TOWN OF VIEW ROYAL FINANCE & ADMINISTRATION REPORT - CAO UPDATE

CAO UPDATE

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT the report dated May 5, 2021 from the Chief Administrative Officer titled “CAO Update” be received for information.

PURPOSE OF REPORT:

To provide Council with information from the Office of the CAO regarding material events and happenings at Town Hall.

BACKGROUND:

An Administrator’s report for the Committee of the Whole meeting to apprise Council of the highlights of significant activities of the Town.

INFORMATION:

Administration:

At the beginning of April, a competition was held for Webcast Producers. Three auxiliary employees have now been hired to assist with the webcasting of Council and Committee of the Whole meetings – including pre and post-production tasks.

Town staff participated in a virtual report writing workshop offered by Dr. Ann McAffee on April 22, 2021. Minor changes to the staff report template are forthcoming to ensure clear and effective communication.

A land transaction was completed at the end of April that saw the Town purchase some frontage near the intersection of Island Highway and Six Mile Road (494/498 Island Highway) for road dedication purposes.

In Archives, photos are being taken of various neighbourhoods and along the Town’s main roads to capture View Royal’s development and the seasonal changes. The upcoming lobby display is currently being planned and will feature clubs, teams and activities over the years, including the Community Hall and Helmcken Centennial Park. Volunteers continue to keep in touch through two phone meetings a month.

The Town is preparing for 2021 Canada Day by holding a photo contest and tree kit giveaway. Staff ordered Red Maple tree kits and began planning for the photo contest in the latter half of the month.

For records management, work continues with physical records storage, space management, and inventory of early paper files. The Records Coordinator/Archivist is working with departments to align filing with workflows and to update both records classifications and digital folder structures. Migration from an old server is nearing completion which will result in cost savings otherwise associated with that storage space.

Finance:

The audit team from MNP conducted the year-end financial audit in April, resulting in an unqualified audit opinion on the 2020 Consolidated Financial Statements of the Town. During the audit, staff leveraged the capabilities of Office365 to communicate with the auditors, organize and assign audit tasks and complete audit sample requests 100% remotely.

Results from Citizen Budget engagement were reported for Council’s consideration and at the April 20 Council meeting the 2021-2025 Financial Plan was approved in principle. Council also considered tax and garbage rates for 2021, directing staff to prepare bylaws for adoption in May.

Property tax notice preparation is underway. The Province will now be accepting the homeowner grant application directly, instead of municipalities. The tax notice will no longer include the homeowner grant application form. View Royal is joining with other CRD municipalities in a joint newspaper ad to help get the message to homeowners. Residents can access information on the Town’s website now, and messaging about this change will be included on both the print and online tax notice.

Development Services:

Development Services continues to field many inquiries about possible development applications in the Town. As well, building inquiries have increased as home renovation season appears to be off to a good start.

Staff continue to wait to see if the Town has been successful with its Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ “Sustainable Neighbourhood Action Plan” (SNAP) grant application for the Community Climate Action Strategy update. Staff is hopeful that no news is good news.

The final edits are being made to the Land Economics Study and this item should be on the June Committee of the Whole agenda for discussion.

Engineering:

In April, the Town received funding approval from the Government of Canada’s “Summer Student” program. This funding will go towards hiring one Parks student and one Engineering student. The Town will also hire an additional Parks summer student. In mid-April, a competition for all positions was held and the successful candidates will start in early May.

In keeping with the 2019 Sewer Master Plan, staff have been busy flushing and CCTV’ing sewer mains in areas where capacity studies are being completed. In addition, staff have been raising buried sewer manholes so they are accessible for maintenance and viewing.

The Town has completed its spring Tree Planting Program for 2021. Twenty trees have been planted in municipal boulevards primarily along Watkiss Way and Helmcken Road near Victoria General Hospital.

The Town has entered into a servicing agreement with the developer of 244 Island Highway. The building permit has been issued and onsite excavation works commenced. Engineering has been monitoring the construction activities to ensure sediment and debris are managed onsite and that utility service connections have been properly disconnected.

Asphalt pavement has been reinstated fronting 1450 Glentana Road (pictured right). It is anticipated that the concrete sidewalk fronting the development will be poured by mid-May and the trail through Portage Park will be completed by the end of May.

Leading up to Earth Day, Parks Staff, along with the Habitat Restoration Program Coordinator, Chris Junck, and Program Volunteers took on the task of planting 220 Douglas Fir and 220 Western Red Cedar seedlings in Aldersmith, Burnside/Watkiss, Eagle Creek, Edwards, Garry Oak Meadows, Knockan Hill, Nursery Hill, Portage, Robin Hill, and View Royal Parks.

In early April, Ms. J. Labelle, teacher, Shoreline Middle School, approached the Parks Department about students participating in a beach/park cleanup day at Portage Park. Students have participated in this project in previous years and wanted to continue the tradition of helping to keep the community clean. On April 23, Shoreline Middle School students from eight classes in four time slots did their part for Earth Day. They combed the beach, park, and even the north end of the Thetis Cove development area. The weather cooperated and it was a win-win for all parties involved.

The new version of the GIS Portal was released to staff this month. The new portal is the result of an effort to transfer the Town’s GIS information from one server to a new one, better suited to support the Town’s needs in the future. All the data, applications and maps have now been transferred and should work the same as they did on the older server, with the added benefit of having more functionality and more room to grow in the future.

As part of this process, Engineering staff worked with Administration staff to create a new file storage classification to store GIS records on the new server. The new structure adheres better to View Royal’s standards and will enhance the organization and retrievability of GIS data.

Protective Services:

As of April 15, all staff and volunteers at the Public Safety Building have gratefully been vaccinated through the Eagle Ridge Arena or Archie Browning Sports Centre immunization clinics. To date there have been no workplace exposures or positive cases in the Public Safety Building due to a workplace exposure. This is a testament to the commitment staff and volunteers have made to ensure they are following the Public Health Officer orders and limiting their contacts outside of work.

In March and April, due to an increase in COVID-19 numbers, members responded to several calls for service. It is hoped that the current tighter restrictions will reduce the case count.

Calls for service have returned to their historic levels. The overdose issue is still prevalent in View Royal and does not appear to be slowing down.

Construction of the totem pole base at the front entrance to the Public Safety Building continues. It is anticipated that the totem pole will be completed for a June installation.

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT the report dated May 5, 2021 from the Chief Administrative Officer titled “CAO Update” be received for information.

SUBMITTED BY:

K. Anema, Chief Administrative Officer