MAKING THE CITY WORK BETTER

The City of Grande Prairie is a well managed and governed organisation. However, we need to be continuously improving. Governance and management excellence must be prioritized to deliver better services and to be sure that residents’ money is well used.

 

If re-elected, I intend to advocate for:

  • Increasing opportunities for the public to learn about City processes and have meaningful input into Council decisions. Including regular “lunch and learns” where residents can sit with staff members to learn and ask questions about City programs and departments and regular “Ask Council” booths at the Farmers Market and community events.

  • Continued focus on delivering City Services more efficiently.

  • Creating a Benefit Based Procurement policy to enable City capital spending to provide better benefits to our local community and economy. Ideas within this policy may include a requirement to source locally when legally allowed to do so, and incentivizing some City Contractors to hire people with barriers to employment.

  • Commissioning an independent study to benchmark City salaries against comparable positions in the private and non-profit sectors and other government organisations. An Executive Summary of this study should be publicly released. In the community and at Council, I’ve heard lots of conversations about staff compensation. We should be sure to base these discussions on facts and data, not anecdotes.

  • Ensuring the Police Transition continues to progress well. We need to deliver a Police Service that is reliable, professional and effective. Base services that are equivalent to what was offered under the RCMP contract should be delivered at our below the cost of maintaining the RCMP. Investments in enhanced levels of service need to have their benefits carefully weighed to their costs.

  • Create a long-term roadmap and budget for recreation and culture investments as the City grows. We should have a fiscal plan now so that we can build in the future without having a huge impact on taxpayers’ pocket books.

 

During my time on Council, the following work has occurred to enhance City service delivery:

  • Set budgets which led to the average residential property’s tax going up at less than half the rate of inflation. This was accomplished despite inflation, ballooning RCMP costs, large cuts in provincial funding, and new services such as the Outdoor Pool and Mobile Outreach Program.

  • Enhanced regional collaboration with other municipalities, including negotiating Cost Sharing Agreements for recreation and culture with the County

  • Implemented an aggressive Road Rehabilitation program to catchup on maintenance backlogs, avoiding huge future costs as roads degraded

  • Undertook Service Level reviews to best align services with resident priorities

  • Innovative ways to deliver expanded services without breaking the bank such as the low cost activity center in Smith, implementation of On Demand Transit, and standing up the Grande Prairie Police Service.

  • I served on the Board of the Alberta Municipal Services Corporation, which delivers corporate services such as insurance, employee benefits, and electricity to the City. This allowed me to have a direct hand in ensuring these services are sustainable and well priced for all municipalities (and non-profits) which access them.

  • Initiatives to enhance resident engagement including standing up 311 and enhancing the Citizen Contact Centre, implementing Access Grande Prairie to request services online, starting Budget Open Houses for residents to have input into City spending, and the recording of Council Subcommittee meetings.

Do you have questions, ideas, or feedback? I’d love to hear from you! Find me on social media (@DylanBresseyGP) or click here to contact me.