The “Council Strategic Priorities and Municipal Objectives 2024-2026” were developed by the Town of Golden Council and administration during a two-day strategic planning workshop held on October 4th and 5th, 2023. These priorities and objectives are generally included at the end of each Council Agenda package, so they’re easily accessible by the general public.
This process included presentations from senior staff, Council discussions, pre-workshop one-on-one interviews with a facilitator, and an online survey, all contributing to a collaboratively developed plan. These priorities aim to create political and administrative alignment, focus, and support within the municipality.
The strategic priorities are underpinned by guiding principles and values:
* Practical
* Reliable
* Collaborative
* Adaptive
* Responsible
* Inclusive
The Value Proposition states that the Town will be adaptive in operations, responsibly maintain core infrastructure, provide practical and reliable services, and collaboratively support and advocate for community values, diversity, equity, inclusion, and quality of life for current and future generations.
The Council has established corporate-wide priorities that are intended to be integrated into all other strategic priorities and municipal service delivery:
• Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation: This involves cultural awareness and reconciliation training, purposeful regional engagement, acknowledgement, and consultation. The goal is to build relationships and ensure reconciliation strategies are incorporated into service delivery, aiming for measurable improvements in communications and relationships.
• Climate Resilience: This focuses on implementing practical mitigative and adaptive initiatives across the organization. It involves ensuring resilience strategies are incorporated into all service categories and communicating Climate Resilience as a necessary adaptation of local government to the community.
In addition to these corporate-wide priorities, there are targeted strategic priorities for 2024-2026:
• Asset Management:
• Strategic Goal: To ensure Indigenous interests are included in asset development and long-term management where appropriate, and that Climate Resilience is a component of asset management.
• Actions: Maintain and upgrade technology, adjudicate additional asset propositions against the existing registry, ensure third parties approach Council before grant applications, collaborate with various entities for solution building, undertake service level reviews, continue Council and staff training on asset management principles, and pursue appropriate grants and internal funding strategies.
• Success Factors: Tangible results of engagements, decisions reflecting Climate Resilience, technological adequacy, a manageable asset registry, elimination of unforeseen support requests, and understanding of asset condition, capacity, and redundancy.
• Sustainable Service Delivery:
• Strategic Goal: To maintain financial and capacity sustainability through practical, reliable, and responsible levels of service, while also incorporating Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation and Climate Resilience.
• Actions: Undertake a corporate-wide Service Level Review, reaffirm Golden Fire Rescue as a full-service department, undertake long-term financial planning (including bylaws, policies, and protocols), prioritize core services (utilities, roads, fire protection), action aligned grant opportunities, and optimize revenue sources.
• Success Factors: Integration of Indigenous participation and Climate Resilience measures into service delivery, five-year+ financial outlook plans, stable operational funding, and successful grant procurement.
• Communications:
• Strategic Goal: To be a local government leader in communications and engagement with residents, with corporate communications incorporating Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation and Climate Resilience.
• Actions: Develop strategies to improve relationships with Indigenous Nations, incorporate Climate Resilience messaging, maintain robust strategic communications with constituents, ensure transparency, measure communication impacts, reflect Council’s Code of Conduct, ensure meaningful public engagement in OCP processes, improve internal communications, clarify external communication roles, and enhance advocacy communications.
• Success Factors: Measurable improvements in Indigenous relations and Climate Resilience awareness, heightened public and educated engagement, universally understood policies, and confidence in messaging.
• Capacity:
• Strategic Goal: To ensure technological tools and working spaces are adequate, and personnel numbers effectively meet ongoing and future service delivery and asset management needs, informed by Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation and Climate Resilience.
• Actions: Explore partnerships with Indigenous peoples, attend to climate-related local government programs, assign staff capacity to provincial reporting, invest in IT asset planning (records management, cyber-security), investigate options to increase internal workspaces (including a renewed/expanded Town Hall), investigate recruitment incentives and retention priorities (including pay grade review and flexible working arrangements), create personnel needs projections, and develop HR policies for high-risk areas.
• Success Factors: Enduring relationships with Indigenous partners, improved program reporting and revenue, acquisition of necessary software and hardware, successful recruitments and retention, and policy development/renewal in HR areas.
Finally, Council Advocacy Priorities for 2024-2026 include:
• Diking Authority Responsibilities: Funding for gravel removal from the Kicking Horse River.
• Town Hall Renewal: Funding and partnerships for new building(s).
• Core Infrastructure Renewals: Accessing the Municipal and Regional District Tax Program for renewals.
• Property Tax Classifications: Stratifying tax classes for local strategic property tax applications.
• Expanding Revenue Sources: Renewing emphasis on the “Strong Fiscal Futures” document recommendations.
• Shared Services Funding: Renegotiating terms of expired agreements with the CSRD.
• Improving Indigenous Relations: Lobbying for a regional approach to cultural sensitivity training and awareness.
• Lower Canyon Access: Continuing to lobby for access to enable commercial river rafting in the lower Kicking Horse Canyon.
• Expanded Digital Connectivity: Continuing to lobby for support for area-wide telecom fibre penetration.
• Community Forest: Continuing to support the framework and promote fibre allocation in the Golden TSA.
Council meets this week to update these priorities.
