A new spreadsheet introduced to Lac La Biche County councillors will improve the flow of information from project worksites to Council Chambers.
“What's the story that we want to tell council,” asked Brian Shapka, CAO of Infrastructure, when presenting a new method of updating the council members on the progress of ongoing projects.
Answering his own rhetoric question, he said it's about "how much have we committed? How much have we spent? And how far along is the project?"
Looking for those answers, Shapka says, will start to tell the story about the risk a project has of going over budget in the future.
In recent weeks, council members and administration have been tackling significant over-budget components of local projects, the most significant being the almost $1.5 million cost-overruns on the new Protective Services building and its landscaped property. Another recent project was the additional $135,000 to fix a design error on one of the the new baseball diamonds at the under-construction Bold Center sports fields.
Noting frustrations that arise when past projects have returned to council for multiple budget revisions. Coun. Lorin Takchuk added, this is a way to avoid dropping the ball in the future.
This improved method of project management reporting will see the status updates in the hands of councillors months ahead of financial reports. The reporting will help council pass on progress reports to residents as well as keep updated on municipal progress of tasks.
“We here in council are not project managers, but we do have to give direction, and this is another tool to help us stay in touch with what's going on; to help us with our decisions,” said Coun. Colin Cote.
