Case study # Public engagement, off the proprietary platform Updated September 8, 2026 Software Development The Regional District of Central Kootenay was paying enterprise prices for a proprietary engagement platform they had outgrown. We rebuilt it as a lean, bespoke WordPress application, cleaner, faster, and theirs to keep, and cut their annual running costs by more than 95%. [See the Site ](https://engage.rdck.ca/) ![RDCK Engage — a public engagement platform for the Regional District of Central Kootenay](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/0838mkru/production/c2c79aceb6b386d0c5e4af75f662cd8dce3d42eb-3200x1800.png) Detail ## The brief Not long after we rebuilt the RDCK's main website, they came back with a different problem. The Regional District of Central Kootenay runs real public consultations, on budgets, watersheds, parks and floodplain bylaws, and they were running them on a proprietary engagement platform that cost a small fortune every year. The software did far more than they needed. It was a sprawling suite of modules, most of them unused, billed at a price that did not flex. RDCK was paying enterprise rates to run a handful of features. So they asked us a simple question: could we build the part they actually used, for a fraction of the cost, and have them own it outright? ![What they paid for versus what they used: a full proprietary suite billed in full, against the lean set of features RDCK actually needed](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/0838mkru/production/d15c84921b86d4ccb27c7cedd17f11189e5bc521-2800x1520.png) Field note ## The platform they'd outgrown The incumbent platform bundled everything a big-city engagement team might want: CRM, mapping, ideation walls, stakeholder databases, ad tooling. RDCK used a small, focused slice of it, projects, discussions, questions, documents and a newsletter, and paid for the whole thing regardless. It was capable software. It just was not built for a regional district's budget, and it was never going to get cheaper. ![A WordPress build that behaves like a web application: Blade and Tailwind on top, Sage and Acorn underneath, custom services for auth, moderation and notifications](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/0838mkru/production/d5964337dae80162536f26971edc8850204e9663-2800x1500.png) Field note ## Rebuilt lean, and theirs to keep We rebuilt the features they relied on as a bespoke application on a lean WordPress stack, Sage and Acorn on top, custom services underneath. It looks and behaves like modern software, not a template, yet it is familiar enough that staff can publish a new consultation without a manual. Almost none of it leans on third-party plugins to license or patch. The result is a pseudo web application they host with their own nonprofit hosting partner, own completely, and can run for years without a per-seat invoice in sight. ![An RDCK Engage project page, with overview, documents, key dates and the team who's listening](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/0838mkru/production/970dc14ad9761a7716cef09771afc83eb49e5eb8-3000x1630.png) ![A resident's question answered on the record by the RDCK Finance team](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/0838mkru/production/96dc06d7bcd2ef85d931282dd76e640a75e35b4e-1880x1660.png) ![The three public channels: threaded discussions, questions answered on the record, and a guestbook of recent messages](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/0838mkru/production/deccc86f8733086d0b530b78ca35e12251a12d01-3000x1760.png) Field note ## Where the public comes in Every project becomes a small hub. Residents can read the plan, download the documents, join a threaded discussion, ask a question, or simply leave a note in the guestbook. Staff reply in the open, and every answer stays on the project for the next person wondering the same thing. It turns a one-way public notice into an actual conversation, which is the whole point of engagement. ![An RDCK Engage project page on a phone](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/0838mkru/production/d31e99977831031e39062c8de109968b1b36b749-1440x1936.png) ![Asking a question from a phone, with answers from the RDCK team](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/0838mkru/production/44b75b0bfb72d530fb387ecd6c3297150565c189-1440x1936.png) ![The moderation queue: verified residents' posts held for a moderator to approve, with email verification and Turnstile keeping it trustworthy](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/0838mkru/production/5d3caab89e89e327bd4a78b44f056b659dc9cac8-3000x1320.png) Field note ## Vetted by default Open does not mean unmoderated. To post, a resident verifies their email, and Cloudflare Turnstile keeps the bots out without making real people solve puzzles. Nothing goes live until a moderator clears it. We built RDCK staff a custom moderator role for exactly that work, enough to review and approve, with no keys to the rest of the site. Notifications route each submission to the right team, so the people who should be listening always are. Detail ## Built for the people who run it A platform like this lives or dies by how easy it is to keep current, so we spent as much care on the back office as the front. Publishing a new consultation is a clean, logical flow, and a single project page pulls everything together in one place: - Overview, FAQs, photos and downloadable documents - Discussions, open questions and a guestbook, each switched on per project - Key dates, the responsible team, and who is listening - Newsletter sign-ups so residents can follow along Whoever picks it up, on whatever team, can run it with confidence. That is what keeps a tool like this genuinely useful years after launch. Measured outcomes ## What it adds up to Real numbers from a year in production. lower annual running cost than the platform it replaced 0195%+ for the build to pay for itself on cost savings alone 02~10 mo live, with no major bugs and essentially zero downtime 03~1 yr of public projects hosted and managed, and counting 04Dozens owned outright, hosted with their own nonprofit partner 05Theirs In closing ## A partner, not a platform fee RDCK Engage has been live for about a year. It has carried dozens of public projects without drama, it is fast, and it has barely needed us since launch. The money that used to leave the region for a software vendor now stays where it does the most good. That is how we like to build: real, production-grade software our clients own outright, free of per-seat pricing and vendor lock-in, with us on hand whenever they want us. Less spent on licences, more spent on the community. [Start a build with us ](https://www.papercrane.ca/contact) ![RDCK Engage, in production and still going](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/0838mkru/production/a8cf359bf8dfcfb2b67598bf409b7982546a25cd-2480x2000.png) ## MORE PROJECTS [ ![The AKBLG mark over the Kootenay ridges](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/0838mkru/production/4ae10ec98c7628c5df829f5d8b099fd5c935d061-3200x2000.png) BrandWebsite DesignWebsite Development+1 ### AKBLG A full rebrand and website rebuild for the association that represents thirty local governments across the Kootenay and Boundary region. We drew a new identity from the mountains, water and sun already in their name, then built it into a low maintenance open source platform their own small team runs, convention after convention. Explore ](https://www.papercrane.ca/case-studies/akblg-website) [ ![The RDCK crest over the Kootenay ridges](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/0838mkru/production/1c443b74110ebe576fd9533ae334886b060d9e97-3200x2000.png) Website DesignWebsite DevelopmentDigital Infrastructure+1 ### Regional District of Central Kootenay A ground-up WordPress rebuild for one of British Columbia's largest regional districts. We replaced a rigid, dated CMS with a full design system and a page-building kit the RDCK team runs themselves, then moved hundreds of pages, bylaws and services across without breaking a single URL. Explore ](https://www.papercrane.ca/case-studies/rdck-website) [ ![The Pain Connect maple leaf network mark on deep teal](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/0838mkru/production/8ff50da03339bb32b4ef552b6c0d33bbe64181a0-3200x2000.png) Website DesignWebsite DevelopmentSoftware Development ### Pain Connect Pain Connect is the Chronic Pain Network's national platform for connecting Canadians to pain research. It is a website and a working micro application: a searchable directory of studies, a database that matches people to them, an admin portal, and the email flows that tie it all together. Built for McMaster University's Chronic Pain Network, so that the people who live with pain have a say in the research that shapes their care. Explore ](https://www.papercrane.ca/case-studies/pain-connect) [See all projects](https://www.papercrane.ca/case-studies) --- Source: https://www.papercrane.ca/case-studies/rdck-engage