More than half a million dollars will be invested to create new positions and open additional offices in Saguenay City.
Elected officials ensure that this is a way to better meet the needs of citizens and modernize its structure.
A general manager position will start shortly in September.
Two other office director positions would also be created to oversee the Office of Elected Officials and Community Relations and the Office of Strategic Performance, which would be part of the new proposed structure.
“In particular, we want to increase our level of coordination within the city between city services and community partners. We want to improve all processes so that the city can do things better and do the right things,” explained Gabriel Rioux, Director General of the City of Saguenay.
According to elected officials, resources will be devoted exclusively to seeking the most lucrative grants.
“For example, my colleague Mr. Boyer, who has the City of Laval office, has received 65 million in climate resilience grants,” said Mayor Julie Dufour.
“For the next year, we are setting up 10 to 15 million in new grants, where we will not have time to file and not have seen the grants. Even a million, I will tell you that we are already invested,” he added.
The renovation will cost $170,000 the first year and nearly $450,000 the following year.
“In a city like Saguenay with a population of 150,000 and a budget of $400 million. Naturally, each improvement has a significant impact on all operations and generates savings,” said Mr. Rioux.
The objective is also to improve services for citizens, especially in relation to processing claims. The City of Saguenay processes nearly 75,000 claims per year.
“Out of 148,000 people, almost one in two between the ages of 0 and 100 is in need. Only fair in performance for our people,” Ms. Dufour said.
“Ultimately, the citizen will win by adapting our structure and bringing it into today’s era,” said Martin Harvey, president of the Chagune Human Resources Commission.
The proposal was unanimously approved at a meeting of the Chagune City Council at noon on Tuesday.
“The director told us that it will improve all the request rules. When we are talking about 75,000 requests. The main part of our work is to help citizens. I will support it until the structure starts and I will respect the decision that will be made,” municipal councilor Jean-Marc Gravier said at the council meeting.
“We need to project ourselves into the future, and we need to gain momentum today,” Mr. Harvey finished.
This new framework will be implemented gradually over the next few months. Other announcements regarding this new governance structure are also planned to be made soon.
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