By Josh Hall

looking forward

‘A new day’ for The City of Red Deer and Westerner Park

Nov 2, 2020 | 6:32 PM

Red Deer City Manager Allan Seabrooke says it’s a new day when it comes to the nearly year-long saga since The City took over financial oversight of the Westerner Exhibition Association.

Officials with the two sides now have their eyes keenly set on the future after a report by Deloitte LLP detailing 35 opportunities for them to correct crippling financial struggles.

Presented to city council Monday, the sustainability report says if all the right pieces fall into place, including the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, Westerner Park could return to a healthy state in about two years.

Worst case scenario, it could be a five- to ten-year timeline.

An audit showed there was no financial misappropriation or fraudulent activity that led to the Westerner’s financial turmoil, rather poor decision making and internal processes, and a lack of communication on multiple levels.

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Now, with the sustainability report complete it’s about modernizing and seeing the non-profit organization get back to its roots.

“It’s a good move-forward approach. With recommendations around modernization of systems, governance, and the ways in which Westerner will handle all events going forward, I think the public should have full confidence,” said Seabrooke.

“I particularly like the recommendation around having a foundation formed. The support that could be provided by anyone who can contribute will give some strong financial resources for the Westerner to draw on, particularly for capital needs.”

On its roots, Seabrooke added that it’s key to increase the marketing profile of Westerner Park and get back to ensuring they can provide a great customer experience while attracting major events.

“Mike [Oleson, Westerner Park CEO] and his team have already begun down the path towards those things,” Seabrooke added.

Olesen said Monday that of the report’s 35 recommendations, eight have already been completed, 18 are ongoing and nine require further planning.

Chief among those already completed is the recommendation to implement a new event management system. Others include:

– developing a prioritized 30-60-90 day action plan to accelerate the restructuring of the organization and enhance key operational processes to increase clarity, streamline operations, and boost event attraction / community engagement;

– Introduce a senior management role responsible for event attraction activities and empower that individual to support the CEO in developing a plan, targets and monitoring processes;

– Streamline the customer experience between sales, marketing and event management;

– Formalize a taskforce to routinely meet and address COVID-19 related issues across the organization.

“Right now the vast majority of our revenue earning potential is impacted by COVID. We’re in the industry that really relies on gathering,” Oleson said. “We may still face headwinds against earning potential, such as people’s willingness to attend major events again. We do also rely on the support of sponsorship, so what will the lasting effect on that be? Within COVID, it’s an untenable situation.”

Oleson is nonetheless confident that Westerner Park is on the right path.

He says getting a handle on stakeholder engagement is a key element to start with.

“What unfortunately crisis forces you to do is look more inwards, and then unfortunately you alienate people because you’re trying to figure out what’s happening inside,” Oleson adds. “We’re just the stewards of this organization, so we need to engage with the community and make sure, on a number of levels, are we offering the things people are looking for, and do our standards of service meet their expectations? For those who rely on us, are we meeting their needs; a good example is the Rebels. For our shareholders, are we representative of their desires?”

A number of city councillors said Monday it will be critical in the future for city council to once again have representation on the Westerner Park board. For now, it doesn’t, Mayor Tara Veer explained, as that would cause a conflict of interest with councillors voting in both venues.

“This report is a pivot for our efforts to position Westerner Park for its future, and ultimately to see a renewal at Westerner Park for a return to transparency, accountability and to their core purpose,” Veer stated. “But the critical point is for them to return to that core purpose in a modernized way that not only meets the needs of Red Deer and region today, but to position it for the next decade and beyond.”

Veer said while Westerner’s financial hardship has been exacerbated by the provincial economy and the devastating effects of COVID-19, those things ultimately exposed conditions at Westerner Park which already existed.

She said it is imperative for Westerner Park officials to ensure the organization is pragmatic and sustainable.

The resolution passed by council on Monday stipulates that the city manager will regularly update city council on what is going on with the Westerner Exhibition Association, and that the city manager will work with the association to implement recommendations as outlined in the report from Deloitte.