"Some recommended updates to the strategic plan include revising prioritized strategic goal ranking, adding outcome statements for strategic goals, and integration of priority-based budgeting references."
Strathcona County, Alberta, Canada, is leading the way in priority based business planning and budgeting. As the first municipality in Canada to implement online PBB, this will result in Strathcona County being more proactive, strategic and effective in program and service delivery.
Priority-based business planning and budgeting will result in Strathcona County being more proactive, strategic and effective in program and service delivery. The process will provide valuable information that supports decision-making by directors and managers, enabling them to allocate or reallocate resources, based on each program or resource request’s alignment to strategic and corporate priorities. It can also be used by the organization to set targets and determine how resources are aligned, based on priorities.
The article below (County strategic plan under review) was recently written by Krysta Martell and published by the Sherwood Park News.
County strategic plan under review
During the June 21 county council meeting, the Corporate Planning and Intergovernmental Affairs department presented an update on council’s strategic plan, as well as proposed changes.
Acting as the county’s principle guiding document for governance, community development, infrastructure and service delivery, the county’s strategic plan serves as a foundation for the development of a corporate business plan, departmental business plans, the county master plan, and priority-based budget results and budgeting, itself.
The strategic plan is made up of 12 prioritized goals with the top three being:
- Strategically manage, invest and plan for sustainable municipal infrastructure;
- Increase and diversify the petrochemical industry; and,
- Advance the community’s interests by developing and maintaining strong relationships with our neighbouring municipalities and civic organizations to ensure long-term prosperity.
He added one of the reasons an update to council’s strategic plan is necessary is to consider existing and evolving conditions in the community and to encourage ongoing learning.
“These documents... are critical to our planning framework, but what is equally important is the learning that we take from these documents as we use these documents,” Dance stated.
Some recommended updates to the strategic plan include revising prioritized strategic goal ranking, adding outcome statements for strategic goals, and integration of priority-based budgeting references.
Recommended updates to the corporate business plan include reflecting updates from the strategic plan in the corporate plan, refinement of some objectives for clarity and direction, and ongoing refinement of performance measures to reflect commitment to continue working on developing meaningful measures and informed targets.
“We seem to be going right along with the modernized MGA (Municipal Government Act),” said Ward 8 Coun. Fiona Beland-Quest. “Other communities are going to have a lot more work than we do, as administration and council, to get behind what those recommendations are because I see this is fitting in nicely.”
County Mayor Roxanne Carr said it can be a struggle for a municipality to reach out and start two-way communication with the public.
“We have evolved as a municipality,” she said. “We have other municipalities looking at us now and saying, ‘Oh yes, that was a great idea. Why don’t we try it?’ I think it is interesting that our public is evolving, as well. We have our rural public... with two-way communication through the community hall consultations that have gone on out there.
“I’m mindful of our task forces. The Mayor’s Task Force on housing, they just reached out to so many more sectors of the public and... the task force on mature neighbourhoods... they are so thankful that we have been doing the things that we have never done before, and they speak very highly of our engagement process.”
Council members voted unanimously to approve the revised strategic plan and corporate business plan.
Congratulations to Strathcona County for their uniquely innovative and inspiring approach to implementing Priority Based Budgeting. Using the OnlinePBB platform, Strathcona County staff are setting the bar high with their extensive approach to PBB training throughout the organization - equipping every department with access to the tools, and training them how to dive into the data to make resource re-allocation decisions.
As if this weren't enough, the County's dedication to "open data" is leading the evolution of PBB as an open, dynamic, citizen-engagement tool with the access to OpenPBBdata (stay tuned!)...
The Center for Priority Based Budgeting
“A Prioritized World”
2016 Annual (Un)Conference
Denver, Colorado | August 2 - 4, 2016
Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel
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