Town of Coaldale receives national award for financial transparency

Town presented with the Canadian Award for Financial Reporting for third consecutive year.

The Town of Coaldale is once again proud to be the recipient of the Canadian Award for Financial Reporting from the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada - this time in recognition of its 2020 Annual Financial Report.

“This is the third consecutive year the Town has received this award, which marks a significant achievement in its ongoing financial transparency and quality of reporting,” said Kyle Beauchamp, Chief Financial Officer & Deputy CAO for the Town of Coaldale. “The award reflects the Town’s efforts to clearly communicate its financial picture and to 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 Town’s 2020 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 progress,” said Cameron Mills, Director of Growth and Investment for the Town of Coaldale. “To put that into context, there are about 50 municipalities in Alberta that are larger than Coaldale and a whole host of municipalities on top of that that are in the same range of size. And yet, we’re winning back-toback-to-back national awards that put us right at the top of the pack.”

“Our finance team deserves a huge amount of credit for putting Coaldale on the map as a municipality that takes financial transparency seriously, and that is consistently recognized for the quality of its financial reporting”, added Town of Coaldale Mayor Jack Van Rijn. “We know that our finance team is, generally speaking, smaller than what exists in other municipalities our size, but we also know that because our team is hard working, talented, and dedicated, it is able to consistently punch above its weight.”

“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 third-time recipient of the Canadian Award for Financial Reporting, we have demonstrated the Town’s commitment in continuously providing transparent and easily readable financial information to Town residents, local businesses, and other stakeholders of the Town of Coaldale.”