Rocky View County (RVC) received a number of awards this year, which were announced during a Policy and Priorities Committee meeting July 7.
The county was presented with two awards of merit from the Consulting Engineers of Alberta for a project completed in 2014 to provide safe drinking water to Elkana Estates, northwest of Bragg Creek.
“The system did not meet current Alberta Health standards, and was under a boil-water advisory going back a number of years,” said Mark Steffler, project manager at MPE Engineering. “There was also a very high water usage demand, roughly five times what the system was designed to do.”
The partnership between the Elkana Water Co-operative and RVC began in 2011 with a budget of $3 million, aiming to reduce potable water loss and hook residents into the new Bragg Creek water distribution system. According to Grant Kaiser, communications services manager with RVC, the project reduced water use by 400 per cent.
Kaiser and his staff were also recognized this year for two different initiatives within the county. RVC’s communications department was presented with an Award of Excellence from the National Association of Government Communicators (NAGC), which monitors communications practices around the world.
“We are competing against some pretty big players here, so it’s something we should really be proud of,” Kaiser said.
The award recognized RVC’s “Your County, Your Money, Your Voice” program for its “openness, effectiveness, and transparency,” Kaiser said. The program featured six main innovations, all aimed at helping both RVC and residents understand where dollars were being spent, while providing opportunities for public engagement.
“This win is the fourth time in 43 years that a Canadian municipality has won an NAGC award,” Kaiser said. “Toronto and Calgary have both received the honour, along with our 2014 NAGC Best in Show award, which marked the very first time the organization’s highest prize was given to a non-U.S. based organization.”
The department’s “Can you fill these shoes?” design concept was awarded the 2015 Hermes Creative Awards Gold Award, recognizing the effectiveness of the campaign’s unique way to recruit employees for a range of positions.
“When you’re trying to recruit good people to work at RVC, you’re usually at a trade show with 1,000 other people and can often get lost in the crowd,” Kaiser said. “We wanted to show people all of the different kinds of jobs that we offer here, and by showcasing the variety of shoes people wear when they work for RVC. It was a great way of standing out from the other people looking for those same kinds of workers.”
Kaiser noted the county is in good company in winning the award. Previous Gold Award winners include ATCO, the Calgary Stampede, Fidelity Investments, MGM Hotels and Resorts, National Geographic and Sun Life Financial.
