2017 WC GFOA Conference in Regina – Session Topics and Descriptions – August 15, 2017

Presentation Title / Session Description / Presenters / Topic Stream
Keynote Speaker
“Financial Strategy in Sports” / Here is a CPA who was successful as the CFO of the most commercially successful football team in Canada. Craig Reynolds didn’t limit himself to just reporting on the finances (keeping score) he looked for ways of making the organization successful (scoring touchdowns) himself and was rewarded by being trusted to run the organization as CEO (and made the MVP).
Craig will share his experience, learnings and insights with us about how measuring results from a finance perspective can truly impact on the success of an organization whether it is in local government, in business or in the sporting industry. / Craig Reynolds
CEO & President
Saskatchewan Roughriders / Role of the Finance Officer
Keynote Speaker
"Local Government Performance Measurement – Making Performance Management Make a Difference" / As one of Canada’s leading public administration scholars in the fields of program evaluation, performance measurement and performance management, Dr. Jim McDavid from the School of Public Administration, University of Victoria will come and share his views on performance measurement with a focus on local governments.
This session will discuss building and using performance measurement systems in Canadian municipalities and factors that affect how performance information is used in decision making. His research emphasizes the importance of trust in sustaining effective performance measurement and performance management systems. / Jim McDavid
Professor Emeritus of Economics
University of Victoria / Measuring Success
Keynote Speaker
“Live Life Purposefully” / Karina Leblanc played soccer for Canada for nearly 18 years culminating in a Bronze Medal at the London Olympics in 2012. Soccer has been her platform to realizing her greater purpose in life starting from her humble beginnings on Dominica.
Now Karina is a proud UNICEF Canada Ambassador – ready to inspire young girls to live their own dreams. As she says, “Soccer is more than just a game; it is more than just a sport. Soccer can change children’s lives; can save children’s lives.” During this session, the speaker will discuss her role with UNICEF and will challenge us about our purpose in life. / Karina Leblanc
UNICEF Canada Ambassador / Measuring Success
Keynote Speaker
“The Future of the Finance Officer” / Ed served as Controller for the City and County of San Francisco for 17 years. He was also the General Manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission which operates water, power and wastewater agencies in the San Francisco Bay Area. During that time, he also volunteered with GFOA of US and Canada, serving as President in 2004.
Upon retirement he became an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco. He also is an advisor on accounting topics to Earth Economics and Water Now—two non-profits working on natural resource sustainability issues and is a board member and Treasurer of both Greenpeace Inter-national and SPUR, a Bay Area urban policy think-tank and civic group.
During this session, Ed will discuss his work and show us that finance can be used to make a difference in many areas. / Ed Harrington,
Treasurer, Greenpeace / Role of the Finance Officer
PSAB Annual Update
“The Latest in Public Sector Accounting Standards” / Michael Puskaric brings to the Public Sector a broad base of experience based on more than 15 years working in public, private and not-for-profit sector organizations in adopting the PSAB standards.
He will provide our annual PSAB update which has become one of the mainstays of our conference and he will discuss issues that we should be fully aware of in local government including PSAB’s impact on First Nations. / Michael Puskaric
Dave Warren
Public Sector Accounting Board / Accounting / Budgeting
Canadian Economic Update / This session will provide an update on Canada’s economy and outline what we can expect for the coming year. / Beata Caranci
TD Bank / The Economy
Asset Retirement Obligations – PS 3280 / Did you know that Public Sector Accounting Standards are going to include a standard for Asset Retirement Obligation?
The Public Sector Accounting Board is proposing to issue PS 3280 - Asset Retirement Obligations. This new accounting standard is intended to address the reporting of obligations related to the retirement of tangible capital assets. The goal is to establish uniform criteria for public sector entities to use in the recognition and measurement of ARO’s, including obligations that may not have been previously reported on the face of the financial statements.
Come and find out what this standard will mean to you and learn about asset retirement obligations. This session will help attendees think about approaches to adopt this standard, which is expected to come into effect for years beginning on or after April 1, 2021. / Matthew Colley
Deloitte / Role of the Finance Officer
Best Practices for Communicating Financial Information / Annual Reports and Budget Books are large, complex documents. They attempt to communicate a lot of information to the reader either about the past or outlines of plans for the future. This information is of critical importance if council and senior management are to make the right decisions.
This presentation will provide examples of what can go wrong when data isn’t communicated well. It will outline some of the best practices designed to ensure that your financial reports provide as much valuable information, in as useful a format as possible. / Jamie Black
F.H. Black / The Role of the Finance Officer
Municipal Benchmarking: A perspective from MBN Canada and the City of Regina / The Municipal Benchmarking Network Canada (MBN Canada) was originally formed in Ontario as the Ontario Municipal Benchmarking Initiative (OMBI) by a number of municipalities who wanted to share and improve their work in measuring municipal performance. In recent years, a number of municipalities from outside Ontario have joined and, last year, the network was rebranded to fit this new national profile.
This presentation will provide insight into the innovative approach to benchmarking of MBN Canada -- including its peer and measure review process.
The speaker will also provide background on the City of Regina's participation in MBN Canada and how MBN Canada benchmarking contributes to the City's overall strategic agenda. / Dawn Martin, City of Regina, and a member of the Municipal Benchmarking Network Canada / Measuring Success
PSAB 101
PSAB for New Finance Officers / If you are new to or are wondering why PSAB is different from private sector standards, you need to come to this session.
The speaker will discuss the basics of public sector accounting to finance officers who are new to local government and will highlight the major differences, deal with those things that are unique to governments, and explain why PSAB has done what it has. / Michael Puskarik
Public Sector Accounting Board / Accounting / Budgeting
The Trump Effect / Since the conference in Kelowna, the market has begun softening in the West, but with the surprise election of Donald Trump, there is suddenly more uncertainty added to the mix. He signals protectionist policies, greater deficits, tax cuts and massive infrastructure spending.
Bob will review and discuss this new dynamic and other factors and how they affect municipalities at our conference. / Bob Thompson
Thompson Investment Partners of Raymond James Ltd. / The Economy
What did we learn with Performance Management? / With different perspectives shared by speakers during the conference, this session will review and summarize the key aspects of performance measurement and management. Concepts will be discussed to get us to think differently about measuring success.
The speakers will also introduce the emerging concepts of doing performance management in a dynamic environment while using your enterprise system and integrating performance management with risk management to produce a very effective and powerful result. / Hash Qureshi
Chris Stephan
MNP / Measuring success
Infrastructure Asset Management: Optimize decision making for capital program planning and delivery / Public sector organizations including Cities and Municipalities are dealing with aging infrastructure, growing demands for service and changing operating conditions. These organizations are challenged to “do more with less”, and continually demonstrate results to the public.
During this session, the speaker will present a leading practice approach for asset management that establishes line of sight over decision-making for capital programs that helps municipalities get the most out of their investment dollars. / Ross Homeniuk
KPMG / The Role of the Finance Officer
“Keeping Financial Presentations Fresh” / We’ve all been there. Council says they want more information about budgets, and variances, and capital projects and numbers in general. But 90 seconds into your discussion of numbers with them their eyes start to glaze over. “Can’t we talk about outcomes instead of numbers” they may say.
It is difficult to find the right balance between detail and understandability when presenting financial information to non-accountants.
This session will investigate tips and techniques for presenting financial information, keeping it engaging, and helping the non-accountants understand what the numbers are saying. / Bill Cox
BDO / The Role of the Finance Officer
Integrated Reporting for Performance Measures / Building and maintaining trust has never been more important and more challenging.
How local government operates and what drives success is being transformed. At the same time, what customers, suppliers, employees, other governments and society in general expect from local government is already changing. This is having an inevitable impact on what information management needs to manage the organization, and how they can harness that data to communicate externally.
This session will provide insights into embedding integrated reporting for performance measurement and monitoring to capture the impact of your strategy and service delivery activities. Our discussion on integrated reporting, as a response to accounting for broader stakeholder value and longer-term consideration, will help financial officers understand their role in moving from theoretical concepts to practical implementation. / Erin Stephen
PWC / Measuring Success
GFOA Beyond Borders – Your Next Career Move! / Financial management and governance is a critical element in building sustainable economic infrastructures.
From strengthening entrepreneurial capacity to manage fiscal responsibilities, to creating stable environments where the private sector can thrive, there is a growing demand from Indigenous communities across Canada to access financial management and governance expertise through mentorship.
CESO is a leading economic development organization working globally, and in partnership with Indigenous communities in Canada. We believe that developing a strong economic infrastructure lies at the heart of sustainable change and inclusive growth.
At this session, you will learn more about:
• CESO’s work with Indigenous communities,
• The power of volunteerism and mentorship
• Becoming a CESO Volunteer Advisor / Devin Woods
CESO / The Role of the Finance Officer
Performance Reporting and Accountability / In an environment of increased transparency and accountability Local Government Finance Officers need tools to change the way our organizations have traditionally looked at budgeting.
This session will discuss how you can help shape the budget process to demonstrate value for money and achievement of stated corporate goals to tax payers and all stakeholders. Discussion will center around service based and priority driven budget techniques, as well as current best practices in budgeting. / Janice Aver / The Role of the Finance Officer
Fiscal sustainability & long-term financial planning: The first step is to ignore the software / Think that an investment in software is your cure to long-term fiscal sustainability? Think again.
Join us in a discussion on how the District of West Vancouver developed and documented its first ever 20-year fiscal sustainability review. Learn the practical approach taken by the project team to help the Finance Department convince Council and the community to consider a practical solution: a new capital asset levy.
Come away with a real example of how to effectively plan and implement your long-term approach to fiscal sustainability. Gain a new understanding of how documenting and presenting your financial data supports long-term financial planning -- A key first step of fiscal sustainability. / Matthew Hartley
Corvee Consulting / The Role of the Finance Officer
The Implementation Challenge: Why Asset Management Plans Sit on the Shelf / As awareness grows of the importance of asset management in sustainable service delivery, many local governments have or are in the process of developing AMP’s, strategies, and policies. However, local governments often struggle to implement them, and many strategic documents end up sitting on the shelf. Years later, they are revisited, a gap analysis is conducted, new recommendations are made, and the implementation challenge continues. The question is: Why?
Asset management is typically viewed as a technical problem, and indeed, this is true for many pieces of the asset management pie: for example, inventorying assets, assessing risk, defining levels of service, and establishing funding mechanisms. Because these pieces are complicated, local governments often engage technical experts to undertake analyses and develop recommendations. This results in outcomes that are technically sound but do not reflect what successful implementation ultimately relies upon: the ability of a group of people to come together and effectively make change happen.
In this fun and engaging session, we will shine the light on the “people” side of asset management, and share our insights into how to keep your asset management plan off the shelf.
/ Jody Rechenmacher
Brittney Dawney
Urban Systems / Measuring success
Succession Planning – Preparing your Organization for an Unpredictable Future! / In this session, the pros and cons of having a formal succession planning program will be discussed.
Reflecting on organizational experiences and HR best practices, the speakers will share their learnings for making HR strategies practical and relevant for resource-strained organizations that are constantly changing and often unpredictable.
/ Mary Winchell
John Van Horne
City of Nanaimo / The Role of the Finance Officer
Tenders and RFP's - do it right - avoid a lawsuit! / In the process of procurement, Finance Officers should be aware of rules and practices established by the courts, legislatures and trade agreements to ensure transparency and fairness in the procurement process. If a Finance Officer does not pay attention to these rules and practices, a lawsuit may result.