City Manager's Office

Role of City Manager

The City Manager is the chief administrative officer of the City of Spruce Grove, appointed pursuant to the Municipal Government Act of Alberta and City of Spruce Grove Bylaw C539-04. The City Manager is the administrative head of the City, and Council by way of policy direction guides the affairs of the City through the City Manager.

Contact the City Manager, Doug Lagore at 780-962-7611 or e-mail info@sprucegrove.org.

Council committed to service

Managing the administration of a growing city like Spruce Grove is an exciting, rewarding and challenging endeavor. We are fortunate to have an excellent City Council thinking strategically about the community, providing policy direction, and working within our community to do their utmost to represent Spruce Grove’s residents and business owners.

Organization of Choice

The City of Spruce Grove has an extremely dedicated staff of more than 100 full-time and 75 part-time employees, dedicated to finding new and better ways to serve our residents. The City of Spruce Grove has strived to become an organization of choice, where staff are encouraged to develop their leadership skills, are supported in professional and personal development endeavours, and experience mutual and hearty support of successes. The City has been recognized for their work on the organization of choice initiative by the International City/County Management Association(ICMA) . In 2001, Spruce Grove was given an ICMA Program Excellence Award for Innovations in Local Government Management.

Guided by Core Strategies

Together, we work hard to maintain a positive and productive quality of life in Spruce Grove, balancing our resources against many competing needs. Providing direction are the City’s Core Strategies. Identified in 2005 by Council and Administration, through the process of community consultation (2005 Community Caucus) and policy review, the Core Strategies serve as a guide for all that we do. In addition to serving as the framework for the City's Strategic Plan 2005-2007 and the decisions and policies therein, the following Core Strategies, along with their goals and objectives, serve as the underlying philosophies and principles behind the City's day-to-day operations:

Providing Affordable Choices
Building Community
Planning for Growth
Managing Change
Delivering Sustainable Services

Managed growth

The City of Spruce Grove, with 19,496 people (according to the 2006 federal census), is one of Alberta’s fastest growing cities. Between 2001 and 2006, the City's population grew by 22%. Residential and commercial development continues to be very strong, keeping the staff in our Planning and Infrastructure department busy processing subdivision applications, as well as development and building permits. Innovative subdivisions, multi-family properties, a medical centre, and a mall redevelopment are all part of the continuing positive growth of Spruce Grove.

In addition to working to provide a wide range of housing types, the City is expanding service levels to meet the demands accompanying strong growth. An example of expanding services is the development of the $28 million TransAlta Tri Leisure Centre. This recreation and community facility was developed in partnership with the councils and residents of Stony Plain and Parkland County. Upgrades to the Henry Singer Ball Park, a skateboard park and significant upgrades to the water play park (both located in Central Park) are further examples of the City's committment to providing excellent facilities to its residents.

Keeping our community safe

To maintain the safe, clean, family and business-friendly community that Spruce Grove is known for, we have developed a vandalism prevention strategy. Community awareness, education, target hardening of City facilities and a zero-tolerance policy are some of the factors in the strategy intended to ensure that vandalism does not become a major issue for our community.

Sustainable development

In alignment with the environmental and sustainable focus of our Core Strategies, the City has undertaken several projects that demonstrate our commitment to the priorities of our residents and the positive growth of our community. For example, our award-winning curbside organics collection program continues to be a success and we have recently introduced a curbside recycling program. Environmental sustainability is also a priority with the recent redevelopment of City Hall. While undertaking this renovation primarily as a customer service enhancement project, the City was successful in meeting the standards of the Canada Green Building Council and the building was given LEED Certified status.

The City of Spruce Grove is a member of Partners for Climate Protection (PCP), a program offered by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives. As the 106th member of the nation-wide PCP program, the City has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20% below 1996 levels for municipal operations, as well as community-wide reductions of 6%.

Fiscal responsibility

Municipal government is always challenged to balance the budget to meet both current service level needs and future growth requirements. In Spruce Grove, tax and utility rates continue to decline in real terms while Council and Administration work hard to deliver quality services effectively and efficiently.

Ongoing dialogue

We continue to have a dialogue with our residents on key matters of policy. A resident and business survey on smoking in public places resulted in the drafting of a smoking bylaw to reflect the desire of our community for a clean and healthy environment. As new issues arise, we are committed to working with our residents and business owners to provide the best possible environment in which to work, live and play.

City Manager