Value Management Program at the City of Calgary, Alberta, Canada

By Mushtaq Rabbi, CVS, PRINCE2, M_o_R, RPP – President, Value Analysis Canada

The City of Calgary, in the Province of Alberta, is the fourth largest municipality in Canada with a metropolitan population of approximately 1.54 million. The City is led by a fifteen-member elected Council and strives to deliver the highest possible quality of municipal services to citizens.

The City of Calgary is a program and project intensive organization. Based on a Notice of Motion by City Council, in November 2015 the City of Calgary consolidated and established a Value Management program and service. The City published a Value Management (VM) Standard with an accompanying Value Management (VM) Guidance document. These documents became formally operational in February 2016. Every capital infrastructure program or project at or above C$25.0 M must undergo one VM study prior to implementation. Projects greater than C$75.0 M, must undergo two VM studies prior to implementation. The City of Calgary is possibly the first municipality in Canada and amongst select few municipalities in North America to mandate Value Management for capital infrastructure investments.

While the formal VM program was established in 2015, The City has been applying VM on select infrastructure investments since 2009. An analysis of all the VM studies over a 10 year period indicated the following results:

Completed a Total of 32 Studies between 2009-18
Avg. Cost Avoidance/ Deferral Identified (at the time of study) ~16%
Avg. C$ ROI / C$1 on VM, C$186

The City of Calgary has identified several business benefits by conducting Value studies. Value Management:

Offers an effective, structured and consistent approach to improve value on any program or project;
Aids in problem solving, and innovation;
Builds a common understanding of key needs and assists with buy-in for change
Reduces risks, improves schedules and enhances stakeholder satisfaction;
Demonstrates to City Council and The City’s senior management that the program/ project team has taken the necessary steps to ensure infrastructure money is being spent responsibly;
Offers payback on investment typically exceeding well beyond 100:1.

With VM’s impressive track record over the last twelve years and benefits obtained, The City expects to continue with and expand its VM efforts in the upcoming business cycles.

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