MUNICIPAL EXCELLENCE NETWORK
PRACTICE COLLECTION FORM
General Information
Date
February 7, 2016
Name of Practice
Wood Biomass Heat & Sustainable and Renewable
Wood Energy Project
Name of Municipality
Camrose County
Your Name and Title
Al Radke, BSBA, CLGM Assistant County Administrator
Phone Number
780-672-4446
Fax Number
780-672-1008
E-mail for Practice Contact(s)
aradke@county.camrose.ab.ca
Mailing Address
3755 - 43 Avenue
Camrose, AB T4V 3S8
INTRODUCTION
When completing this form, use your own words and share your practice in a story format. Please do
not include any derogatory comments. Use paragraphs and bullet points to organize your practice.
This is not a business case but instead is intended to be informative for your peers, showing them the
processes and outcomes of your practice. Be sure to focus on what you learned so that it is helpful to
the reader. Click on the grey boxes to type in your answers. The boxes will expand as you type.
THE ISSUE
Question
Abstract:
What is the practice you developed or are developing
(brief abstract)?
Please briefly describe the final practice developed.
(e.g. if you developed a new Council agenda, list the
agenda items, or if a new communications plan was
created, provide a summary of the plan’s goals,
objectives and highlights.)
Answer
Camrose County Council elected to be a
responsible leader in being more
conscious and proactive about the
environment and in particular, energy. To
illustrate this, in 2008 the Council
committed to develop a value added cycle
or chain of sustainable heating energy.
The interest and enthusiasm of Council
extends their desire to put the existing
commitment of sustainability into practice,
by demonstrating the economic,
environmental and social benefits of an
innovative renewable energy project that
combines a Wood Biomass Heating
System with the feedstock from a Short
Rotation Coppice Willow Plantation.
Camrose County is committed to reduce
climate change gas emissions and is keen
to put renewable energy into action at the
County Office Complex and heating the
public facility from entirely renewable,
locally sourced energy feedstock.
County Council chose a sustainable
system for the County Office Complex
that would consist of the acquisition of a
wood biomass boiler constructed with
European technology to generate heat for
the Complex and the creation of a
renewable fuel source from a willow tree
plantation to provide the ongoing wood
chips fuel to be used as the energy source
for the wood biomass boiler.
The Camrose County Office Complex
represents an ideal opportunity for the
integration of renewable biomass energy
into a municipal building. It also
demonstrates the potential for alternative
sewage lagoon discharge and usefull
application while at the same time
achieving an ongoing cycle of
sustainability.
The wood biomasss boiler is pretty matter
of fact; use wood to burn and create
energy to heat water to circulate
throughout the building as the heating
medium.
The willow tree plantation is quite straight
forward too; grow trees to be produced
into wood chips and then burned for the
energy. But there are other benefits as
well.
Need:
As we all know and realize, there are
limitations that Alberta Environment
imposes on municiplalities when they
discharge treated wastewater effluent
from their sewage lagoons. Camrose
County intends to be able to produce
irrefutable evidence and research
materials leading to an alternative method
for the discharge and constructive use of
treated wastewater effluent.
Camrose County desired to be a steward
Please describe (just a couple of sentences or bullet
points) why you needed to create this practice (policy
or process).
What issue made it necessary? (e.g. “We needed a
comprehensive plan to deal with…”, or “We needed
an annual forecasting tool because…”)
of the environment.
Camrose County wanted to be
progressive and proactive.
Camrose County chose to divert its heat
energy needs in favour of wood biomass
so that fossil fuels could be conserved and
better allocated to other applications.
Camrose County viewed this as a
conservation and investment in fossil fuel.
Camrose County wished to have more
control and influence over their heating
fuel needs and make it more predictable.
Camrose County wanted to have other
wastewater options available to itself and
other Alberta municipalities.
The issue of municipal sustainability lead
Camrose County down this path.
CREATING YOUR PRACTICE
Research:
How did you obtain information to help design your
practice (including consultation with stakeholders,
formal and informal research)?
Please include any research documentation you can
share, or give us a source reference (e.g. Web site,
literature, “We reviewed the bylaws from other
municipalities in the area…”).
Camrose County enlisted assistance from
Alberta Agriculture and Rural Devlopment,
KALWA Biogenics Inc., and Natural
Resources Canada - Canadian Forest
Service - Canadian Wood Fibre Centre
(NRCan). NRCan also brought on board
the University of Alberta.
Camrose County made a reconaissance of
a private industry utilizing the same
heating technology but using waste wood
by-product materials as their fuel source.
Camrose County researched European
applications.
Process:
How did you go about designing your practice? For
instance, did you create a team, hire a consultant,
borrow something ready-made from another
jurisdiction?
Describe briefly who did the design work and what
process they followed.
Camrose County also visited another
NRCan research willow plantation site in
Alberta to gain a first hand appreciation of
the goals and objectives.
Camrose County hired KALWA Biogenics
Inc. to design the wood biomass boiler
system, size and capacity. The County
furnished them with historical natural gas
consumption data, building dimensions,
heating systems etc.. From there they
designed a heating system that would
accomodate optimum sizing and capture
the benefits of both base-load sizing and
peak-load sizing for heating value
purposes.
•
Base load: where the biomass
system provides only the annual
continuous heat load required for the site.
•
Peak load: where the site’s entire
heat load requirements are provided by
the biomass system.
•
Optimum sizing: where a balance
between the above two approaches is
utilized.
The County Office Complex wood biomass
system has been designed to
accommodate 69% of the peak load
demand which in turn is equivalent to 96%
of the annual heat demand. This sizing
allows the biomass system to run at a
relatively high level of utilization and
displace a significant amount of heat load
that would otherwise be delivered by
natural gas. In this situation the additional
loads, which the biomass plant does not
meet (such as instantaneous demand,
peak heating requirements or start up from
cold), are met by the existing natural gas
system. In essence, the natural gas is
only called upon to meet extreme peak
loads or act as a stand-by.
In order to successfully achieve the
conversion of the existing heating system
to the biomass fuelled renewable energy
alternative, along with the highest possible
economical and environmental impact, the
heat source has to be state of the art; fully
automated biomass boiler system. With
computer controls and a laser eye that
measures the amount of fuel in the
metering bin, the system automatically
turns the augers and conveyors on and off
as needed to maintain the amount of wood
fuel to sustain the boiler’s pressure and
thus, the temperature demand of the
thermostat.
As opposed to the massive biomass
combustion systems used in the forest
industry which can create up to 20 MW of
capacity, the Camrose system is a
miniaturized version targeted to generate
kW 150. Camrose County selected
European technology due to their
experience and history in this field.
Canada is very young in biomass
technology development whereas the
Europeans are well versed having over 30
years of practical experience. This is
directly attributed to the high cost of oil and
natural gas in Europe and the necessity,
not the fancy, to research and implement
alternative energy sources. The biomassto-energy field in Europe is very active to
this day and now is in large measure due
to the European Union’s interest in carbon
dioxide mitigation.
To achieve the objectives that Council
desired, it was important that the biomass
system include maintaining an efficient,
stable combustion process while supplying
the desired boiler heat input with low
emissions.
Efficient Combustion: produce
efficient combustion with low carbon
monoxide and low unburned carbon.
Stable Combustion: produce stable
and consistent combustion to maintain
consistent design parameters and boiler
performance.
Low Emissions: produce low
carbon monoxide, low unburned carbon
and low nitrogen oxides.
The Camrose County system has to
provide the highest possible level of
operational automation in fuel feeding
components, combustion process, ash
removal and emission control; including:
Fully automated combustion
control (sensor modulated mixture of
combustion air, re-circulated flue gases
and fuel)
Automated fuel in-feed.
Automated ash removal.
Considering the Short Coppice Willow
Plantation as fuel for the feedstock, the
system is designed to combust wood chips
with moisture content in the vicinity of 3035%. However, the system efficiency can
be increased with moisture contents of
less than 30%. The boiler itself will burn
wood chip fuel at a 92% efficiency rate,
thus leaving little ash to be worried about.
Camrose County also entered into a
partnership with NRCan. They established
a short rotation coppice willow plantation
utilizing some of the newest willow
varieties developed at the State University
of New York (SUNY) willow breeding
program. These clones have been
selected because they exhibit growth
characteristics suited to the soils and
climate of our area. Specifically, they are
tolerant of sodium that could be an issue in
varying degrees depending on our
respective site.
The site the County has selected is
located adjacent to the Hamlet of Ohaton
sewage lagoon. It is 17.45 acres or 7.06
hectares in land area. The philosophy is
that the willow plantation will undergo a 23 year rotational harvest with a 20-25 year
crop lifespan. Coppicing techniques will
be practiced in managing the growth and
harvest of this eventual wood chip fuel.
The reason for selecting willows are:
Is a fast growing woody crop which
can be readily grown successfully in
northern latitudes.
It can tolerate very high density
plantings (+15,000 stems/ha) to maximize
volume production (6-10 oven dried tonnes
per hectare per year) on short rotations (35 years).
The plants will produce high
volumes of biomass.
Because of the coppicing, the
plants will always be in a juvenile growth
phase.
Willows have the highest capacity
to convert solar radiation to chemical
energy.
They are easily propagated and
easily established.
Willows re-sprout vigorously and
are fast growing after each harvest.
They have a high potential for
genetic improvement and many (450)
species are found worldwide.
They can produce an extensive
root system.
They have a long growing season.
Willows have a good ability to take
up nutrients with minimal leaching losses.
They posess a high evaporation
rate.
They have a wonderful ability to
accumulate target pollutants.
Camrose County is not reinventing the
wheel. We are just adapting it to and
testing it in the Canadian context. All of
the establishment technology and
equipment has already been developed
and refined in Sweden, the United
Kingdom and other locations in the world.
Conversion technologies are operational
and commercialized in other places in the
world as well.
GETTING APPROVAL FOR YOUR PRACTICE
Authority:
Whose/what approval did you need to create and
implement the practice?
Reporting:
How did you inform the decision-maker(s) about the
practice and your need for their approval?
Please note the name of any documents provided to
the decision-makers that you would be willing to
share.
Camrose County needed to acquire an
ammendment to its sewage lagoon
discharge approvals from Alberta
Environment. The County was approved
to use treated wastewater effluent for the
irrigation of the willow plantation. The
treated wastewater effluent is going to be
used to feed the willow trees their water
and nutrient requirements.
Camrose County also required County
Council approval to forge ahead on this
creative and innovative renewable and
sustanable energy value added cycle or
chain system.
This initiative was basically driven by
County Council. Administration's role and
tasks were relatively easy; source
reputable contacts in the field to provide
the expertise, examples, practical and
theory aspects, leading edge technology
as well as the knowledge and confidence
to be successful.
Consultation:
Did you consult with stakeholders as part of your
approval process?
If so, how? If possible, attach a copy of templates,
surveys or other documents you used as part of your
consultation.
Camrose County needed to acquire
additional lands near their lagoon. So,
very few of the public were consulted in
this regard. Only those logically and
practically able to potentially assist were
contacted.
Camrose County also hired a summer
student in 2009. Their role and
responsibility was to research all of the
technical and science information that we
had been given, collected or gathered on
the initiative and transpose it into street
English. They were also to investigate
potential sources of wood biomass wood
chips for the short-term. They developed
website materials for an awareness
campaign and became the County's
unofficial spokesperson on the topic that
year. The summer student delivered
PowerPoint presentations to County
Council, Chamber of Commerce, regional
municipal meetings, service clubs, County
Open Houses and other interested parties.
The efforts of the summer student were
further enhanced by periodically updating
the materials and presenting them on an
ongoing basis for future engagements and
awareness.
KALWA Biogenics Inc. and NRCan were
also instrumental in being available for
presentations.
The other factor is that Camrose County
seemingly appeared to be the pioneer in
the area of coralling energy through a
wood biomass boiler in a public building.
Other municipalities were venturing into
willow tree plantations but nobody had
gone the extra mile of providing heat
energy from them. We had a lot of interest
from others but really nobody to be
mentored by or seek guidance from.
IMPLEMENTING YOUR PRACTICE
Plan:
Describe the process you went through to implement
the practice. If you used an implementation plan,
please note it here.
Design the appropriate boiler system and
capacity.
Order from Europe.
Research and ensure sufficient temporary
wood chip fuel source.
Develop wood chip fuel inventory storage
container.
Construct wood chip fuel loading
equipment for inventory storage.
Convert heating system to boiler.
Commission heating system.
Plant willow tree plantation.
Construct treated wastewater effluent
irrigation system.
Coppice trees after second year growth.
Determine harvesting rotation cycle.
Policy:
What changes to bylaws, regulations or procedures
were needed to implement this practice and how did
you deal with them?
Harvest trees, dry out, chip and utilize for
burning fuel.
No changes were required. Camrose
County had to meet current City of
Camrose building codes and policies.
Please attach a copy of the change in bylaw, policy or
procedure.
When:
When did your municipality begin to use the practice?
Was it implemented all at once or in stages?
Camrose County fired up and
commissioned the wood biomass boiler
system on March 10, 2011.
The ongoing fuel supply from the willow
tree plantation will take a few years yet to
reach crop harvesting maturity. In the
meantime Camrose County will rely on its
own resources and divert yard
maintenance waste from the landfill or
acquire wood chips from other known
sources.
Who:
Who was responsible for implementing the practice?
If someone else is responsible for ongoing
management, who is it?
RESOURCES REQUIRED
Budget:
How much did it cost you to design and implement
your practice (i.e. We saved/spent $XX per year)?
The sub-contractor, Fink Machine Inc., out
of Armstrong B.C. implemented and
commissioned the boiler.
In-house staff ensure the ongoing
maintenance and operations of the boiler
system.
Camrose County hired KALWA Biogenics
at a cost of $40,000 to perform and
conduct all engineering and design
specifications.
What are your ongoing operational and capital costs,
if any?
Camrose County hired the summer
student at $20,000 to perform necessary
research and investigation and then
eventually prepare all of the original
materials. These were placed on the
County website and/or made available for
public presentations, to which the summer
student was the presenter.
There was no cost involved in partnering
with NRCan or the University of Alberta.
Their interests and rewards lie solely in the
reasearch data that they intend to collect.
Camrose County will supply power but the
design and configuration of the plantation,
irrigation system and research test wells
were all constructed by NRCan and the
University of Alberta.
Staff:
What human resources did you need to design,
implement and manage your practice? (e.g. “It took X
staff member(s) X months on this” or “This is part of
normal staff duties.”)
Annual cost for wood chip fuel will be
approximately $9,625 or less. Conversely,
when this project was being evaluated for
its feasability and viability, a historic fouryear annual average of natural gas
consumption expenses from 2005 to 2008
was conducted and the results were
$18,475. So, Camrose County anticipates
to experience at least a 50% savings in
annual heating fuel costs.
This was not a single or proprietary
initiative. One staff member basically
fielded the progress and coordinated this
through the various consultants and
partners. It was not full time as there were
other duties and initiatives also on the
agenda throughout the same timeframe for
the same individual. The initiative began
in its infant stages in 2008 and did not
conclude until 2011.
Infrastructure:
What “capital costs” (such as information
technology,other equipment or building assets) did
you need to design, implement, manage, and/or
evaluate your practice?
The infrastructure to construct this initiative
cost $160,000 for the wood biomass boiler
and the wood chip fuel inventory silo cost
$22,000. Other incidentals include:
building permit $1,200, survey $3,000,
concrete base pad $12,000, electrical
$4,000 and plumbing $24,000. The wood
chip fuel inventory loading system cost
$1,800 and the wood chipper $16,500.
The plantation itself has not cost the
County anything. With the NRCan
partnership, they have sourced Alberta
Innovates Bio Solutions funding to install
the plantation and NRCan provided the
expertise and human resources to
accomplish it. Camrose County stepped
up to expand its sewage lagoon lands by
purchasing additional property at a cost of
$104,760. A portion of these lands is
where the plantation is situated. Some
ongoing incidental power is the only other
hard cost facing the County at the
plantation site.
EVALUATING YOUR PRACTICE
Formal:
If you did a formal evaluation (e.g. user satisfaction
survey, analysis of annual expenditures or number of
rate payers served) for your practice, please describe
the evaluation tool and the process used.
Tell us who was involved.
Camrose County evaluated historical
annual natural gas heating fuel data and
compared that to projected wood biomass
fuel costs. This will be the County's
ongoing benchmark and yardstick.
In the willow plantation, Camrose County,
through NRCan and the University of
Alberta, hope to discover what clones of
willows are best adapted to our climate
zone, soil composition and what the
effects of uptake are on them when fed
treated wastewater effluent for water and
nutrients. The County also expects to
observe what effects there are on the soils
and sub-surface water systems.
Through Phytoremediation,
Phytoextraction, Phytodegradation,
Rhizofiltration and Phytostabilization a
number of results expect to be obtained.
Some these include:
•
Fate of nutrients in soils
•
Application rate and frequency
•
Amounts of heavy metals in soils
and uptake by plants
•
Impacts to ground and surface
waters
•
Growth rates and amount of
biomass produced
•
Clonal and species differences
•
Effects and costs of application
methods
•
Socio-Economic impacts of
treatments
Informal:
If you did an informal evaluation, describe what you
did (such as discussing the practice with people in the
office or on the street, or letters/comments received).
Performance measures:
Please list the performance measures for this practice
(i.e. reduced number of complaints, money saved, or
change in equipment life expectancy.)
Please list the process you used for measuring
performance, (i.e. We do annual surveys on…)
examples include:
 collecting data
 establishing a baseline
 applying the measures
 results
 follow up
Camrose County held audiences with
Alberta Agriculture and Rural
Development, KALWA Biogenics Inc. and
NRCan at Council meetings. Formal
presentations on the conceptual practice
and benefits were evaluated by Council.
This information was also disseminated
among staff and critical departments for
their support.
The performance and payback will be
realized in ongoing predictability of our
own fuel source costs. This will be done
by ascertaining hard dollar savings of
using wood chips as fuel versus former
natural gas fuel costs.
Camrose County has a historical data
reference from which to compare costs.
We are now tracking all input costs for
producing wood chips and we will analyze
these going forward against historical data.
Camrose County will also evaluate the
annual harvest of the willows. Watching
annual growth rates and observing the
maturation will be focal. Once the
plantation is fully established, the County
will determine how many tonnes can be
produced and if any additional tree growth
is required to support the annual fuel
needs. Additional supplies will be
accomodated through landfill diversion,
growing additional stock or outsourcing
from local farmers or other commercial
enterprises.
Changes:
(a) Based on the evaluation (formal or informal),
describe any changes you have made, or would like to
make, to your practice as a result. (e.g. “After
implementing this practice, we decided that it would
be better if…”)
-or(b) Has your practice met your expectations and if so,
how?
LESSONS LEARNED / BENEFITS RECEIVED
Benefits:
What are the benefits of this practice to your
municipality? (eg. Preparation of Council agenda
packages now requires less time, etc.)
Camrose County is pleased with the initial
results of the practice. It is currently
meeting expectations. From a
conservation perspective we have already
allowed our former needs for natrual gas
to be re-allocated to other useful means.
We anticpate ongoing savings and
benefits to rise to the surface such as cost
savings, social impacts, economic factors
and enviornmental enhancements as well
as municipal sustainability achievements.
Benefits are first and foremest utilizing a
renewable energy. Camrose County is
passing up its former natural gas useage
and in its place replacing it with a
renewable resource readily available
within the jurisdiction. We are also
demonstrating an alternative use or means
of sewage lagoon discharge. We hope
that this will pay enormous dividends to all
municipalities across the province. It will
hopefully provide for another alternative for
discharging treated wastewater effluent.
As time progresses, the County hopes to
see this practice turn into a commercial
benefit for local area farmers as well.
There is great potential for an alternative
crop. This kind of crop is not intended for
sub-grade soils or for unuseable lands; it is
a bonafide cash crop.
For the time being though, converting to
wood biomass energy has enabled the
County to be self sustaining and also be
able to stabilize and predict their cost of
heating.
From an environmental aspect, some of
the benefits can be summed up thusly.
The conversion of existing fossil fuel fired
heating systems to wood biomass can
have a significant environmental impact.
The emissions from wood-fired boilers are
different than emissions from natural gas,
propane or oil.
In terms of health impacts from wood
combustion, Particulate Matter (PM) is the
air pollutant of greatest concern.
Particulates are pieces of solid and liquid
matter (or very fine droplets), ranging in
size from visible to invisible. Relatively
small PM, ten micrometers or less in
diameter, is called PM10 and is equal to
1/7th the diameter of a single human hair.
Small PM is of greater concern for human
health than larger PM, since small
particles remain air-born for longer
distances and can be inhaled deep within
the lungs.
Modern wood systems are clean burning
and efficient and should not be confused
with residential wood stoves in the amount
of pollutants emitted. Unlike home
woodstoves, there are virtually no visible
emissions or odors associated with
biomass systems.
Although biomass energy systems utilize
combustion and do produce carbon
dioxide emissions in producing heat, these
emissions are considered “carbon dioxide
neutral.” The carbon dioxide in these
emissions is not considered to increase
the amount of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) in
the atmosphere because the carbon
dioxide was removed from the atmosphere
by plants within the very recent past as
part of the natural global carbon cycle.
Also, if not used for energy generation, the
biomass would have decayed, thus
emitting an equivalent amount of carbon
dioxide to the atmosphere. In contrast,
coal and other fossil fuels contain carbon
that has been “locked-up” for millions of
years. Therefore, when fossil fuels are
used to generate heat or power, carbon
dioxide that has been locked away and
otherwise would not have been emitted is
added to the atmosphere. Thus, the use of
biomass as an energy source reduces the
amount of “fossil” carbon dioxide that is
emitted to the atmosphere by displacing
fossil fuels.
The existing natural gas heating system
emits GHG at a factor of 0.179 tCO2/MWh
at 100% load. At a full load heat delivery
(850 MWh input for 467 MWh heating
delivered at a 55% seasonal efficiency) the
GHG emission adds up to 152 tCO2
annually.
The GHG emission factor for the
calculated waste wood mix in comparison
is 0.006 tCO2/MWh. Based on the
calculated peak heat load of 99.6%, the
fuel input of 583 MWh results in a GHG
emission of 4 tCO2. The annual GHG
emission reduction of the proposed system
is 148 tCO2, which put into perspective is
equivalent to about 30 cars or light trucks
not being used!
There are also positive impacts to the
environment that will be directly associated
with the willow plantation. A number of
them can be summarized as:
Floral and faunal diversity
Rich habitat
Cultivation and pesticide intensity
Ecosystem stability
Good foraging and breeding habitat
for a diversity of birds
Can provide a bridge between
isolated natural woodlots across the
agricultural land base
Phytoremediation
Phytoextraction
Phytodegradation
Rhizofiltration
Phytostabilization
Winter harvesting assures minimal
soil compaction
Addition of organic fertilizers like
sewage sludge and animal manure
provides adequate nutrients over the
rotation of the crop
Little depletion of soil nutrients from
frequent and repeated harvesting
From a social perspective, delivered from
this project is the message from the local
municipal government that it is progressive
and forward thinking. This endeavor
increases environmental awareness locally
and displays what ingenuitive thinking can
accomplish. It also proves physically how
alternative energy forms can accomplish
the requirements of heating a public facility
and what potential lies out there for
expansion, both public and private. It
demonstrates a proactive approach, visible
to the public, to a predicted need and
assists in kick starting local biomass
development. The opportunity is there to
provide a unique education resource for all
members of the community, County, City,
Village or Town; who are interested in
sustainable and environmentally friendly
systems. The wood fuel demands offer a
potential for an alternative crop option for
area farmers. The market could possibly
be for this system or any other system
identified and developed in the future. As
well, it offers the added value of potential
retention of rural youth for diversified
employment in the local economy.
Key Lessons:
What key lessons have you/your municipality learned
through the process of:
 designing;
 obtaining approval;
 implementing; and
 evaluating your practice?
Include any problems, surprises, and unanticipated
benefits. (e.g. “We realized that we needed to spend
more time…”)
And, economically speaking, this initiative
will give control over the County’s own
heating fuel market and should lead to
stable pricing. It reduces heating costs
against natural gas and insulates against
future price increases of fossil fuels. There
is an aesthetic value which lends well to
land reclamation and alternative
agricultural land uses. The upkeep and
harvest can promote local employment
and low labor cost inputs. In the long run
a demonstration of sustainable economic
development, now and in the future. As
well, the most rewarding of all is a payback both monetarily and environmentally.
Camrose County has experienced that it is
difficult being the sole pioneer in a territory
that is foreign. Europeans may have the
upper hand in design and logistics and it is
not always easy to adapt them to our
conditions.
There is a huge gap between green and
economical energy and the traditional use
of natural gas in our province. There is
considerable hesitation and skepticism in
the practicality of such a venture. So,
forging ahead has had its philosophical,
technical and practical challenges to say
the least.
Advice to Municipal Peers:
What advice would you give to another municipality
that is considering adopting your practice? Is there
anything you might have done differently?
PRACTICE UPDATES
New Information:
There may be some new information to add since this
practice was first posted. This is especially true if:
 a new process has been implemented in your
municipality;
 there are new practice evaluation results; or
 there has been a change affecting organizational
direction. For example, explain how new economic
conditions or a new vision/strategy affect the
practice.
Please indicate those changes here. Don't forget to list
any new documents that may be useful to your peers.
Then go to "Other Information" to attach the new
documents.
OTHER INFORMATION
Suggestions:
Please list relevant information sources that others
might use or you would be willing to share (courses,
Web sites, literature, experts).
Documents & Attachments:
Please list any documents you would be willing to
share with others interested in your practice (e.g. a
bylaw, a policy, approval documents, templates).
* Note: Most documents can be electronically
attached to your practice in the MEnet database. If
only a paper version of your document is available,
Many have said we are going backwards,
back in time. To the days of wood stoves
and coal furnaces; back to the days of our
grandparents and great grandparents. Yet
others have totally applauded our initiative
and embraced us for it. The County is
being direct and proactive; talking the talk
but also walking the walk.
Camrose County has experienced most, if
not all, obstacles, challenges and
difficulties in being a leader in this area of
practice. The largest piece of advice
would be to consult with Camrose County
and gain the inside scoop on the pitfalls
and hazards to avoid.
please send it with your completed Practice Collection
Form. We will scan it and attach it.
Nominations:
Do you have any suggestions of other individuals or
municipalities with municipal practices that we should
add to the Municipal Excellence network? Please list
their practice, municipality, and contact information.
Or, e-mail menet@gov.ab.ca and let us know about a
municipal colleague that has a really good way of
doing things.
COMMENTS
Have we missed something; anything you’d like to
add to the areas we have touched on, or an area we
have not mentioned?
Thank you for your contribution to the Municipal Excellence network. Please return
this form as soon as you are able.