The city is moving forward with key recommendations on how to better provide services to the public, although some of those key recommendations remain unknown.
At a special meeting Monday, council voted to move forward with a number of key priority recommendations from KPMG, the consulting firm it hired to do its service rationalization review, a 165-page report that includes a total of 53 recommendations on how the city can be more efficient in its service offerings.
Of those 53 recommendations, the KPMG report identified 10 priority items, with council later adding one more to make it 11. Another 17 recommendations were things already being addressed by the city. The remaining 15 were approved but are not considered priorities.
Approved items are to be incorporated into future city work plans and budgets.
Those 11 priority recommendations include two that were were not publicly identified in the report. Thy were discussed in-camera by council on Monday, which means they contain information that concern identifiable individuals, money, legal matters and/or proprietary information.
When KPMG's Bruce Peever was asked by councillor June Hofland, about any "redundant" services the review found, Peever said those discussions would be better served by waiting until the closed doors session of the meeting.
The recommendations would not all be implemented immediately.
All of them require some sort of budgeting, as even those that would eventually lead to savings require some initial capital investment.
"We're not going to do it all at once," city CAO Scott Stewart told council, adding that some of the recommendations may never come to fruition. "If we can't deliver it, there's no point in us telling you we can."
Stewart said the recommendations will be analyzed, with timelines, costing and funding avenues looked at before coming back to council with recommendations and be worked into budgets.
The top opportunities were prioritized based on financial benefit/investment, customer experience impact and level of risk or barriers to implementation. They include:
- Prioritizing digitization initiatives
- Implementing a customer relationship management system
- Reviewing the development approval process
- Implementing a unified payment platform
- Reviewing the user fee structure for city services
- Reviewing the station location of paramedic services in the city and county
- Centralizing back-office support functions among city, boards and agencies
- Investing in resources for equity, anti-racism and Indigenous initiatives
The top priority identified in the 11-item, staff-recommended action plan is to assess current city service capabilities and opportunities for digitization based on demand, strategic alignment, expected benefit, deliverability and equity considerations.
Expected to take more than two years to complete, staff believe this will “enhance customer service, create service delivery efficiency and create budget capacity to absorb impacts of a growing city.”
