Community Excellence Awards

Articles related to Community Excellence Awards winners and calls for applications. 

Excellence in Sustainability – City of Nanaimo

Sustainability often refers to renewable materials and and environmental metrics. But this year’s winner of Excellence in Sustainability took a step back and reimagined its whole planning framework through a sustainable lens. The City of Nanaimo was recognized for Excellence in Sustainability for its city plan, integrated action plan and monitoring strategy called, Nanaimo ReImagined

Celebrating local government award winners: 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.

Excellence in Sustainability: Lulu Island Renewable Natural Gas Facility

Sustainability is a mindset relevant in several core local government operations. In Metro Vancouver, one award-winning example is the Lulu Island Renewable Natural Gas Facility. The facility captures and cleans excess biogas from wastewater treatment and sells the scrubbed gas to FortisBC for residential distribution. The facility takes waste, and turns it into a resource.

Community Excellence Awards President's Choice: Building Relationships Towards Reconciliation

Six years ago, Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc and the City of Kamloops co-hosted their first Community to Community forum after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission issued its 95 Calls to Action. That gathering, and momentum from the national TRC process, inspired the City and First Nation to commit to building genuine relationships to work towards progress on the Calls to Action that were within a local government’s purview.

Summerland’s excellence in asset management a boon for maintenance planning

With Community Excellence Awards coming up (deadline to submit a nomination is May 17, 2024), we checked in with one of last year’s winners to find out how their asset management project is going, and what winning meant for their team.

“Nothing symbolizes inefficiency in local government more than when a municipality paves a road one year, only to go dig it up a year or two later to replace a water main,” said Summerland’s mayor Doug Holmes.

Take it from Oak Bay: enter the Community Excellence Awards nominations

Community Excellence Awards nominations close on May 17, 2024. We spoke with one of last year’s winners to learn what winning has meant – and to check in on the winning project, a management practice designed to align the Council’s aspirations with the operational realities of the local government.

Last year, the District of Oak Bay won the Community Excellence Award in Excellence in Governance for their project, titled District of Oak Bay Council Priorities Process: Bridging the Gap Between Council’s Aspirations and Project Delivery.

2024 Community Excellence Awards

Applications are now being accepted for UBCM’s 2024 Community Excellence Awards. The application deadline is May 17, 2024.

The awards recognize and celebrate UBCM members that have implemented projects or programs that demonstrate excellence in meeting the purposes of local government in BC.

The awards are only open to UBCM members, including local government and First Nation members. Members may submit one application per category.

The four categories are: