President’s Message

in this issue

President’s Message 2 Executive Director’s Message 4 Excellence in Local Government Finance Awards 7

Member Profile 8

Membership Survey 10 2021 Small Communities’ Forum 11

Collectors’ Corner 12

MFA’s Corner 13

Assessment Appeals: An Overview and Planning for Risk to the Roll 16

In Control: Why Monitor When We Know It Is Broken? 18

Construction Projects and the Benefits of an Owner-Controlled Insurance Program 19 Time to Renew: Understanding Group Benefit Renewals 21 Understanding Why Municipalities Are Paying More for WorkSafeBC Coverage 22 How Your Local Government Can Engage Citizens and Improve Budget Transparency 23 Quarterly Question 24

Thank You Exhibitors 25

Thank You Sponsors 26

president’s message

This year’s conference theme of “Response, Recovery, Resilience” was incredibly apropos, wouldn’t you say? Last year, when we all had to respond to the pandemic by pivoting on a dime (and then keep pivoting…), I expect many of us thought we’d be back to “normal” by now. Well, if we’ve learned anything over the past year it’s that normal is taking longer than expected to get back to and it’s likely to look different than we anticipated. We’re over a year into the pandemic and while recovery is still ongoing (definitely more of a marathon than a sprint), it is clearly showing us that local governments across BC are a resilient bunch.

As an association, we quickly learned that although there are a lot of challenges, there are also surprising benefits to our new way of doing things. Our second virtual conference provided us, once again, the opportunity to reach out to our members and provide learning opportunities from the comfort of your desks, or maybe even dining room tables or couches for those working from home. This year, knowing everyone is pretty “zoomed-out”, we knew we had to keep the bar high and deliver sessions which would not only engage members from afar, but also provide networking and social opportunities we enjoy when we normally meet in person. And, as an extra bonus, once it’s over, it’s not completely over. One of the ongoing benefits of the virtual conference is that the sessions are recorded so if you missed one or need a refresher, you can go back and view it at any time.

Given the terrific turnout and positive response we’ve had from

Board of Directors

Lorraine Coughlin President Nyla Attiana Vice President Rianna Lachance Secretary-Treasurer Trevor Thompson Past President

Directors at Large

Julia Aspinall Jim Bauer Jeannie Bradburne Shelley Halm Kathy Humphrey Lenora Lee Tlitha Soldera

Staff

Kala Harris, Executive Director Erica Christie, Manager, Operations and Member Services Gerilee McBride, Graphic Design

attendees, I’d say we did ok! Kudos to GFOABC staff members Kala and Erica as well as the supporting technical teams and volunteers for working their magic to bring us a four-day event that not only educated and entertained, but gave us an opportunity to spend a bit of time to reconnect with our peers and gather new insights to help us continue to adapt as we ride out this third wave. Additional thanks go to our valued partners and sponsors - we couldn’t have done it without you.

Our offerings don’t stop once the conference is over. GFOABC’s commitment to our Vision “To be the leading source for knowledge sharing that empowers BC local government finance excellence” is ongoing, with Boot Camp, Quarterly Forums and Fall & Spring Pro-D programming.

To enable us to maintain this high level of support to our members, the Board has committed additional resources to support our programming. Additional information will be provided over the upcoming months, but we are all very excited to be putting resources in place that will support our staff and members on an ongoing, sustainable basis.

Speaking of our members, in addition to attending workshops, I encourage you to reach out to your peers through the new and improved Online Forum. Sharing information on this platform will create a great resource for everyone. As our motto says, we are “Better Together” and the support we provide to each other and connections we have made continue. If you have any comments or suggestions on what you’d like to see from your Association, please feel free to reach out to any Board or staff member.

We’d love to hear from you!

Lorraine Coughlin, GFOABC President