transparently, and realistic timeframes are in place for addressing council and community priorities.
“When the community comes forward with requests, staff are able to respond with confidence as to when the issues are being addressed,” they said.
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. Stay tuned for profiles on the other winners and honourable mentions from the 2024 Community Excellence Awards.
One of the objectives of the Community Excellence Awards is to encourage peer-to-peer learning among local governments, by highlighting exceptional projects. To learn more about the District of Central Saanich’s integrated planning framework, reach out to Christine Culham, CAO, or Emilie Gorman, Director of Corporate Services.