It is now 2 o'clock, so I would like to call the June 17th Council Committee of the whole meeting to order. Our first order of business is approval of minutes of May the 20th Committee of the whole meeting. Where there are any horrors, errors, or missions.
My apologies, my apologies. The experienced people in the room are teaching me. So I would like to acknowledge that the city of Fort Saskatchewan is located
on Treaty Six Territory and Maytie Nation of Alberta District 11.
We recognize that we stand upon the land that carries the footsteps of many indigenous
peoples including the Neowock, the DNA, the Blackfoot, Salto, and the Kodasu and the
Maytie.
The city honors the first peoples of this land as committed to fostering reconciliation through
relationship building, knowledge gathering, and education.
And some housekeeping. In the event that there is an emergency, we would ask that you exit
the main entrance, proceed right and follow the staff, any of the ones sitting in the front.
And the master point is that the extreme far-sided parking lot. So that's where we'd meet up in the event of an emergency.
So, that is what I have. So, back to the agenda. So, the first item of business is approval
of the minutes.
This meeting is being transcribed and summarized.
Committee of the whole meeting on May the 20th. So, were there any arrows or missions?
Okay. So, would you like to make the motion?
Okay.
Okay. So, Councillor Abitoya.
Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. I like to make the motion that's
Councillor approves the minutes of the May 20th, coming together a whole meeting minutes
as presented, uncirculated.
Okay.
I didn't hear that there are any errors or missions, so I would put the motion on the
floor and please
cast your vote.
And that is carried unanimously.
I would also note that Councillor Noyan is not going to be in attendance at the public
portion of today's meeting and Mayor Ketcher is joining us virtually. She's out of the office
today but she's going to be attending virtually so she's with us. So this is a period of time
in our meeting where we have the opportunity for delegations or people that wish to speak on any
item that's on the agenda today. We have three public items and I'm not sure if I see anybody that
wishes to do that, but if so, would you please identify yourself, come up and we will give
you five minutes to speak on any of those items. If you're here to present on those items,
then we will call those items up into course. So seeing no delegations, then I will proceed
to the first item of business on our committee meeting today, and that's the central Alberta Regional
Victim Service in Society, Update, and Lauren Reed, Chief Executive Officer of CRV-SSS
in Attendance.
So please come and make yourself comfortable at the lectern.
Press the button and you will have some sound.
Hello.
Did I do that right?
Yes.
You did it.
Thank you very much.
Hello.
Thank you for having me.
I am happy to be here.
finally close to home for a counsel delegation. I am here to talk about
carbs. I say carbs because the whole thing is just so long. So from here on out
I will say carbs. Just here to introduce us and introduce myself. I'm Lauren
Raid, the CEO of our organization. I also have Gloria with me. She's just behind me.
And she's our community and cultural liaison for our organization. So we are the
newly formed victim services coming out of your local RCMP
detachment in Fort Saskatchewan. We've been in operation since
October 1st. Previously I worked for the city of Fort
Saskatchewan and before that I was heavily involved in victim
services. So I've done urban, rural,
inner city, I've been on the board, I've been an advocate
almost 15 years now. I've been involved in victim services
and in some fashion. So I came back to that, I had to leave the city, which was hard, but I still get to come visit, which is nice.
Who are we? We're victim services. We're the same victim services that's been in Fortes Gatuan, giving the same services for over 30 years.
We're just a bigger model now. So the province did decide to go with the regional model, creating four sort of super organizations to run the victim services.
is particularly the police-based,
particularly with the RCMP detachments.
Our detachment area is the CAD, the central Alberta district.
So we have 20 different detachments in our area
for Saskatchewan detachment area being one.
But we are still victim services.
We are here to provide information, referrals, and support
to victims of crime and tragic circumstances,
and we are based out of all of the RCMP detachments.
The organization got a little bit bigger, so we have a central support staff now, such
as finance, HR, cultural supports, and then we have a team of navigators.
This sort of gives an overview so you can sort of see how we are structured and where
those people are.
You can see in this list we have two full-time frontline service navigators in Fort Saskatchewan.
We did have an update because one of them went off to be an EPS officer recently.
So this list hasn't been updated.
But we have Laura Lee, who is from Fortescatchewan.
And we now have Gabby, who is our new navigator, who we took from Parkland.
So they are both full-time working out of the detachment.
This is our area, just as a visual.
So we go from Fortescatchewan, Moornville, all the way over to Rocky Mountain House,
all the way back over to Stettler down to Innisfail.
In relation to the other districts, we're the smallest in area,
but almost the highest in population, sometimes self gives us a run for that.
But we're lucky in that sense because we are close
and our navigators are able to support each other.
We don't have such a big geographic area.
So again, we've got Southern Victims Services, Eastern and Western
and then central in the middle there.
We went through the transition over the summer.
It was a fast transition,
and we were operational all units by October 1st.
We did start a little bit early in Fort Saskatchewan
just to cover some gaps over the summer.
But essentially, we did our huge recruitment run,
structured, wrote all the policies,
and got up and running in just a few months.
We were really lucky.
We were able to retain over 87% of existing victim services staff in all of our
detachment areas. So that was pretty, pretty great. It's not the same for all the
regions, but for Central, we were able to. So again, you guys, all of our
detachment were able to retain the local supports and knowledge. Forts to
scheduling, we did offer the jobs, but one of our, our Erin, who you would have
known from before, she did end up moving. So she wasn't able to stay on. So you
We do have fresh faces, but they are experienced in victim services, which is great.
And again, we're doing support referrals, information, we're doing timely and equitable access
to those services across the region, across the province, we're prioritizing services based
on the need and the crisis situations, and that's including vulnerable people as well, and tragic
circumstances.
So we are getting most of our referrals from the RCMP, but we can take referrals from individuals themselves, organizations, pretty much from anywhere we've even gotten some from council members over the last few months.
And we think about victims as direct victims and indirect victims, direct victims are the ones that a crime has happened to them.
something has happened to them. They're likely going to be subpoenaed for court.
They're going to need that support. Indirect victims, we also provide
supports to those people that maybe have a bit of witness to a crime or a
family member or a friend of somebody who has been a victim or somebody who is
experienced a tragic circumstance. We always say no wrong door. If we received a
referral, we are going to take it and we are going to find the either appropriate
support, or we're going to do our best with them. So when people are always asking,
oh, I'm not sure if I should call you. Always call. There's a very good chance that we're
going to be able to help. And if we can't, we promise to find somebody who can. And we are doing
that through our community partnerships and our relationships. We work quite a bit with FCSS.
And I was just meeting with families first, ED, and we have a great relationship with them,
particularly around their family violence prevention program.
What do you do?
When someone calls us, they need help.
What is victim services?
I could ask that all the time.
What exactly do the navigators do in the detachments?
The first thing they're doing is that initial navigation.
It has a lot of crisis assistance, crisis assessments, information, informing people of the rights.
Victims of crime don't always understand what rights they have and what access to services
and information that they should be getting.
They often help with applications to things, forms, paperwork, and leasing with other organizations.
The bread and butter of what we do, though, is the court navigation or criminal justice navigation.
Many cases that we're dealing with with victims of crime are taking up to two years in court.
This isn't a one and done service. We are often working with people for up to two years.
Those things include leasing with the crown prosecutors, leasing with the RCMP, moving them through the justice system, the forms, the paperwork, the court dates, attending court for them, so they don't need to and making sure that they have all of the updates, of all of the different outcomes that can happen, then obviously trial prep attending court with them, and then debriefing and supports afterwards.
The last piece of the program is our crisis response, which is still active.
We do have a 24-hour phone number that the RCMP can call victim services and reach us
anytime, where they can ask for assistance or allow us to help them triage the situation.
So those are things like suspicious deaths, home invasions, domestic violence, sexual assault,
but mostly they are the next to kin death notifications.
So we still are assisting across our region with those call outs.
This is where I sort of speak to how to reach us.
Every unit is still its own unit.
So Fortes' schedule has two dedicated navigators.
They have their own phone number, email,
and anybody can reach them at any time.
As much as we've been regionalized, we are still very local
and the supports are given at the local level.
We are also governed by a Board of Directors as a not-for-profit society, and our board
is made up of board members from across the region.
One of our board members is from Fort Saskatchewan and sat on the previous victim services board.
So we do have a lot of local routes and we're really dedicated to keeping it that way.
We also have still have our volunteer advocate program, which is a long-standing program
in Alberta for victim services. So we do have a team of volunteer advocates that assist
with crisis callouts and court support when needed. We do still have an active advocate
program in Fortes' Gatchewan, but we'd like to pretty much double it at this point. So
the next time you'll see me around, we'll be regarding recruiting new victim services
advocates from the area. So then we can expand that program. But that is your victim services
and we're just going in a nutshell. That's the 10 minute version.
Lauren, thank you very much. I'm sure there'll be lots of questions
by opening the floor to council and any questions you might have of Lauren.
Councilor blizzard. Sure, we'll start off nice presentation, good information.
This is a non-profit or is this government funded? Can people donate?
Yeah, we are a not-for-profit organization. We are solely funded right now by the government
and Alberta. Their commitment was that they'll be sustainable programming available. So their commitment to us is that we will have adequate funding throughout this transition. And as we go in
We do take, we can receive donations, but we are not fundraising or soliciting for them. And any of those donations would go straight to direct client needs, such as water bottles, blankets, or sort of basic necessities that might come up.
Okay, thank you very much and good work that you do.
Councilor Abattoir.
Thank you for your presentation, Ms. Raid.
My first question is, so now we have two members
that are serving the Futsus-Cachan area.
Before its organization was founded, how many did we have?
It had fluctuated over the years.
Usually one and a half to two have been the numbers
that we use to staff each area were a direct relation
to what was already there, so it was either there's no reduction or anything like that.
No, this is okay. Perfect, thank you. Yes, my question about funding. My second question
is just because I know that there's a lot of, I'm looking for the best way to say it's a,
there's a lot of cultural people that are disproportionately represented in the criminal
service this system, right? What kind of effort do you have to deal with those types of groups?
Yeah, definitely. This was one of the big focuses for us as curves as we got going
and making it a priority especially to fill our cultural and community liaison position, which I've
got Gloria here to do. So a lot of her work right now is connecting with those groups in our communities
communities and really learning right now what is needed and finding those connections
of the right people in each of the communities, whether it's Indigenous or any of our groups,
and asking them what they're looking for and how to support them, is our big push right
now, is to get connected and understanding those needs.
Also that's where we're looking for advocates as well, we're particularly seeking out advocates
in some of those groups to volunteer with us to strengthen our response and the way that we
can help our victims. Okay, wonderful. Thank you. Well, I couldn't think of a better presence to serve
this role, so congratulations to you and well done. Thank you. And the next step is counts for Megan.
Thank you. Thanks for your presentation, Lauren. It's always really nice to see you.
Just so I get a better idea of the work that you do, when you talk about the next of kin call out,
is that one of your advocates actually going out with the RCMB to do those notifications
and to provide support directly? Yeah, exactly. It can look at different things depending on what
there's two things to think of. One is what the victim is asking for. So sometimes they do want
somebody alongside, you know, to come and answer questions and be there. So we do have our navigators
as well as the advocates that can be called out in person to those times. Sometimes it's a phone call
to see if they have any questions,
and oftentimes it's follow up as well.
So even just that next day when the dust is settled,
now what do we do?
How do we get a hold of the medical examiner?
Things like that.
That's a lot of what the work seems to happen
is the afterwards, but we are actively going to call out
and for to sketch one in the moment as well.
And the 24-hour service that you mentioned
is that more for, you know, like say it's three in the morning,
is that more for referral services,
This is like RCMP, you're calling you out or can anybody call because they know of
somebody who needs, who is a victim and needs the support at that time?
Yeah, it is, there are only the RCMP can call us out 24 hours because we do need to be
on scene with them.
Right.
That's one of the sort of safety protocols.
Okay.
So we are being called out for them by them, yeah, with them, if you will.
And again, if it's something that we can assist you in the next day in a safe manner, we
will as well. But next up can usually we be going with them to deliver the bad news
and just be there to help, to be that emotional support. Yeah. Okay. Well, thank you very
much. Of course. Well, it doesn't look like there are any more questions. So Lauren and
Laurie, thank you very much for attending Council today and giving a set update on your organization
and the work good work that you're doing in the community. It's obviously a very valued
service. So thank you very much. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Thank you.
So,
the next item of business is a Truth and Reconciliation Update, Brad Babiak presenting.
Welcome, Brad.
And you are accompanied by Taylor.
Taylor.
Thank you.
Welcome, Taylor.
So, good afternoon, everyone.
As mentioned, my name is Brad Babiak.
I'm the Director of Culture and Recreation Services.
I'm joined today, up front by Taylor Barry Bahbray, supervisor of the Ford Heritage Precinct,
and in the audience as well as Amber Grant, the coordinator for social planning for the city.
The city of Fortescaptuin is located here on Treaty 6 territory, and while it does not share direct boundary with the First Nation or Métis communities, it is home to many indigenous residents.
As the order of government closest to the public, the Truth and Reconciliation is called to action note that municipalities have both the opportunity and ability to take meaningful action to address the legacy of residential schools.
advance reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous residents and neighbors.
An example of this is the call to action 57 that calls for training for municipal staff
on indigenous history, intercultural competency, anti-racism, and a legacy of residential schools.
Additional examples of municipal related calls to action are on page one of the council report.
To guide the city in this work, in 2021 council directed administration to develop a truth
within Reconciliation Action Plan, in consultation with Indigenous stakeholders.
Resulting in a multi-year plan funded initially through Budget 2022, this is Appendix A of the Council Report.
From the start, it was considered essential to approach this work collaboratively with Indigenous residents and neighbors,
guided by the pace and direction of those relationships.
During the 2025 operational budget deliberations, Council requested a progress report of the status
of the truth and recognition initiative status and future plans by the end of Q2 of 2025.
Areas of focus is first identified in the action plan to guide this work are listed on this slide.
Overall progress has been made in six of the eight areas of focus.
Appendix D of the Council report provides a high-level summary of work stemming from the multi-year action plan and areas of focus.
While Appendix-C provides further details on events, program, and training in chronological
order. There are three actionaries that have significant changes from what was initially
proposed. Regionally specific online curriculum was paused due to the availability of existing
high quality offerings available in the region already. This meant that met the intended educational
outcomes that were desired. The move to the existing courses versus development of new ones
is one of the main drivers for the decrease
in the recent budget requests.
Another area that had significant changes
was online staff education.
This moved from strictly an online training model
to more diverse and engaging suite
of in-person workshops,
experiential learning opportunities
and cultural sessions.
The third area that had significant changes
was related to community development.
The Truth and Reconciliation portfolio
was initially adopted by an existing FTE,
which was the supervisor of Fort Heritage Precinct, for years one and two, where 50% of the FDE was dedicated to this work.
And that was to then move to 25% of the position moving forward.
In 2020, 25, the city transitioned from having one lead for Truth and Reconciliation work to being supported by two positions.
The Truth, the social planning coordinator from Family Community Social Services is now engaged in this work.
work, and it continues to live with the supervisor of the Ford Heritage Precinct.
This ship reflects the scope and complexity of the work and broader administrative goal
of embedding reconciliation across the organization and reduces the impact of potential staff
turnover for long-term relationship building.
Furthermore, truth and reconciliation work has been increasingly shared through the city's
administration, as it became more of a lens of the work of the city even during normal operations.
In involves coordination and contributions from teams including public works, fleet facilities engineering, financial services, planning and development, corporate communications, family community and social services, and of course culture and recreation services.
There is one action area of focus that prognosis has not been made, and that's the incorporation of indigenous names.
This remains a future or future area of action, but requires further engagement, cultural consultation,
and co-development with Indigenous partners.
The City's 2025 initiatives follow a community
by four community approach that includes supporting
Indigenous-led initiatives through funding,
staff support, and in-kind contributions.
As previously mentioned, upcoming events for this year
are in appendix-y and fall under these four areas
listed on the slide.
City events, of which an example,
is Indigenous People's Day,
where the City will host a family-friendly daytime event
in partnership with local indigenous and Métis residents.
The celebration will honor indigenous history, heritage,
and resilience through music, food, and cultural programming.
Examples of programming include, in August,
the city will offer programs that highlight
our shared responsibilities as treaty partners
in the lead up to treaty six day.
Examples of staff training,
which will be held this fall,
is the delivery of experiential training
opportunities for staff, supporting deeper understanding and engagement with indigenous
histories, cultures, and perspectives.
And a few examples of partnership are the witness blanket exhibition that is now on display
at the Ford Heritage precinct in the Courthouse throughout June in partnership with the Elk
Island public schools.
The witness blanket is a powerful installation made from items reclaimed from residential
schools and related sites.
It honors survivors and invites reflection on Canada's history.
This marks the first time the exhibit has been in the Mettan area since 2017.
There is also a collaboration with local indigenous artist, Ellie Langerd, to launch a community-driven
educational initiative healing hands of recognition.
That is going to be unfolding over the next four months.
This will culminate in September with the city hosting a community ceremony to
raise this commitment to the 94 calls of action. The initiative invites
residents to reflect, learn and commit to ongoing Truth and Reconciliation
efforts.
And finally, in terms of work of the Truth and Reconciliation in the coming
years, administration proposes to keep a relationship first approach. This means
administration will continue our engagement and collaborations with local
Indigenous residents, community groups, knowledge keepers, and educators to continue to look for
partnerships and opportunities to support others in helping move these action items forward
and address gaps as necessary using the areas of focus as a guide.
With that,
we'll open up for any questions Council may have.
Brad, thanks very much for your presentation. It was great to see all the work that's been
taking place in the last little while. When the witness blanket first came to town,
and I had the opportunity to attend, the mayor was otherwise engaged that day, so I attended his deputy mayor.
It was really quite an interesting exposition, and anybody that gets a chance to go see it.
And certainly the school children that have been engaged, I think that's definitely a valuable learning opportunity for our school age children.
So thank you very much.
I would open the floor to questions, and we have Councillor Abitouye.
Okay.
No, I was the last.
The first was consummation.
Oh, okay.
Thank you.
Oh, the top.
Thank you.
Okay.
Thanks for making my apologies.
Not a problem.
Thank you for this report.
It was exactly what I was looking for to see what we have done
and where we are going.
So I really appreciate all the work that went into that.
One of the things that I kind of noted, as I was reading through it,
is do we do any work on this with other municipalities?
Do we collaborate with the opportunity?
Because it just feels like all municipalities must be
trying to figure out what the best path forward is.
That's very correct.
We're working as a regional working group with groups
in Edmonton as well as surrounding area,
we're meeting on a quarterly basis.
And we do have the opportunity as both
with Amber and I settle in our footings with this new co-lead initiative.
We really do hope to expand our programming to include places like Shrathcona County
where there's a lot of overlap in our histories, so yeah, we're really looking forward to regional
collaboration.
So is that the intent then of that group is to help kind of establish best practice, what's
working what's not okay yeah so best practices as well as sharing calendar of events as well as we'll be bringing in
different teachings we'll be doing some also some professional development as
Indigenous liaison's of sorts so yeah it's a it's a very at this point it's an emerging working group
but I think that it I think it could lead to really great synergies within
and the image in the surrounding area.
Perfect.
Thank you very much.
That's right, Victoria.
OK.
We'll have the mayor.
Next.
Thank you.
OK, thank you.
Thank you very much, Deputy Mayor Harris. You're doing a great job. So the question that I have really comes to, I'm going to talk about indigenous days. So last year, the city of Fortescachewan had our indigenous days a little bit later in the day. But the multicultural had theirs earlier in the day. So people were really confused about which indigenous days do they go to.
Is there some way we can work with the multicultural?
Because, again, this year we're having ours on the Saturday and they're having theirs on the Sunday.
So it just feels like it's disjointed again.
That's question one.
Through the chair.
Yes, I mean, looking to engage and share ideas is definitely something we want to really work towards.
And I think that something will keep an eye on and trying to be more proactive
As in some cases plans get developed very early and so it's hard to switch course
There is while there is potentially that overlap as you mentioned
I would also suggest it could potentially be an opportunity that way if someone misses one opportunity. There is another available
But again, you're absolutely right. We should try and focus and at least create as much clarity as we can for the community on these events
And where and how they're hosted and to what they might look like in terms of any differences or overlap
Okay. It's just, it feels like it's just very disjointed with them, and I don't know
whether they're willing to work with us or not. And I apologize if my mic is in this
clear as it should be, but it's, it's right here. So second question that I have with your
budgets, they range from 40,000, 79,000, 39, 29 and 29. Do we really feel that we need to
maintain these budgets at this level. We don't give any other user group or
cultural group that type of funding. So I guess I just question that.
Through the
chair, this is something obviously that's up to Council's discretion as we go
through the budget process each year to see what level support they're willing to
make. To your point, one of the distinctions I guess I would just raise with
this work of truth and reconciliation, is it a little different from maybe working with
some of our other community groups in the fact that part of this work is to actually recognize
where Canadian organizations, whether federal, provincial, RCMP, or others have had an impact in
indigenous peoples in a way that other culture groups may not have been impacted.
So that's not to say they're any more or less important, but there is a different relationship
with the treaties and the work of trying to reconcile and move forward from residential
schools that is beyond just awareness and celebration of culture or trying to be inclusive.
So there is a little extra work I think needed there, again to the exact budget.
We feel that the work we've done has been really well received by the community, but if there's opportunities that you'd like us to look up to support this work differently, that's something we can that we do continue to do and look for different opportunities.
So even though the money has been relatively stable, we have done, as you can see in the appendix, this is quite a few different types of initiatives.
So I think the ongoing funding just also recognizes a commitment to keeping this work going versus maybe trying to give a grant out to someone which may or may not be successful from year to year.
Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. I just want to say I think you're doing an amazing job and I think using Ellie Lagrancher and her daughter Stacy from the Dreamcatcher's Gallery.
I think they really help with the indigenous culture in our community.
So just thank you for the work that you're doing with them.
I think this hands in having the TP that will go up will go a long way.
So thank you.
I'm good.
Deputy Mayor Harris.
Thank you.
Councillor Abertoya.
Thank you.
Technology.
Fall in the touch.
Mr. Thank you very much for your response.
I think your response was really marvelous and I really agree with you things like you just said.
My question on that note, my question is, is there a plan to move from events-based
reconciliation efforts to embedded systemic efforts or changes like hiring and procurement
when it comes to indigenous people? To do the chair to answer that, so I thank you for your question.
I think we've been trying to move towards that way. Some of this obviously isn't
as transparent in terms of government processes, or city processes, as you may see.
But one of the things that we have done internally, although it was to help support events,
ironically, was to look at an on-demrarium procedure for lack of a better warm.
So instead of treating indigenous knowledge keepers or artists as vendors, which is typically
what our accounting area would like to see.
We work to come up with a way that to meet the needs that we had for requirements, but
to treat these knowledge keepers, sorry, one of the reasons for the change in a little
bit back is when these knowledge keepers come and share information with us, it's typically
considered to be a gift, a gift from them to others.
And so part of the honorarium process is to give a gift back and not to pay for a service.
So that looks a little different in terms of this is often seen.
And they recognize this through cash gifts rather than giving us an invoice and then we pay them back later.
And this is in a city practice, this is something post-secondary institutes and others who kind of follow these protocols go through.
And that was one of the things we actually worked on very early on, I think in 2022, is to work with our finance department to come up with a practice that kind of does that.
It doesn't go directly to a point of procurement, but it is an internal practice that we've looked to change.
And sorry, you had mentioned another example of that.
No, same things like hiring procurement policies,
just things that are really systemic rather than just events based.
Yeah, and so some of the other practices that we have internally is,
there's a couple of different examples throughout.
So our fleet facilities and engineering department is actually worked with us
that any city facility can be smudged in now without having to go proactively to ask permission
or whatever it's all been considered.
and so those are again another thing that wouldn't be necessarily obviously we don't want one of those
but in terms of the procurement and those things we're not having gone to that extent yet.
That's a tough point. Well thank you very much for your response and my second question is
around the training programs. I remember Donnie COVID attending a few of those online trainings
around truth and reconciliation and my question around that is to be track that like attendance
for staff and council, and it's also a consideration for that to be, and maybe it's already included in the onboarding process for new staff.
I'm probably even orientation for council, so is that your a plan for that?
Yes, your chair.
Councillor Avertoya.
Yeah, there are plans, and that's for additional training coming up in September.
But one of the reasons we moved, I think it was in 2024 now, with an ongoing budget request is to build in the budget to allow that so that we can bring back and use basically sometimes the same training when we have new staff members come.
That could be similar to council or any other person who works in the city that they're recognizing this isn't a one and done scenario.
And that as the city grows and even adds new staff, we have the ability to continue that training.
Okay, so just the first part of my question about the metrics from the previous training. What did that look like in terms of attendance?
Yes, through the chair. Yes, we do track those. I don't have those numbers immediately in front of me.
We just kind of have the number of the number of training or the different training we've done, but we could look to those numbers and get back to you.
I appreciate you. Thank you. I thank you as well.
Thank you.
Councillor Blizzard.
very good information. Thanks for bringing it all forward. It looks like we're making some progress in this area.
It just came across something that said witness blanket exhibition and it's free on Saturdays.
So can you talk a little bit about that and maybe we can somehow encourage if there was any papers or something that are listening to encourage people that come out to that.
Yeah, so we were super fortunate to have a partnership with Alkaline Public Schools to bring in the exhibition, and from Monday to Friday, it's been offered to students, but for the last two Saturdays, as well as this upcoming Saturday, we're offering free admission to our 1909 courthouse, where the exhibition is currently situated along with the 21st, which is the Saturday for a National Indigenous Peoples Day.
We are also smudging with Elder Gloria as well as we are going to be honored to be listening to some of her stories and her teachings as well in the courthouse.
So I encourage every person, every resident from here and also beyond to come in and witness the blanket and to understand the stories and the complexities that exist within our everyday life.
Very good. One thing with the smudging, I was at one, I think at family's first and the
fire alarm went off. So just, if you're doing that maybe outside, or I don't know how
you, I don't think you can turn the fire alarms off. So something that Brad was a, Brad noted
is we've been working with our facilities group to identify spaces within Port Saskatchewan
that Indigenous and non-Indigenous people are free to smudge. Our museum buildings are
actually categorized as a non-concern. So it's just one step that a facility
services is also taking in indigenizing spaces. Thank you.
Well, it doesn't look like we've got any more questions. So thank you very much
for that presentation. It's great to get an update on those activities because
they are so culturally important to our community. So thank you very much.
So the next
It will be making the presentation with Mr. Harder.
Thank you very much.
Good afternoon Chair and members of the committee.
My name is Sandy Bajaya.
I'm the General Manager for Corporate Services,
and I'm very pleased to provide this update
on the city's enterprise resource planning
or ERP modernization project.
By way of general introduction, an ERP system
refers to the core software that organizations use
to manage and conduct their day-to-day business activities,
especially the business related to financial and human resource functions.
More importantly, ERP systems are the main repository of financial
and resident data used to support the city's decision-making.
This slide provides a brief overview of the project history.
The city's current ERP system, Microsoft Dynamics GP,
currently supports our critical business functions,
including accounting, payroll, utility, building, and financial reporting.
However, this system is nearing its end of life cycle, and there is now a need to address
the next system to replace it. The city has diligently been planning for this transition.
In 2023, we conducted a third-party review of our current state and documented existing gaps
In our current system, as well as identified options for addressing the city's future needs.
This review highlighted various actions that could be undertaken to ensure that the
city is in good shape to take on an ERP system replacement.
As part of the 2025 budget, Council approved funding to support what we are calling the
pre-work for this project.
Stepping back a little bit and looking at the ERP project in terms of phases, we are in the first phase of work which is focused on the preparation.
The next phase will involve going to market through the RFP process to acquire a new system.
Once a new system has been selected, we will be ready to move into the implementation phase, which will have likely the most impact to the organization,
as we update and transition our current processes.
One of our goals in this project is to ensure
a thoughtful approach to change management
which includes proactive communication
and engagement with impacted staff and departments
and tailored support and training on the new system.
The final phase of the project is maintenance
and we expect to make that shift in late 2028.
But in reality, maintenance of the new system
and will become part of our ongoing operations
as soon as we're done with implementation.
This slide highlights the work we have done to date.
Again, these actions were identified
in that 2023 review and have continued to be refined
as we move through the work.
Much of the work that you see on this...
Screen is really about refining and documenting ERP system needs, confirming the best sequence for implementing ERP functions, reviewing what has changed in the ERP landscape, identifying resources for the next phases of the project, and establishing the governance framework for this transition. Other key areas of focus include data cleanup, process mapping and improvement, and documenting the
expected interdependencies between the city's various software systems.
In terms of the next touchpoint with Council for this project, administration will include
a budget recommendation to support the next phase of the ERP transition as part of the
2026 budget process.
Before I close and turn it over to the chair for questions, I'm going to take a moment
to acknowledge the work of the ERP governance committee thus far.
The committee includes the Director of IT, Trevor, Director of Communications, Jessie,
Director of People Services, Bettina, as well as our CFO, Jeremy, our Budget Manager
and our Accounting Manager, Shannon and Clayton respectively.
Some of these members are here today and we are now happy to take any questions from the
committee on the project.
I'll start off, just when we move into an ERP system and we're doing that acquisition,
how many vendors are actually offering the types of software that ultimately would meet our needs going forward?
Is there one primary or six or eight or how many do we have to pick and choose from?
Ultimately that we will put our RFPO to and look for a response.
Thank you for the question. There is a competitive market out there.
One of the things we've observed is that since the time we started the review in 2023,
there have been some shifts in the market, but there's probably between four and six dominant
players that would be looking at the right scope of ERP system that the city would potentially
be interested in. So there is a good range of options available for the city to explore.
And second question. So ultimately in any new implementation software or other systems like
that, change management is so crucial. So ultimately we have a well documented change management
process and all of our major players in this exercise have good experience in change management,
would you say? I would say that's something we've been working on as part of the
governance committee that is overseeing this project.
So we are sort of documenting the risks of not having the change management and identifying
how we could mitigate those risks.
We're also investing time and energy into developing a really robust resourcing plan.
One of the points of failure with this type of project is not resourcing it efficiently,
so that it becomes a corner of the desk.
So I think the resourcing and the change management go hand in hand, those issues have been
top of mind for the governance committee and it is something that we are turning our
minds to.
That's good to hear.
And as long as we have good executive sponsorship on this, then ultimately I think you're
moving in the right direction.
So thank you.
Councillor Abertoya.
Thank you.
Thank you for your presentation.
I'm sure with the ERP system where you can have something that's really robust in a
to conserve our community.
My first question is, there's been a lot of push
for original collaboration,
and I'm wondering is there an opportunity here
for in-sign municipal collaboration
for an ARP system?
Is that something we've seen out there?
Thank you, that's a good question.
Through to the Chair to Councillor Abertoy,
we have explored some lessons learned through our region.
So we have met with various municipalities
that are in different phases of the ERP.
I don't know if it's truly possible to share an ERP system
because so much of the city's data
and functions are tied up in that system
and there has to be a good integration
between that ERP system and our other components
that need to function together.
So I don't think that opportunity is out there
but the lessons learned and leveraging other municipalities' experience has been mission-crucial to us.
I will say that whenever we've reached out to any of our regional partners,
they've been very willing to share information and examples, as well as best practices in terms of what worked or what didn't work for them.
So that's been a positive experience.
Great answer. Thank you.
My second question is actually to the IT director.
I know there's going to be a lot of, you know,
emphasis on your departments and the support
that you're going to be providing to the organization
as we do this transition because there's going to be a lot of,
I'll say issues, right, because if you're bringing the new system,
so my question is, is your department ready for the change?
Do you feel like you're well-staffed for this type of process
is because it's going to be really big.
Through Chair to Councillor Abertouille, as Ms. Paget was saying, the resource planning
that we're going to be doing here shortly will tell the story for that.
So currently we're not staffed properly for supporting a new system like this, but as we
go through our resource planning, that'll paint the picture.
Okay.
All right.
So you'll know as you go on, right?
And just my final question is, okay, can I ask one more, one little question.
So what's kind of age are we looking for for this software?
And what was the previous, the age of the previous one, and the new one, what is our expectation
for that?
Through the Chair to Councillor Abertoya, so the existing software that we've had, we've
had in operation since early 2000s, so we're running close to 20 years plus, and your question
was the age or how long will the new system last? It's hard to say, I mean, technology changes,
but we're looking probably most likely between the, again, the 15 to 20 year, coming upon
the vendor support. That is the real crucial. Thank you very much.
Councillor Kelly.
Thank you.
Nice to see everybody here on the same subject a year later.
I still don't really understand what an ERP system does.
So as I would understand our current system, we would have upwards of 20 different software
programs that we use within the city for various functions.
One, I assume one for our financial reporting and bookkeeping, another one, say, Excel to track whatever data we have.
Some form of communication software that tracks email addresses.
So does ERP replace all of those or tie all of those together?
Through the chair to Councillor Kelly, I will start answering that question,
but I may have to call a friend for some supplemental detail.
So basically an ERP software is scalable, so it has many modules.
So for example, you will have a accounting,
invoicing, work orders, budgeting, taxes, utilities,
and then all your people services function.
So your payroll management, your benefits management,
There are many, many functions that are a part of a payroll system, so it is a pretty
extensive software that addresses a lot of needs, even things like procurement.
What we're doing right now is identifying what are the core functions that we need to
replace when Microsoft GP dynamic goes away.
anything that we are doing through Microsoft GP Dynamics, we have to replace. At the same time,
we are not beholden to using only this system. There may be instances where we say, you know what,
for procurement, we're going to use a different software because it works better for our needs. In
that case, we need to be confident that that software can integrate into our ERP, whether that's like a
native integration or it requires an additional piece of software to make them talk together
so that we can pull that data to do financial forecasting and predictions and things of
that nature. So that's my layman's understanding and explanation and I'm looking to my friends
if there was anything that they feel like I've missed. Quite frankly that's good enough explanation
for myself as well. So what I think I heard you say is that this software will probably
replace many or do perform many of the computerized or electronic functions that we have within
the city. But what I was interested in and you all commented on that, we're not married to
this particular software we can attempt to go outside if in fact we deem it worthy.
Through the chair to Councillor Kelly, absolutely. That is one of the critical conversations
we're having right now. I can give you an example. Our water portal will cease to be supported
after June of 2026. So one of the decision points is how do we negotiate that transition?
can we find software, a module, in our ERP system, do we make that a requirement?
Is there a third-party software that can integrate with the ERP that would be, would better service those needs?
So those are exactly the kinds of conversations we're having.
I think from the perspective of the governance committee, we are being very cautious that we don't tire hands, and that we understand we will always need other software.
We will not be able to get everything in one system, so it's finding a right balance
between choosing the right system to meet as many of our needs as we can
and still integrate with other systems where appropriate.
Perfect, Sandy. I noted your comment on your lessons, lessons, learn discussions.
I know you guys know this, but I would encourage you to do and use your peers as
absolutely as much as possible, I have a good friend who's part of the senior management
team of a company that employs around 1400 people. They went through this change about
six years ago and it brought the company to their knees. And when I talked to him after
the fact about it, his response was that they goofed up and they didn't properly allocate
to resources necessary to get the job done.
So it is a huge undertaking.
I know nothing about it other than the horror stories.
I did some research after I talked to him
and there's all kinds of stories that abound on the internet
about organizations that have stumbled in this process.
So I'm encouraged, I believe you folks know what you're doing.
Lessons learned in proper budget and proper planning
and I think you're on top.
I know you're on top of it, but don't commit yourself
to your absolutely certain.
Thank you.
I appreciate the comments.
They're blizzard kind of have the same question,
but I think I still need some more clarity on it
because I don't quite understand it.
So is this I'm trying to wrap my head around what this is?
Is this like if we were to buy Microsoft Office
that has all the different parts?
Only we are buying a bigger package
that has all the different things that the city needs, is that kind of what it is?
Either one of you, I guess. Through to Chair to Councillor Blizzard, yes, essentially,
that is correct. It is software that has many different modules that perform different functions,
but these are like about the core businesses, so are utilities, billing, or property tax, billing,
project management, payroll. Those are the modules that we're talking about,
But it's very similar to like the Microsoft suite.
So when we get this though, is it going to be so different that people are going to struggle
with like a spreadsheet is still a spreadsheet or is it going to be you got to relearn that
you know what the ball is so what the wheel is I guess.
One of the challenges we're facing is that right now some of our processes are very manual
and they are literally we're managing something on a spreadsheet.
So we're going to be upgrading to a more modern approach for some of our processes.
For other processes, it's not going to be significantly different.
It's just learning a new system.
So if you had used back in the day word perfect, I'm aging myself and then switch the word.
You just have to learn.
Similar, okay.
It would be similar to that.
So in some areas, the transition won't be as transformational.
In other areas, it will be more transformational, which is a good thing because we are at a maturity
in terms of the size of the organization and the scope of our services where it is appropriate
to make that transition.
Okay.
So maybe when all is said and done, when we come out of the other end, everything should be
more efficient.
hopefully? Yes, but perhaps not in the way that you're thinking. I would say in
terms of efficiency, the goal is to free up our resources and redirect them to
higher value work. We're not expecting that we're going to have created a lot
of new efficiency because the new system will need the care and feeding and
updating, and they are
More frequently updated than traditional systems in the past. So we're entering a bit of a different ball game. Okay, I think I got it now. A little better anyways. Thank you.
That's rabbit. Sorry. Just something just my interest here. Artificial intelligence. Is that something we're going to see with this new system that we're going to be putting out for proposal? I guess that's a travel question. Okay. Well, sorry. Jeremy, go through the chair to council rabbit toy.
So, in our preliminary discussions and looking at some of this, what software that's out there,
there is an implication for AI as to how we'll be used in terms of an ERP where still at
our infancy stage of understanding that. So, I can't really give you a direct answer on that.
I know. I appreciate that. Thank you.
I had a case in my consulting career before I came here to work with a number of consultants
of works almost exclusively helping organizations address what Councillor Kelly talked about
the implementation of an ERP system without appropriate allocation of resources to deal
with change because it ultimately comes down to how do people grasp the change in their
jobs.
I don't want to use this new spreadsheet, I'm going to use Excel.
I don't want to use that.
And so they work around it.
So the question is how do we grapple with that change initiative to make sure that we
apply the right resource in a right way, right way.
And so I'm sure that it sounds like you've got a good plan and with the right level of
executive sponsorship starting with the city manager and with yourself, Sandy, I think
that that ultimately will help trickle down to ensure that as you implement this program
suite, and that's what it is, it's a suite of applications to solve common problems.
So I'm confident that you're moving in the right direction.
So, keep up the good work and thank you very much for the presentation and keep the good work.
Thank you.
We don't have any more questions.
So, the next item on the agenda is councillor inquiries.
We have any inquiries for our administration.
Looking around, I'm not seeing any inquiries.
I think you're getting off easy today, Mr. Fleming.
So, with that said, I guess we have the opportunity.
You know, I would entertain a motion to move into closed session.
Councillor Meigen.
Thank you.
I'll make the motion that we move to closed session for matters covered under FOIP.
Okay.
Please vote.
We are now moving into closed session.
Thank you.