Working smarter, saving money
At the Region, we work in creative, innovative ways to give you better service and prepare for growth
We understand that the cost of living continues to go up for residents and we continually aim to use every tax dollar wisely. Since 2019, the Region has found operating budget savings of $40.5 million.
Our teams worked on a large scale, to work smarter and more efficiently for the whole community in 2023. This included exploring creative and innovative ways to give you better service and to prepare the community for future growth.
We minimized our footprint on the community in square footage and emissions, reducing the amount of office space we use by
41,774 square feet.
That’s the equivalent of three Olympic-size swimming pools!
This saves
$1.2 million
tax dollars a year in leasing and operating costs.
Reducing our footprint is made possible through hybrid work, shared workstations, and tools. Together these give teams greater flexibility and more opportunities to connect, collaborate and co-create.
By optimizing our space, we can expand our services to meet the needs of a growing community without the need for more administrative space in the foreseeable future.
This defers about
$100+ million tax dollars
in costs over 20 years, and aligns with our climate goals to be more energy efficient and reduce our carbon footprint.
In 2023, we added more ways for people to interact with us so that they can get the services and information they need in the way that’s most convenient for them. In addition to phone and in-person chats, people can now chat with us online.
The Chatbot is an online chat box on our website that answers questions about our services.
If you need more information or if the Chatbot is unable to answer, you can connect with a live agent.
“Great experience and very quick”
“Agent was extremely helpful and showed a lot of professionalism and patience to answer all questions”
“Keep up the good work.”
Currently the Chatbot can respond to common questions about public transit, waste, Provincial Offences, and airport arrivals and departures. It will expand to other areas over time. We continue to train our Chatbot to adapt and evolve to how residents interact with it.
Thank you for your feedback as we continue to improve service and better meet your needs in 2024!
112,000+
messages sent between residents, the bot and our live agents
Average of
51
interactions a day
85%
agree or strongly agree
that they were satisfied with their chat with a live agent