Community Consulting Services - Firebird Business Consulting

Firebird uniquely applies its private sector experience in corporate planning and business management with its municipal consulting services providing a ‘business consulting’ perspective of municipal finance and planning focused on sustainable and resilient communities. This allows Firebird to effectively address three of the most challenging issues for municipalities: increasing infrastructure funding deficits; limited funding to address the problem; and, growth pressures that add to capital infrastructure costs.

Firebird consists of a team of consultants with corporate experience in community planning, infrastructure management, capital planning, finance, restructuring, and project management. Members of our team have successfully worked with small towns of 500 people to metropolitan areas of 1.3 million people providing asset management, strategic planning, capacity assessments, and growth management related services.

ASSET MANAGEMENT & CAPITAL PLANNING:

Asset management requires a multi-disciplinary approach based on risk management, understanding financial impacts, engineering, economics, community planning, and data management.

Firebird consultants are business strategists with experience in risk management, finance, engineering, economics, community planning, and data management.

Our process unlocks the experience and knowledge of your administration and community providing knowledge and insight for municipalities looking to elevate their capacity in managing infrastructure assets and tackling strategic decision making challenges.

Firebird’s approach to asset management is based on:

Discovery

· Understand the current condition of assets 

· Where are the greatest needs – priorities and risk

· Understand level-of-service expectations

· Understanding hazard, risk, and vulnerabilities of infrastructure

· Identifying organizational capacity 

Clarity

· How much money is needed to address the maintenance needs and replacement costs

· Provide direction on data-based decision-making informing annual budgets and capital plans

· Alignment of asset management with strategic planning documents and direction

· Infrastructure planning requirements to support growth and change

· Role of policy and governance

Transparency

· A way to monitor asset condition to evaluate the cost-benefit of budget allocations.

· Demonstrate the value of infrastructure investments and due diligence to ratepayers 

· Understanding the business case for infrastructure investment

· Measuring and monitoring performance of the plan

Capital Infrastructure Requirements

An asset management plan provides the necessary information to develop a capital plan based on infrastructure requirements.

A long-term capital plan forecasts the required infrastructure capital to manage growth and maintain continuity in municipal service delivery while balancing affordability with the expected services to community. The capital plan provides the framework for long-term infrastructure planning and fiscal management through:

· Supporting better decision making through quality data

· Identifying strategic investments based on business case models

· Minimizing fiscal risks through multi-year budgeting for fiscal sustainability

· Increasing grant funding preparedness by early identification of capital priorities

· Infrastructure planning and strategy

· Capital planning that prioritize and sequence infrastructure project development

A Municipal Capital Plan and Community Capital Plan is based on understanding the current and future infrastructure needs and the available funding streams to address those needs based on timing and required investment.

The Municipal Capital Plan and Community Capital Plan is driven by community, Council, and administrative priorities that set the direction for sustainable infrastructure investments through fiscal management by developing a consistent and structured decision-making process for all capital projects, including objective prioritization of proposed projects including consideration towards community objectives based on community need for service.

Interested in discovering more about your municipality? Firebird Business Consulting Ltd. provides a free 2 hour no obligation session designed to assist clients assess priority areas, identify limitations to achieving objectives, establishing and defining goals, and defining the next steps.

CORE SERVICES

· Fiscal Impact  and Financial Management

· Asset Management and Capital Planning

· Strategic Community Planning

· Emergency Preparedness and Continuity Planning 

· Public Sector Workshops and Training

Emergency Preparedness and Continuity Planning - Climate change adaptation is often misunderstood as being about the weather; rather it is about risk management and the social, economic, and environmental impact on our communities. Climate change has only intensified the need to improve our disaster preparedness and to do so Firebird takes a resilient communities approach to disaster management and emergency planning empowering communities to use their existing skills, knowledge and resources to prevent/mitigate, prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters.

Firebird’s approach to Emergency Preparedness and Continuity Planning is based on the following principles:

Risk Management: Applying risk management principles (hazard identification, risk analysis and impact analysis) in assigning priorities and resources.

Evidence-based: Leveraging a science- and knowledge-based approach applying principles of climate risk assessments, civil engineering, and community planning to both local and regional emergency management frameworks.

Collaboration: Coordinating the activities and input of all relevant stakeholders to achieve a common purpose.

Building Capacity: Building local and regional capacity through long-term strategic planning integrating resilience into the four phases of disaster management.

ADDITIONAL EMERGENCY AND CONTINUITY PLANNING RELATED SERVICES

• Community Emergency Management / Disaster Response Planning
• Continuity of Governance and Administration Planning
• Business Continuity Planning and Business Resumption Planning
• All-Hazards, Risk, Vulnerability Assessment

Strategic Community Planning - Our communities are complex and in a rapidly changing world where resources are limited, technology challenges the status quo and the challenges facing our communities require innovative and dynamic planning in response. We must continually think and work differently in order to address the challenges and opportunities through community economic development, climate change, population growth and the changing needs of our communities.

Developing a Strategic Community Plan identifies how your community will grow and provide necessary services to provide a high standard for quality of life in your community.

STRATEGIC COMMUNITY PLANNING RELATED SERVICES

· Future Growth Plans and Growth Management Strategies

· Community Strategic Plans

· Economic Development Strategies and Plans

· Community Needs Assessments

· Community Capacity Building