Summary Description of Capital Integrated Services and Governance Initiative

Summary Description of Capital Integrated Services and Governance Initiative

Background

Capital Region citizens (through the 2014 referenda results) and local governments (through meetings with Community, Sport and Cultural Development Ministers) have expressed a common interest in gathering facts about current service delivery, increasing understanding about service delivery best practices and exploring further the opportunities to better integrate service and governance.

The Capital Integrated Services and Governance Initiative is a product of a shared understanding reached between the region’s municipalities and the Province reached in March, 2016.

The initiative recognizes the need for more information on service and governance best practices, challenges and opportunities. As well, the initiative supports principles of collaboration, consultation and communication.

Urban Systems and Circle Square Solutions submitted a successful joint proposal through BC Bid, awarded last month, to help implement the initiative. The Province is committed to support the Capital area local governments through hiring the Contractor to deliver the project

The project team will prepare a report including:

• information on how services are currently delivered in the region
• challenges/opportunities identified by area local governments associated with various approaches to governance; and,
• survey service provision best practices from other local governments

Description of Project Components

Activity 1: Establishing the "facts" on How Services Are Currently Delivered in the Region

• Work collaboratively with local governments (i.e., elected officials and senior staff) to collect information on current services and governance arrangements for each of the local governments within the Capital area. This will help to establish the facts about who delivers what service to whom and how. Comparison of costs and service efficiency across local governments in the Capital area is not in scope for this activity.

Activity 2: Identifying Challenges and Opportunities Identified by Area Local Governments

• Facilitate discussions within and among local governments to help them identify underlying issues, barriers, and opportunities towards service and governance integration. The goal is to summarize themes, key issues/opportunities, and common interests that participants articulate.
• Provide an opportunity for other stakeholders (i.e., non-local government service providers, representative of the business and tourism sectors, and community-based groups) to share their perceptions of issues and opportunities facing local governments within the Capital area. Area First Nations will be contacted for the purposes of informing the Nations about the Initiative and the opportunities for them to share information related to the Initiative.

Activity 3: Survey Best Practices

• Gather information on what other jurisdictions and public bodies are doing to create efficiencies within organizations. This includes presenting relevant examples of the experience of other governmental bodies in British Columbia that are successfully addressing service issues. Rather than identifying potential solutions, the goal is to provide a range of examples that may be of assistance to local governments.

Activity 4: Creation of a Final Report

• Provide a final report that brings together the information gathered in each of the activities outlined above, including a plain language executive summary of the key information.

Dale Wall June 1, 2016