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Lakeshore’s municipal infrastructure and workforce face significant challenges, raising concerns developers may decide to explore projects elsewhere, according to a service delivery review.
“We know there is a great deal of work to be done,” said Lakeshore Mayor Tracey Bailey. “There’s a number of things we (council) inherited — the water, wastewater, the human capacity, our roads and infrastructure.
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“We know where we are strong and we know where we need to lean in.”
Consultant firm StrategyCorp was hired last year to carry out a service delivery review of the municipality’s planning, engineering, and building services. The aim was to identify key risks to Lakeshore’s future growth and development and to make recommendations on how to address those.
The immediate risks identified in the report include infrastructure and workforce challenges, team dynamics and process integration issues, a lack of long-term strategic vision, and challenges related to planning.
“The review highlighted the complex and interconnected nature of the work that we do,” said Bailey in an emailed response to the Star.
“The ongoing work on our water and wastewater master plan, for instance, will support the work needed to address some of our infrastructure challenges, which have limited our growth potential.”
According to the report, Lakeshore’s engineering, building, and planning divisions experience chronic turnover and have difficulty filling vacant positions due to “challenging organizational culture.”
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“As a council, we have identified and prioritized service improvements for customers and residents, and this report will help inform the operational changes needed to achieve those goals,” said Bailey.
“We’ve already seen action on several items identified in this report, including the recent conversion to digital applications that improve the user experience and enhance transparency for applicants.”
Town council last week directed municipal staff to develop a work plan with associated costs required to implement recommendations in the report.
Deputy Mayor Kirk Walstedt said he thought it was a good report but wasn’t surprised by it.
“We knew issues were there,” Walstedt said. “A lot of items should have been dealt with in the past and weren’t done. I’m a little uncomfortable with not having a permanent CAO (chief administrative officer) in place but I think it is something that has to be done in any event.”
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More information about the report and the list of recommendations can be found on the municipality’s website.
“I look forward to reviewing the detailed work plan and costing needed to put this report into action so that we can maintain momentum and build upon the improvements we’ve seen during this term of council,” Walstedt said.
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