Custom Projects
From vision to reality—explore how our work is shaping rural, small urban and Indigenous communities.
While we can’t feature every project we’ve completed, these examples reflect the range of work Northbound takes on and the ways we continue to support communities as they plan for the future.
Onion Lake Cree Nation: Long-Range Community Plan
This project includes updating a 15-year old Community Plan Northbound originally wrote for Onion Lake to current times in 2026. Incredible growth and development in the community warrants reviewing all departments goals and vision for the future to create an effective, and useful long-range Community Plan for Onion Lake.
Onion Lake Cree Nation:
Planning & Development Department Establishment
This unique project for Onion Lake involves exploring the mechanisms under the Indian Act to create an entire Planning and Development department, procedures and implementation land rules for consistent land use planning and development. Exploring alternative avenues to traditional Land Management techniques under the Indian Act provides Onion Lake unique opportunities to utilize strengths from both the Indian Act and individual sovereignty to achieve strong land-use planning and development.
Thunderchild First Nation:
Asset Management Planning
This project includes working alongside Public Works to enhance Thunderchild First Nation’s entire asset management program. The digitalization of Thunderchild’s public work infrastructure into Northbound’s Community Planning software enables the ability to individually track Nation assets on demand without additional costs. Incorporating this into asset management planning and programming is assisting Thunderchild to better plan for managing their assets and achieving higher purchasing power with accurate asset inventories and financial management.
Asset Management: Onboarding Towards Improved Tangible Capital Asset Tracking and Reporting
A series of projects across Saskatchewan have onboarded Towns and Rural Municipalities into our Asset Management Financial software. Mass importing directly from PubWorks, cleanup and reconciliation to match previously audited financial statements sets up municipal clients for completing their upcoming municipal audits. Including GIS visualizations to show asset placement, tied with financial records allows for better asset tracking and reporting.
RM of Meota No. 468:
400 Unit Condominium Subdivision Review and Approval
This project included working alongside the RM of Meota administration, Council and developers to create a suitable large-scale resort residential development on Jackfish Lake. Completing planning bylaw reviews and amendments, asset management evaluations, assessment determinations, and facilitating Traffic Impact Assessments, Geotechnical Reports and other site-specific evaluations assisted in the accumulation of enough information for Council to make an informed, and successful decision for the municipality.
RM of Mervin No. 499:
Land Use Inventory & Enforcement
This project included completing municipal-wide land use inventory evaluations to determine the active use of recreational vehicles (RV’s) on lakeshore residential lots. These inventories were presented to Council to determine next steps on zoning bylaw compliance, and ultimately Council decided to proceed with enforcement on all non-compliant residential lots. The issuance of hundreds of enforcement orders for non-compliance initiated large-scale changes in the community and towards compliance.
Hutterite Colony: Municipal Bylaw Compliance & Intensive Livestock Operations
This private-developer project involved working closely with a Hutterite Colony rebuild relationships with their surrounding Rural Municipality prior to submission of a new Intensive Livestock Operation application. This on-going project required review and advisory services to the Colony on municipal land use planning and development regulations, expectations for the Colony and navigating the permit approval process.
RM of Mervin No. 499:
Call for Proposal Support
This project included facilitating and managing a large-scale lakeshore development Call for Proposal event as the municipality’s development controls neared opportunity for further subdivision and development. Structure and competitive Call for Proposals were submitted by Developers, evaluated against municipal land use planning bylaws and compliance with existing Lake Study requirements. Proposals were evaluated through consistent evaluation criteria with acceptable applications being approved by Council.
RM of Laird No. 404:
Development Services Geotechnical Support
This ongoing project supports the RM though daily implementation for development permit application reviews. The complexity of this RM has high-density river lot developments with considerable land use constraints and complexities, such as geotechnical interests registered on titles and additional developer restrictive covenants. These complexity trigger additional professional planning support to achieve safe and compliant development.
Resort Village of Aquadeo: Official Community Plan & Zoning Bylaw
This project involved the development of a new Official Community Plan and Zoning Bylaw for the Resort Village of Aquadeo. These forward-looking planning documents provides a framework to guide growth, land use, and community development for years to come. Designed and tailored to meet the needs of a lakeshore resort village, this plan focuses on the rural residential needs of the community located adjacent to Jackfish Lake, Saskatchewan.
Municipal Services:
First Nation Housing Administration Assessment
This project included working alongside an engineering firm providing a Housing Condition Assessment to evaluate the First Nations Administration department needs. This projects required a professional assessment of administration tasks, duties and deliverables to evaluate the efficiencies of the housing department. The final report required a report to provide a readiness scale, and allow for comparability in the future. This final report integrated in results from the Housing Needs Assessment, interviews, and educational learnings to support growth.
RM of Hazel Dell No. 335: Asset Management Plan
This project included the creation of an Asset Management Plan focused on culverts, roadways and signs. It included gathering of asset information GPS information, conditions, and related tangible capital asset (TCA) information. Entry of the TCA information into the PubWorks database allowed for analysis and financial evaluations when creating an Asset Management Plan for the RM.
RM of Britannia No. 502: Strategic Planning
Municipal strategic planning is an important part of annual operations for staff, infrastructure and capital works planning. Northbound worked alongside the RM of Britannia for the development of annual strategic plans to enable focus-driven results in comprehensive planning for the community. Infiltrating into land use planning, asset management, capital works planning, bylaw enforcement and overall general governance, Northbound assisted in determining the priorities important to Council and Administration.
Municipal P&D Support:
Development Officer Services
Various municipalities across Canada have appointed Northbound Planning to act as their municipal Development Officer. Our specialized expertise of working in small-urban and rural municipalities provides unique perspectives and the abilities to support administration and Council’s regarding land use planning. Our services focus on protecting the municipality, and our interdisciplinary staff provide robust and proven results to manage land use planning and future development.
RM of Swift Current No. 137:
Land Use Planning Digitalization
The complexity of land use planning derives from managing the cumulative effects of physical development within a community. Northbound worked alongside the RM to digitalize all planning and development, and building permit information, into our planning software to allow for a centralized location for planning information, history and allow for visual analysis of developments cumulative effects. Timelapsed features show how development has occurred over time, and the enhanced record retention capabilities empowers administration to make stronger planning decisions.
Targeted Sector Support: Regional Gravel Asset Management Plan
This TSS project included four (4) rural municipalities and creating an asset management plan for each with their respective gravel resources. One (1) municipality had an abundance of gravel, whereas the other three (3) had varying levels, with one (1) having very few gravel resources at all. The regional analysis of valuable gravel resources and municipal operational use provided a very interesting analysis of gravel use, management and future financial expectations.
RM of Meota No. 468:
Official Community Plan &
Zoning Bylaw
This project involved the development of a new Official Community Plan and Zoning Bylaw for the RM of Meota No. 468. These forward-looking planning documents provides a framework to guide growth, land use, and community development for years to come. Designed and tailored to meet the needs of a complex municipality that has oil and gas industrial development, agriculture, traditional residential hamlet development and lakeshore residential development, this plan focuses on the rural residential needs of the community located adjacent to Jackfish Lake, Saskatchewan.
Targeted Sector Support:
Official Community Plan &
Zoning Bylaw Harmonization
This TSS project included the harmonization of four (4) different RM’s in Northeast Saskatchewan when writing a new Official Community Plan and Zoning Bylaw. The project involved harmonizing the bylaws where able, while still protecting the individuality and uniqueness of the four different RM’s. The complexity of the project involved a variety of land uses, such as industry, agriculture, commercial, hamlet residential development, and lakeshore residential development.
