The Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) won an award at the Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM) convention in Vancouver last week.
SCRD chief administrative officer Janette Loveys and board directors Jeremy Valeriote and Ian Winn were at the convention and collected the Honorable Mention award for Community Excellence in finance.
The Best Practices award is for Excellence in Financial Stewardship, described as “the cornerstone of accountability, transparency and sustainability in serving constituents and meeting community goals and needs.”
Tina Perreault, the SCRD’s chief financial officer, said the award recognizes local governments that build best practices in financial stewardship. The SCRD applied for the award after changing the process for public dialogue in 2016 and 2017.
“This is the second year we did community engagement,” Perreault said, noting that the engagement was not attached to the budget process, but rather “more about who we are and what we do.”
The process included sharing the board’s priorities and strategic plan with the public. “We wanted to inform people about the type of services we provide so they know where their tax dollars are going,” Perreault said.
The first year of public dialogue sessions provided the basis for the SCRD to make improvements for the second year, Perreault said. The sessions have been informal in nature, with SCRD departments being available to answer the public’s questions on a one-to-one basis.
Perreault said most of the time the district deals with individuals who are affected by situations or decisions, but the community dialogue sessions have offered people an opportunity to learn about the regional district without necessarily having a particular issue.
She said the community dialogue sessions have also reached a different demographic and brought about more community awareness and understanding of what the SCRD does.
“It allows people to engage with staff,” and people get their questions answered, whether they want to inquire about taxes, solid waste, water or recreation.
The community dialogue sessions were held in the five rural areas of the SCRD, the Town of Gibsons, District of Sechelt and also on Keats and Gambier islands. As well, the SCRD met with the newly elected council of shíshálh Nation.
“The regional district is so different from a municipality, so this helped people get an understanding of the differences – the things we do and the things we don’t do,” Perreault said.
Receiving the Honourable Mention from the UBCM was satisfying, she said.
“It’s most certainly nice to receive some accolades for the work that staff and the board have been working on for the last few years.”
SCRD vice chair Frank Mauro said the community response to public dialogue sessions was tremendous, attracting between 20 and 30 residents in smaller communities and 60 to 80 people in larger communities.
“The public appreciates it when we do engagement and it shows the local government is listening to the public,” he said.
“It also gave staff the opportunity to talk to a wide range of community members and see what their thoughts are.”
Mauro said the award is “confirmation that we are doing things right.”
He said the SCRD board sets the framework but the staff carries out the work and deserves the recognition.
