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After a year of deliberations, City of Powell River’s community finance advisory committee (CFAC) has tabled its report.
Chief financial officer (CFO) Adam Langenmaier, at the August 26 finance committee meeting, introduced the final report, which comprised 434 pages outlining the activities of the committee since its inception on July 2, 2020, when the committee members were appointed.
“The report we have before us today is the final project of the community finance advisory committee,” said Langenmaier. “This committee has met, about bi-weekly, from July 2020 through to July 2021.
“The committee started with 12 members and over the course of the term saw six of them resign. The committee asked to continue on with its mandate because they had got so much work done and there was no point in stopping it just for that reason. They asked for an extension to the end of July and that is the report we have with us today.”
Langenmaier said the committee received presentations from every director in the city. Committee members had the opportunity to ask questions and really dig into what drives each department and what are the factors the committee could recommend to make changes and improvements, to be more efficient, to reduce costs and increase revenue, the CFO said.
The final report has been approved by all of the committee members, said Langenmaier. He said the meat and potatoes of the report is in the recommendations section. The recommendations were discussed and debated by the committee for a long time before adoption, he added.
Finance committee chair councillor George Doubt, who was the vice-chair of the CFAC, thanked the committee participants for the work that they did.
“Anyone who looks at all of the appendices of the report will see hundreds and hundreds of pages of information that people had to familiarize themselves with and discuss and debate at 24 meetings over the period of a year,” said Doubt. “It took some dedication to participate.”
Doubt said the comments on the different motions and recommendations in the report are worth a read. There are 12 recommendations in the report, which are all reasonable and good, according to Doubt, and which he supports.
“I’m glad the committee has come forward with so many ideas,” said Doubt.
He said reading the personal comments of all of the committee members who took the time to write about their experiences was maybe the best part of the report, because it shows the real human impressions that people got and the ways people’s ideas of city finances changed as they became more educated and aware.
“As a member of the committee, I learned a great deal,” said Doubt. “I think we need to go forward from this committee and soldier on, taking those recommendations and discussing them as a council and come up with what we want to do going forward.”
Councillor Maggie Hathaway said she had the opportunity to attend meetings and said the committee has done an absolutely excellent job.
Councillor Jim Palm attended meetings at the outset, which were a bit of a rocky road, with the committee’s efforts to wrap their heads around the terms of reference.
“It was a learning experience for all, including council,” said Palm. “I want to thank all of the individuals that stepped forward and represented our community, particularly the individuals that stuck it out for the entire time. I very much value the recommendations that have come forward and I hope we follow through and have a debrief.”
Councillor Rob Southcott said he also attended as many meetings as he could.
“It’s impressive the amount of work this group did,” said Southcott. “The main piece of work for me over the past seven years has been understanding how finances work in this city. To be responsible for spending taxpayers’ money is what underpins everything we do here. It is the number one responsibility.
“It was really reassuring to me to follow all of the work and read the report and see how the confidence was expressed in what is going on within our city. I have deep appreciation for how diligently and hardworking all of our staff are.”
Southcott moved that the finance committee hold a workshop to discuss priorities and an action plan to address the recommendations contained in the CFAC final report. The motion carried unanimously.
