Strategic Plan and Focus Areas
MLWUC Strategic Plan 2020-2021
1. Introduction
A strategic plan is designed to set direction for the community for 3‐5 years and provide guidance to board priorities and actions. MLWUC has received a grant for development of an external consulting report on water source and treatment options to assist in community planning and risk mitigation. Until the external consulting report is completed there is much that remains uncertain in terms of future direction. There are known issues pertaining to water quality, treatment options, dam longevity, dam access, reliability of existing infrastructure and pipeline access and routing. However, considering the list of known issues and concerns, the board has prioritized known actions for an initial operational plan. In 2019/20 these focused on establishing our compliance with regulations and the provincial control framework, together with instituting more formal governance.
2. Mission Statement
To acquire, employ, maintain and protect, in an efficient and effective manner, the resources required to provide clean water to MLWUC members in accordance with the Water Sustainability Act.
3. Guiding Principles
The community has powers as documented in the Water User Community Act 2016
To acquire, hold and control property and licences
To acquire, construct, hold, maintain, improve, replace and operate works
To levy assessments on its members and enforce payment of those assessments by suit in a court of competent jurisdiction.
Based on this the board has four main categories of responsibility:
Responsibility to Fulfil – ensure the availability of supply
Responsibility to Comply – demonstrate adherence to regulations through bylaws, actions and reporting
Responsibility to Protect – protect the integrity of the water supply
Responsibility to Preserve – sustain water supply through effective governance
To reflect this, the following guiding principles apply to the board, its plans and actions
Open communications – to engage in transparent activities with timely documentation of its activities available for access by the community and regulators.
Adherence to regulations – to comply with all regulatory activities whether monthly, annual or ad hoc and where this is not possible and action plan for compliance will be developed.
Data privacy – ensure systems of record, communications and shared data respect applicable privacy laws (including GDPR) and recognised best practices for security of personal data.
Respect for the individual – every individual in the community whether on the board or not shall be treated with respect, regardless of opinion or position held. They will be given a voice and a suitable and timely reply where required.
Minimise director, officer and community liability – to reduce any exposure to claim that might fall on the community or its officers. The board will take actions through its bylaws, procedures, regular operations and special projects to demonstrate good governance, adherence to regulations, reduction of risk to the community and water source, safe conduct of operations etc.
View the Strategic Focus areas as defined in 2023-2024.
4. Opportunity and Risk
MLWUC known issues, priorities and plans were reviewed against the Strategic Focus Areas established by the Water User Community Act and board/water manager responsibilities.
Current Challenges
The community has poor and inadequately mapped infrastructure leading to risk and delay in identifying problems and fixes, as well as hampering the planning of future improvements
The board is typically formed by a minimal compliment reducing its ability to plan or act
The board and community have inconsistent, infrequent and under‐valued communications, hampering trust fostered by openness.
The board has a poor track record in meeting regulatory reporting requirements
The Emergency plan is out of date
There is no water safety plan
Maintenance activities requiring professional assistance are not clearly identified and defined.
Volunteer maintenance actions tend to be ad hoc and under planned from the perspective of parts access, budget, timing and task planning.
Opportunities
The community has some newer and younger members who could perhaps be engaged to contribute more.
There is opportunity for some regular tasks to be undertaken by non‐board members. These may include: collecting water samples, regular dam checks, dam cleaning assistance and various research or planning activities where broader community involvement is beneficial.
The board has established improved communications with various regulators and the tone of their communication now appears to be more even and open to discussion.
The grant for professional consulting on water sources and treatment options to help produce and updated strategic plan is still available
Development of an overall fire protection strategy and supporting infrastructure may benefit the community both during time of risk and in reduction of house insurance premiums.
Future Challenges
The community has an aging infrastructure with several elements estimated in 2013/14 to be within 5 years of end of service life which will likely increase outages, maintenance effort and costs
Operational needs of the dam including access, assessment, reporting and maintenance; plus the burden associated with tenure raise questions as to the validity and cost effectiveness of the dam as the water source.
The community is aging and historical insight and information on systems, procedures, prior activities etc. is largely undocumented and being lost. Considerable time was spent in 2019/20 to relearn several basic items both on the regulatory and maintenance sides.
Securing tenure on crown land for the dam does not provide complete access and saddles the community with the burden of any future maintenance of the land.
The community as represented at the AGM and in support for community activities has minimal interest in MLWUC operations or supporting the Water Manager.
The Coronavirus pandemic has the potential to severely restrict community finances impacting both payment of member fees and any capital expenditures.
From this analysis a set of primary issues was distilled.
Primary issues
Address future water source and treatment approach.
Independent consulting is required on the viability of existing infrastructure, water source options and treatment options.
The requirement to review and develop a plan to address future infrastructure access via mechanisms such as easements and rerouting lines as they are maintained or replaced.
The requirement to develop an overall fire protection strategy and plan including budget.
Reassess the issue of Tenure acceptance
The Board recommends that the community should not commit to tenure until the analysis of water options is complete and we have certainty that Crown conditions can be met without unduly subjecting the community to the possibility risk, financial or otherwise.
Tenure on Crown land alone does not guarantee full access rights to the damn site.
Tenure may be detrimental to the community if the creek/dam is not the ongoing water source.
Tenure constraints may mean that the creek/dam is not the optimal water source for the community.
Improve aspects of community operations such as assessment rolls, billing, reporting, dam safety etc. that are outside of legislation or regulation.
We need to move community operations in line with legislation and improve our standing with government agencies.
Improve regulatory reporting in frequency and timeliness as well as completion (e.g. no prior assessment roll ever submitted)
Introduction of regular monitoring and reporting practices
Tie annual maintenance planning and spending to the annual budget, community approval and the annual fees established.
Improve member communications and community understanding of the current operating conditions
Communicate 2018 AGM changes to assessments and the go forward approach.
Communicate strategic consulting plan plus community review process.
Address need for increased community involvement and expectations of higher operations and maintenance costs.
Provide easier access to information including new member actions and responsibilities, a FAQ on community and board matters and online access to information ‐ while respecting data privacy.
Improve Board systems and function facilitating remote and community participation as required.
Address board operations and maintenance issues and constraints
Strengthen operational framework for management and maintenance of water supply ‐ controls, safety and reporting.
Formalize maintenance planning, scheduling and reporting; ensure maintenance plan meets regulatory needs.
Update Emergency Plan.
Develop an operational safety plan.
Adjust budget and operational conditions to permit contracted maintenance. Depending on future directions for water supply and treatment this may need to reflect dam safety, system mapping, access rights, etc.
Enable Bylaw enforcement and secure the community budget through payment enforcement.
Develop adequate system mapping.
Upgrade infrastructure where required to isolate members without downstream impact.
Ensure we have confirmed assessment rolls.
5. Goals
MLWUC has three pressing priorities that must start to be addressed in 2019‐20 but will take time and effort over the next 2‐3 years to implement and conclude:
Secure our water future – starting with an independent consultants report and plan for water source and treatment options.
Improve our posture ‐ alignment to regulation e.g. rolls, monitoring and controls, monthly operations reporting
Reduce member uncertainty and increase participation – starting with improved communication and access to records
The planned steps to address these needs and priorities are outlined in the Operational Plan for 2020‐2021 together with any updates required by events of the year.
6. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Great businesses understand their metrics and KPIs. By tracking your KPIs, you know exactly how your business is performing and can adjust as needed.
Identified KPI’s include:
Assessment roll approval
Member payments timeliness and delinquency rate
Outage resolution timelines (<1 day, <3 days etc.)
Regular inspection compliance (dam, water quality) – monthly?
Communication frequency – min 4 communications per year, web site access, minutes published within 2 weeks of board meeting
7. Stakeholders
MLWUC stakeholders consist of two directly associated groups – licence owners and regulators (BC ministries and Interior Health); plus a variety of indirect groups. These indirect stakeholders include: suppliers and vendors, tenants, fire services, local community organisations such as KCFS and adjacent landowners.
Licence owners need to understand where their fees are spent and to have proof the board as Water Manager is acting in their best interests.
Regulators need clear and consistent reporting in accordance to acts and regulations. Maintaining this ensures the board’s due diligence is visible and potential liabilities are mitigated. It also reduces regulator distrust and overall level of inspection and potential additional demands on the community.
Suppliers need clear understanding of community needs ‐ single point of contact and clear and timely instructions ‐ and respect of payment terms.
Tenants need adequate communication of community activities and works plus any emergencies.
Fire services needs awareness of water supply and hydrant location and capacity.
Others need adequate advisement of community plans and a clear access point for communication
8. Water Management Trends to be aware of
The trend for increased regulation;
The impact of 4321‐0 goals on options;
What is happening in other small communities;
Information from CBWN or the BC water website;
The trend to include small community systems in with First Nations systems plans;
9. Communication Framework
Frequent and clear communications are the key to stakeholder connection, engagement, understanding and support. To achieve this, a separate communication plan will be developed focusing on our strategic priorities and including:
Upgrade recording keeping for posterity, transfer to future boards and accessibility by the community via electronic records.
Improve communications channels and frequency (email, website etc.) to provide at least one‐way (board outwards) communication and to facilitate community feedback.
The minimum result required is to improve the level of information available to our stakeholders. Our target is to improve stakeholder understanding of community responsibilities, engagement in community actions and support to the board in directing these activities.
10. Team
The team to execute this plan consists of the MLWUC Board, ad hoc sub‐committee members from the community, together with assistance from suppliers and vendors for plumbing, materials, excavation, legal and administrative services amongst the more repeated functions.
The community board typically runs close to a minimum number of persons (quorum plus 1) due to low community interest. As such board work is limited to President, Secretary, Treasurer and Maintenance planning activities unless ad hoc participation from the community is sort for community activities (such as maintenance) or specific planning activities; or external services are procured.
Current core competencies requiring additional staffing include – strategic assessment of current system and future options; infrastructure maintenance and repair work; potential fire protection work; etc.
11. Operations Plan
The operations plan helps transform goals and opportunities into reality. In this section of your plan, you will identify each of the individual projects that comprise your larger goals and how these projects will be completed. Finally, you’ll map out each of your initiatives, ideally in a Gantt chart, so you know when each project will start and who will lead them.
See the MLWUC Operations Plan here.
12. Financial Projections
Community financial planning is based on the annual maintenance plan and associated budget; capital projects identified in the operational plan and approved at the AGM for the coming year available funds from existing reserves, annual fees, grant applications and any potential loans. Community loan acquisition is limited due to the BWA and lack of security as well as the lack of an entity to hold accountable for the loan.
Financial planning is heavily dependent on expenditures remaining in line with prior year experience or vendor quotes for new work.