To celebrate local government awareness week, we’re profiling winners of the 2025 Community Excellence Awards winners. These projects exemplify the best in local government.
The City of Greenwood won Excellence in Asset Management for Resilient Greenwood: Building the Future Together. Like many small communities, Greenwood was challenged with meeting service expectations with limited financial capacity. Years of deferred maintenance, costly emergency repairs and declining infrastructure had their budget strained and while critical assets such as water mains were failing.
In 2024, the city took on a new approach that integrates long-term planning, leadership development and a lot of community engagement. Rather than treating infrastructure planning as a bureaucratic task, Resilient Greenwood reimagines it as a collaborative, community-driven effort.
Canada’s smallest city – with just 800 residents – is shifting the narrative from talking about taxes to focusing on services.
Through data‑driven risk assessments and targeted training, this small city of 800 people, is building the capacity to make informed, sustainable decisions. Just as importantly, residents are being brought into the conversation – learning about infrastructure realities, service levels and shared responsibility.
The result is stronger governance, more resilient infrastructure planning and growing public trust. Resilient Greenwood proves that even Canada’s smallest cities can lead with courage, transparency, and innovation.
Applications for the 2026 Community Excellence Awards are open until May 29.
One of the objectives of the Community Excellence Awards is to encourage peer-to-peer learning among local governments, by highlighting exceptional projects. To learn more about Greenwood’s asset management strategy, get in touch with CAO Dean Trumbley (250-442-9641) or project contractor Christina Benty (250-344-0921).
The Community Excellence Awards recognize local governments and UBCM member First Nations projects or programs that have gone above and beyond in meeting the purposes of local government in BC. The awards are intended to showcase outstanding initiatives and share them with other members to implement in their own communities. The asset management category recognizes UBCM members that have developed and implemented a comprehensive asset management policies and practices which meet or exceed best practices.