This page is archived and is no longer maintained, but may be of historical interest.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
Long term debt outstanding at December 31 ($16.4 Million) is well within regulatory limits and City Council debt benchmarks as defined in the Financial Management and Debt Reduction Policy. The balance sheet of the organization continued to remain strong. Again in 2000, significant benefits resulted from the Pay-As-You-Go Program, with the fund providing $3,751,000 for capital projects.
Increased tax revenue for municipal purposes in 2000 was $554,000. Municipal expenditures were increased for Protective Services (Fire & Police), Transit Operations, and Recreation Services.
Our Finance Department staff are responsible for the City's financial records and reporting, operating budget, payroll, benefit administration, accounts payable, cash receipts, and financial systems training. Finance staff successfully completed a Canada Customs & Revenue Agency (formerly Revenue Canada) audit. A work-at-home pilot project was undertaken and proved successful for the organization and the staff involved.
A purchase agreement was negotiated for Theodore Court to ultimately be used for a new City Hall. A purchase agreement for the Community Knowledge Campus (CKC) site was successfully negotiated.
Purchasing
Our Purchasing Department staff played a key role in the negotiation of an electrical contract with Enmax due to the deregulation of electrical services. Purchasing staff issued 62 tenders and 12 Request for Proposals totalling $9.7 Million. Additionally, the small value ordering system processed 9,100 transactions worth $2.7 Million.
Customer Billing
Customer Billing department staff issued 137,000 utility bills, a 3.7% increase over the prior year. Our electronic customers continue to grow rapidly. Pre-authorized payment plan transactions increased 13.3% and electronic bank payments increased 20.7% over the previous year. A new comprehensive Customer Billing web site was developed providing valuable information on-line.
Assessment & Taxation
This is the 3rd year with property assessments at market value and it has been well received by taxpayers. Our team of assessors completed an inspection program, examining 2023 properties to establish or verify assessment data. This reflected in the accuracy of residential assessments when compared to sales data in the annual audit (99.3%). The team in Assessment and Taxation undertook a complete review of the Business Tax process and as a result Council has approved the elimination of Business Tax beginning in 2001.
Information Resources
Upgrades to our network environment were completed in 2000. A comprehensive Dell server, storage, and backup solution was implemented in addition to a complete Microsoft 2000 solution. The City was recognized for being a leader in the migration to the Microsoft Exhchange 2000 server platform allowing our organization to take advantage of the enhanced features. The City of Grande Prairie website remains a source of pride for our organization with web page views exceeding 100,000 page views per month.
Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
Our GIS team was successful in migrating to a standard GIS viewer throughout the organization. The viewer allows any desktop PC on the network to view municipal data geographically, including utility systems and property information. The department also co-ordinated a successful partnership with Grande Prairie Regional Emergency Medical Service (GPREMS) to develop a geographic based system for enhancing patient safety. This partnership resulted in attracting significant funding from the TELUS Community Innovation awards & Sustainable Communities Initiative award. Grande Prairie GIS team was also recognized as a leader in municipal GIS services by the Public Works Journal.
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