After much anticipation and hard work, the City of Nanaimo’s long-awaited Core Services Review has officially arrived on our desks. The Review is a promise kept by this Council, and I’d like to thank everyone involved for helping make this such a positive experience.
As the report shows, Nanaimo is well positioned and shows favourably with similar-sized communities in the province. Now the hard work really begins, as staff and council delve into the 245 pages of observations and suggestions put together by Western Management Consultants in association with TCI Management Consultants.
Overall, we are very pleased with the Review. Staff and council has been intricately involved in the process over the past few months, providing information and observations of drafts of the report, and I know as you take the time to read through the report, you will recognize many key staff opinions and ideas. It really is a team effort, and I’m very proud of how our City team has worked so well together to get us to this point. I can’t say enough about how well staff and CUPE have taken on this task. As I look through the final report, I am pleased to see recommendations we can implement effectively and fairly quickly. I recognize several key areas that emphasize centralizing operations, standardizing procedures, and taking advantage of new technology to get some of our systems and programs more automated, resulting in cost savings for taxpayers.
So what are the next steps?
The report is divided into Council and Administrative actions. As CAO, I will be meeting with senior staff to put together an action implementation strategy to carry out the desires of Council. We have promised that this strategy will include the participation of a variety of stakeholders, including the union. I will be sharing my thoughts with you in this Blog as CAO on a wide range of the Review’s contents, so stay tuned.
Tracy Samra, CAO