STAFF REPORT: POLICY DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

POLICY DEVLOPMENT PROCESS

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT the Director of Corporate Administration/Deputy Chief Administrative Officer’s June 2, 2025 report entitled “Policy Development Process” be received.

PURPOSE:

To provide information into the policy development process.

BACKGROUND:

At the September 2023 Committee of the Whole meeting, the following resolution was approved based on an agenda item put forward from Councillor MacKenzie (see Attachment “A”):

THAT engagement practices on policy development be referred to staff. (C-115-23)

ANALYSIS:

Policies are not generally used to dictate the public’s actions or behaviours as these can only be set out – and therefore enforced – by bylaw. Instead, municipal policies exist to shape a local government’s practices – be these day-to-day operations or one-offs.

Requests for policies typically stem from Council or staff and can be sparked by conversations with professional colleagues or members of the community and may be formed from ideas heard at conferences or other educational events.

Staff employ different techniques to develop policies, including the use of toolkits prepared by the Municipal Insurance Association of BC for specific matters (for example snow and ice control inspection and maintenance, sidewalks inspection and maintenance, parks and trails inspection and maintenance). As well, some members of staff have taken university level courses on policy writing.

To reach the final product, staff generally use a policy development process provided by Capilano University’s “Better Problem-Solving and Policy Writing Skills for Local Government Professionals” course that sets out the following steps:

1. Define the problem
2. Clarify objectives
3. Research/collect information
4. Identify policy alternatives
5. Evaluate policy alternatives against the objectives
6. Confront the trade-offs
7. Decide on a policy alternative
8. Write and adopt policy
9. Communicate and implement policy
10. Evaluate policy effectiveness
11. Review and update policy

These steps guide the work in a fulsome manner and provide a continuous improvement model as shown in the diagram below:

Impacts and implications can be summarized as follows:

Community Impact: As noted above, policies are generally only used to shape the action of the body that implemented them; in this instance, the local government.

Consultation with different communities of interest can and does occur at various stages in the policy development process. For example, while steps 1 and 2 may see a Council or staff member consider the question: “What is the issue at hand?” (step 1) and then move to: “What can we improve by addressing this issue?” (step 2), further steps – particularly steps 3, to 6 and 10 – often include outreach to external groups or individuals as appropriate to the subject matter. In this way, best professional practices are researched and options considered that may best suit View Royal’s circumstances. For Council policies, adoption at a public meeting (step 8) further widens the engagement to a broader audience. Similarly, public input on policies as they are communicated out (step 9), is a feedback mechanism that aids in future reviews and updates (step 11).

As with many guiding documents at local government organizations, policies are reviewed periodically or as needed, allowing for an evaluation of the policy’s success and an opportunity to fine-tune the policy to better address the original – or now shifted – problem (step 1).

Financial Implication: Policy development and review require staff time.

ALIGNMENT:

The recommended option aligns with the Town’s following core guiding documents as follows:

Strategic Plan: Organizational Excellence – providing strong strategic policy; pursuing excellence founded on policies; and embracing best professional practices.

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION GOAL:

The desired level of public participation for the recommended option is:

[x] Inform [ ] Consult [ ] Involve [ ] Collaborate [ ] Empower [ ] N/A

TIME CRITICAL:

Receipt of this report not time sensitive.

ATTACHMENTS:

Attachment “A” - Councillor MacKenzie’s addition to agenda item from 2023 09 12 Committee of the Whole meeting