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For municipal and regional district staff

Municipal and local government websites your team runs

Your website carries bylaws, job postings, tenders, alerts and meeting agendas. When only a developer can change it, public information waits. We build municipal and regional district websites your own staff run, on open source you own, with no lock-in to us. Our work for the Regional District of Central Kootenay and the Association of Kootenay and Boundary Local Governments shows how.

Problems we hear about most

Most local governments we talk to are somewhere on this list.

  • Anything past typing a paragraph means a ticket to a developer.

  • You're paying enterprise prices for a platform you use a fraction of.

  • Each department built its own corner of the site, and none of it matches.

  • You're worried a move will break links that residents, staff and printed notices rely on.

Where do you want to start?

What it adds up to

Figures from our work with the Regional District of Central Kootenay. The RDCK Engage figure is from a year in production.

  • 0

    broken addresses after the RDCK site moved, with a redirect written for every legacy URL

  • 149

    bylaws and policies, searchable and filterable in the browser

  • 30

    editor blocks the RDCK team builds pages with

  • About 1 year

    of RDCK Engage in production, with no major bugs and essentially zero downtime

See all our work

What you own, and what you're responsible for

You own the code, the content and the hosting account. RDCK Engage is hosted with RDCK's own nonprofit hosting partner. The AKBLG site is hosted wherever they need it.

We build on open source with as few plugins as we can, so there is less to license and patch.

The trade-off: you are responsible for hosting and updates, or you ask us to look after them. Either way, the site is yours.

We'll also be honest about fit. If you want a vendor to host and run everything for a yearly fee, an off-the-shelf government platform may suit you better, and we'll tell you so.

Working with your RFP

We respond to public RFPs, including those posted on BC Bid and CivicInfo. We also work through direct awards and invited quotes under your procurement thresholds.

If you're buying through an RFP, send it to us with the closing date through our contact form.

Questions from municipal and regional district staff

Do you build websites for municipalities and regional districts?

Yes. We built the Regional District of Central Kootenay's main website and its public engagement platform, RDCK Engage. We also rebranded and rebuilt the website for the Association of Kootenay and Boundary Local Governments. Our local government work so far is in British Columbia.

Should a municipality build a custom website or use an off-the-shelf government platform?

It depends on who you want running it. An off-the-shelf platform suits you if you want the vendor to host and run everything and you're happy paying a yearly licence. A custom site on open source suits you if you want to own it, need tools shaped to your work (a bylaws library, tenders that close themselves, alert banners), and don't want to pay for modules you don't use. RDCK moved its engagement platform off a proprietary suite onto a WordPress application it owns outright.

Can our staff update the site without a developer?

Yes. RDCK staff build pages from about 30 blocks, and AKBLG's small team runs its whole convention year in-house.

Will we lose links or documents when we move?

No. We write a redirect for every legacy address. The RDCK site launched with 0 broken addresses, and its 149 bylaws and policies are searchable.

Who owns the website, and where is it hosted?

You do. You own the code and the content, and the site is hosted where you choose. You can look after hosting and updates yourself, or ask us to.

Do you respond to RFPs?

Yes. We respond to public RFPs, including those posted on BC Bid and CivicInfo. We also work through direct awards and invited quotes under procurement thresholds. Send us the document and the closing date through our contact form.

How do you handle accessibility?

We build to WCAG 2.2 AA, and Paper Crane holds AODA certification. Outside local government, we built the Help for Dementia learning platform with the Alzheimer Society of Alberta and NWT: 10+ accessible courses over three years.

Where are you based?

Our studio is in Calgary, and we work with clients across Canada. Our local government projects so far are in BC's Kootenay and Boundary region.

Have an RFP open, or one coming up?

Tell us what you're replacing and when your proposal is due. We'll tell you plainly whether we're the right fit. We reply within one business day.

Tell us about your project