Kananaskis Improvement District Municipal Finance Specialist

Role Responsibilities

The Ministry of Forestry and Parks is responsible for growing Alberta’s environmentally responsible wood products and forestry sector, protecting Alberta’s forests from wildfire, preserving our provincial parks for the recreation and enjoyment of Albertans, enabling access to public lands for recreational and commercial purposes while prioritizing conservation and managing public lands and balancing sustainable rangelands and grazing leases for Alberta producers.

For information about the Ministry of Forestry and Parks please visit: https://www.alberta.ca/forestry-and-parks.

The KID Municipal Finance Specialist role ensures that all financial and municipal corporate services are provided and performed within legislation and guidelines governing municipalities including the Municipal Government Act, and other related enactments; ensures that all municipal policies and procedures; and departmental (Forestry and Parks) policies and procedures are followed; ensures that municipal financial services are provided to residents and ratepayers including delivery of property assessments and tax notices and monthly utility bills.

In this role you will also take the lead on municipal budgeting and forecasting; lead the annual audit process for Kananaskis Improvement District (KID); and provide financial management of KID, including financial reporting, and accounts payable and accounts receivable, including monthly billing and regular payment of vendors/contractors in a timely manner.

This position facilitates all corporate and financial administrative needs for the KID and KID Council. This position is funded entirely through KID.

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Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Working with the CAO to prepare the annual operating and capital budgets, as well as annual forecasting, including determination of financial implications, and completion of all financial information to be included in the budget document.
• Ensuring appropriate delivery of accounts payable and receivable. Maintaining accurate records, filing, and bookkeeping for all KID financial accounts.
• Working directly with the Auditor General of Alberta and its contracted Accountants, provides them with all required documentation and responds to all queries as part of the annual audit process; and ensures financial statements are prepared within established guidelines and formats. Ensures financial compliance and accountability, upholding Public Sector Accounting Standards (PSAS) and internal controls, and contributing to the development of financial policies and procedures.
• Ensuring that all municipal services are provided in a cost-effective manner by routinely monitoring expenditures, ensuring proper account coding on all expenditures, ensuring that goods and services have been received and accounted for by staff, and performs monthly reconciliations all within established policy directives.
• Preparing Callout Firefighter payroll for payment via Electronic Fund Transfer and provides payroll slips to firefighters.
• Responsible for all ensuring all updates to financial software are implemented.
• Calculating, preparing and distributing tax notices to ratepayers in accordance with legislated requirements.
• Providing all administrative and office support services to ensure the efficient and effective management and operation of the KID Administration office, including regularly checking the KID Finance email and main KID phone line and responding to inquiries from residents, ratepayers and the public.
• Coordinating and making all necessary arrangements for Council meetings.
• Supporting the KID Administrative Team with other tasks as required.

Please click on this link to view the job description for this position.

APS Competencies

Competencies are behaviors that are essential to reach our goals in serving Albertans. We encourage you to have an in depth understanding of the competencies that are required for this opportunity and to be prepared to demonstrate them during the recruitment process.

Creative Problem Solving – The position must engage with numerous stakeholders in developing municipal budgets, alongside other municipal staff and elected councillors. The process to find fixes to accounting and financial service procedures includes technical research on financial management software, identifying risks to financials if/when reforecast revenues are impacted by unanticipated events or situations, and bridge resources from other departments, neighbouring municipalities and subject matter experts on financial reporting - financial auditing and contract management. This position will drive innovation and continuous improvement within financial systems and processes to enhance service delivery and operational efficiency.


Agility – The position must be able to move from contract development and implementation with various municipal service contractors, to coordinating FOIP requirements for the municipality, to ensuring the municipality is delivering financial services in accordance with legislation, standards, and procedures. The position also must be able to develop and maintain policy manuals for corporate services.


Drive for Results – The demands on the position are driven by expectations, priorities, and legislated requirements for municipalities, with an elected and appointed membership of municipal Council establishing key priorities. The position works within a local political environment with high visibility through public disclosure of financial and audits. As such, the position must adhere to a high standard of financial reporting and contract management and must be able to maintain good and relations with ratepayers. The position must also be able to manage daily, weekly, monthly and annual operational tasks such as payroll, ability to send out monthly utility bills, ability to process and send out property assessment notices and tax notices and submit grant reporting, while also being able to contribute to long-term strategic priorities.


Build Collaborative Environments – The position works across departments, with elected and appointed membership of Council, and external stakeholders to ensure a high level of corporate service provisions for the municipality. Activities performed by the position must support a collaborative environment to achieve desirable results across these stakeholders.

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Develop Networks – Builds and maintains stakeholder relationships within the GOA (various ministries), but also with external stakeholders including businesses, not-for-profit organizations, residents, ratepayers, municipal contractors, external third-party consultants, etc. Maintains and continues to grow a positive relationship with KID's external contracted accountant, Office of the Auditor General and the external third-party auditor.


Systems Thinking – Mentors other staff including Fire Department managers/leaders on how to appropriately budget and forecast, as well as provide payroll information for processing. Teaches KID Team Members on how to efficiently use the financial software and how to pull information from the software as needed. Educates Councillors on financial budgeting and forecasting, especially those Councillors who sit on the Budget & Audit Committee.

This link will assist you with understanding competencies: https://www.alberta.ca/system/files/custom_downloaded_images/psc-alberta-public-service-competency-model.pdf.

Qualifications

University graduation in Business, Finance, Accounting, Commerce, Management or other related field plus 3 years progressively responsible related experience; or equivalent as described below.

Equivalency:

• Related diploma plus 5 years directly related experience.
• Accounting designation and 1-year additional related experience.

Required:

• Ability to drive into Kananaskis Emergency Services Centre full time.
• Must be highly dependable and able to work irregular hours (evenings and/or weekends), subject to overtime.

Assets:

• Strategic thinking and analytical expertise, with a strong track record of delivering multi-year financial plans, variance analysis, and data-informed recommendations that support long-term decision-making.
• Exceptional communication abilities, allowing you to translate complex financial information into clear, actionable insights for Council, senior leadership, staff, and stakeholders.
• Strong knowledge of, and experience in implementing internal controls.
• Ability to learn and teach financial software.
• Ability to analyze and interpret administrative procedures, regulations, legal documents and legislation.
• Knowledge and interpretation of negotiated agreements, contracts and grants.
• Strong technical proficiency, particularly with Microsoft Excel (ability to create and manipulate spreadsheets), and financial software systems used in municipal environments, as well as with Microsoft 365 programs (Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, etc.).
• Experience working in a municipal environment.
• In-depth knowledge of government budgeting and accounting policies, practices and procedures.
• Demonstrated ability to work with senior management and political representatives in a complex and political environment. Demonstrated ability to work under highly visible, unusual and stressful situations.
• Knowledge and deep understanding of municipal legislation and standards, including the Municipal Government Act (MGA), Public Sector Accounting Standards (PSAS), Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), and best practices in asset management and financial controls.

A cover letter must accompany your application and should indicate how your previous work experience aligns to the qualifications and competencies required. Please provide clear examples of how you meet the criteria and skills required in your cover letter. Failure to provide a cover letter will lead to the application being screened out. A cover letter will be one of the ways to assess communication skills of candidates.

In your resume, please include dates (including months and years) associated with all education and work experience. As well, please indicate whether your work experience is casual, part-time or full-time. For example, January 15, 2006 - June 25, 2009: Assistant (PT three 8 hrs. shifts/week).

Minimum recruitment standards outline the minimum education and experience required for appointment to a job classification. Refer to https://www.alberta.ca/alberta-public-service-minimum-recruitment-standards.

Notes

This position meets the criteria for Government staff housing in Kananaskis and there is a low-cost rental home available within 10 minutes of Kananaskis Emergency Services Centre, near the Kananaskis Golf Course.

Final candidates will be required to undergo a security screening.

Any costs associated with obtaining the required documents/checks as noted or interview travel expenses, will be the responsibility of the candidate. Out-of-province applicants can obtain the required documents/checks from the province they currently reside in.

What we offer:

• Working for the Alberta Public Service – https://www.alberta.ca/advantages-working-for-alberta-public-service.aspx
• Public Service Pension Plan (PSPP) – https://www.pspp.ca
• Alberta Public Service Benefit Information – https://www.alberta.ca/alberta-public-service-benefits
• Professional learning and development – https://www.alberta.ca/professional-development-support-directive
• Research Alberta Public Service Careers tool – https://researchapscareers.alberta.ca
• Positive workplace culture and work-life balance
• Leadership and mentorship programs