2 minute read
Economic Development
More than ever, COVID-19 has increased our need to be fiscally prudent in everything we do - it is now much easier for us to fall into a “Yes, but…” mentality when engaged in capital and operational planning discussions. Unfortunately, it is sometimes too easy to pass up or defer community and economic development initiatives to make way for apparently more urgent and pressing tangible asset management projects. These investments, however, should not have to be trade-off’s of each other; the outcomes of asset management and community and economic development can be brought together through thoughtful, integrated planning discussions. We now have the chance to think differently in how we move toward truly integrated planning which leverages more cross-functional synergies - a chance to adopt a “Yes, and…” mentality.
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Intuitively, we know multiple projects often contribute to same or shared outcomes and benefits. More and more, municipalities are starting to explore and adopt integrated and program-wide approaches to capital, and operational planning. Integrated planning is more than just seeking for and capitalizing on operational and financial efficiencies. Effective integrated planning will bring together multiple functions to achieve shared and common outcomes and benefits for residents, which incidentally often result in greater overall efficiencies.
As a first step, municipalities should start by creating a benefits map, which will then be used to develop the organization’s overarching benefits management framework. A benefits map will help to ground cross-functional planning conversations by focusing teams on creating projects which contribute to medium and long-term benefits. Taking a benefits management approach to planning and performance measurement is not exactly a “new concept”. It builds on existing performance measurement frameworks familiar to many and most municipalities.
We heard from our panelists at this year’s GFOABC Conference that
community and economic development initiatives often span partial or multiple fiscal years, and can be challenging to fit its results within a reporting framework bound by specific months and days. While community and economic development initiatives can be and is measured through a variety of quantitative indicators, it is often the broader narrative, and indirect and induced changes over time which demonstrate the critical importance of community and economic development for any community or region.
A benefits management framework helps to tell this story over time through its layered approach to defining benefits over different time horizons. The framework is meant to span multiple fiscal years and is periodically refreshed to ensure its
relevance and alignment to visionary ambitions of a community. It ensures we don’t lose sight of community and economic development impacts over time, and sets up a framework to systematically track incremental impacts over the short, medium, and long-term. A benefits-driven approach also creates the platform to start integrated planning discussions across functions.
As we shift efforts to recover and aim to thrive in the new reality, we must turn our teams’ attention to more than just tomorrow - by balancing strategic and tactical planning that is focused on delivering long-term benefits to residents, and realizing our municipal and regional aspirations and goals. •
VIVIAN CHAN is a Senior Manager in KPMG’s Global Infrastructure Advisory Practice. She works closely with all levels of governments in Canada in strategic planning, and definition and development of infrastructure projects and programs.
