Town of Coaldale receives national award for financial transparency

The staff at the Town of Coaldale is thrilled to be the recipient of the Canadian Award for Financial Reporting from the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada for its 2019 Annual Financial Report. This marks the second consecutive year Coaldale has received the award, which was first introduced nationally in 1986.

The Town of Coaldale is thrilled to be the recipient of the Canadian Award for Financial Reporting from the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada for its 2019 Annual Financial Report. This marks the second consecutive year Coaldale has received the award, which was first introduced nationally in 1986. 

“This is the second consecutive year we’ve collected this award, marking significant achievement in our ongoing financial transparency and quality of reporting,” said Kyle Beauchamp, Chief Financial Officer at the Town of Coaldale. “The award reflects the efforts the Town puts in to clearly communicate our financial picture and motivate residents to read the report.” 

The Canadian Award for Financial Reporting Program was established to encourage municipal governments throughout Canada to publish high-quality financial reports and to provide peer recognition and technical guidance for those preparing these reports. The annual financial report has been judged by the impartial Canadian Review Committee members to meet the highest standards of the program. 

“Any year that we receive this award it puts Coaldale in the top 5 or 10% of all municipalities in Alberta in terms of the work that we do to report our financial position to our citizens, which is an area in which we’ve made tremendous strides over the course of this Council term,” said Cameron Mills, Manager of Economic Development at the Town of Coaldale. “To put that into context, there are about 50 municipalities in Alberta that are larger than Coaldale; a whole host of municipalities on top of that that are in the same range of size, and yet we’re winning back-to-back national awards that put us right in the top of the pack. It’s fair to say that we’re punching above our weight class when it comes to the amount of transparency we provide in our financial reporting, no question about it.” 

“The whole organization is proud to once again be recognized at the national level for our commitment to transparency,” added Town of Coaldale Mayor Kim Craig. “We know from our comparative numbers that our finance team, like most of our operation, is smaller than what exists in other municipalities our size, but our team is an incredibly hard working, talented, and dedicated group of people and it’s really great to see their work achieve this level of recognition.” 

“In order to be awarded a Canadian Award for Financial Reporting, a government unit must publish an easily readable and efficiently organized annual financial report,” said Beauchamp. “Such reports should go beyond the minimum requirements of generally accepted accounting principles. As a recipient of the Canadian Award for Financial Reporting, this further demonstrates the Town’s commitment in continuously providing transparent and easily readable financial information to the residents, local business and other stakeholders of the Town of Coaldale.”

The staff at the Town of Coaldale is thrilled to be the recipient of the Canadian Award for Financial Reporting from the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada for its 2019 Annual Financial Report. This marks the second consecutive year Coaldale has received the award, which was first introduced nationally in 1986.