Are Solar Farms for Municipalities Worth It?
Do Solar Farms Make Economic Sense for Municipalities?The answer is, under the right conditions, Yes. A solar farm is designed to produce more energy than it uses at the connection point in the grid. This is different from solar installations used to offset...
UPDATE: Mayor, Council and CAO salaries from 2020
Smart Towns published an article looking at the Mayor, Council and CAO salaries in 2015 for municipalities that had over 10,000 citizens. It had some interesting results. We can all agree that the world is a different place now. The role of Mayor and Council has...
Top 5 Most Resilient Alberta Municipalities
It does not take an economist to know that the world’s businesses and governments have been hit hard with the fallout of the last year and a half. The Alberta government spent more than it took in by about $4,000 for every citizen in the province just last year. ...
Linear Assessments a Boon for Counties
May 22, 2017 Linear Assessments Enhancing Alberta Counties As you can see the average amount a resident pays in the various municipal statuses for residential tax is somewhat similar. The cities tend to have the higher residential tax rate as there are typically less...
Mayor and CAO Salaries
Mayor and Council Salaries in Alberta Municipalities Smart Towns completed a review of the 45 cities, towns and counties with populations 10,000 and more to compare Mayor and Council salaries. (1) There are 17 cities,...
Sunshine List – A Thing of the Past
The Alberta government is working its way through the process of publishing the “Sunshine List”. This is a list of everyone deemed to be making a large salary that is employed by the provincial government. There has been much discussion about whether this is...
Best Drama of 2015 – Calgary Budget
If you have followed the Calgary press over the last few weeks, you will be riveted to the noise around the 2016 budget deliberations or lack thereof. The excitement is surrounding the 4 year budget cycle passed by Calgary Council last year that has a 4.7% increase...
Smart Towns adds to New Domain Name Discussion.
Recently we had a chance to work with Ian Matthews from Up & Running Technologies to offer support to understanding the very interesting direction that the internet will be going. To see the whole article go here.
Chestermere Case Study
Chestermere, Alberta Case Study September 24, 2012 Chestermere, Alberta became the launch municipality for the new Smart Towns Inc. Municipal Dashboard. The town has a 2012 population of 15,352 and was defined as the...
The changing face of Alberta municipalities.
Alberta has seen many changes in economy and expectations of what citizens want from their muncipal leaders. It has experienced both booms and recessions in the past decade. The provincial cencus shows a growth of 10.6% from 2001 and to 2006. This is more...
Patrick Bergen
Patrick Bergen, CAPM, Six Sigma Green Belt
Patrick was a 2 term Councillor with the City of Chestermere as well as a CAO for the Villages of Carmangay and Champion.
