Like private sector corporations, municipalities have a vested interest in measuring their financial and operational performance. After all, like shareholders, Town residents, business owners, and elected officials - all of whom pay and the latter of whom set municipal taxes - have a vested interest in knowing just how efficient or inefficient their municipality’s operations really are, and just healthy or unhealthy its fiscal situation really is.
Measuring this performance, however, requires both introspection and extrospection. It requires evaluating the fiscal and operational performance of one’s own municipality and then comparing that performance to the fiscal and operational performances of other, similarly-sized ("peer") and/or neighbouring municipalities.
For this reason, in 2019 the Town of Coaldale decided to take its financial and operational reporting to the next level and began conducting just this kind of comparison. Rather than simply evaluate its own financial and operational performance, Coaldale went one step further and compared its financial and operational performance to the financial and operational performances of eight (8) other peer and/or neighbouring municipalities: Blackfalds, Drumheller, Edson, Innisfail, Lethbridge, Lethbridge County, Ponoka, and Taber.
Now dubbed the Town of Coaldale "Comparative Analysis", this document stands alongside the Town’s operating and capital budgets, audited financial statements, and annual reports as one more tool for analyzing the efficacy of Coaldale's operations and service delivery. In so doing, it not only provides Town residents and business owners - both current and prospective - with a better sense of how Coaldale is ultimately run, but also, elected officials with a better understanding of how to make Coaldale a more competitive and attractive place to live and raise a family, moving forward.
How does Coaldale stack up against similarly-sized and/or neighbouring municipalities? Please click the link below to view the Town of Coaldale's 2023 Comparative Analysis.