GUELPH/ERAMOSA – Council here has approved another boundary road agreement, the second of five to come.
In a Sept. 20 meeting, council received the public works report regarding a Halton Region boundary road agreement and approved the accompanying bylaw to authorize the agreement.
The updated agreement will address maintenance and longer-term budget planning of the boundary road.
As per the agreement, the township will take responsibility for the boundary road, Milton Eramosa Townline (Regional Road 32), as defined in the agreement and will maintain the road.
The agreement also dictates Halton Region will reimburse the township for one half of all costs associated with maintaining the boundary road.
The agreement is for 10 years, with an automatic five-year renewal, unless it’s terminated and renegotiated.
It’s the second of five agreements the township is hoping to present to neighbouring municipalities. The township recently entered into a boundary line agreement with Woolwich in August for highway maintenance.
IT services agreement
Council has also authorized staff to proceed with a two-year extension of an existing IT service agreement with HLB System Solutions.
Due to the pandemic, work on a larger IT services tender for municipalities in Wellington County has not be able to move forward.
Staff presented the CAO report to council in February, outlining the recommendations in the County-wide Information Technology (IT) Services review by Blackline Consulting.
Council approved the recommendations detailed in the Blackline Consulting report and directed staff to implement the recommendations as they were feasible.
All municipalities, with the exception of the Town of Erin, participated in the review. The objective of the consultation was to identify opportunities to reduce costs or improve production.
Blackline’s final report included a list of recommended IT activities for further service
improvements and possible cost savings which included the consideration of a larger, shared services agreement for municipalities currently contracting IT services.
The shared agreement was recommended to occur after municipalities had completed IT planning, pooled purchasing and developing common standards and practices.
Due to the pandemic, the only activity progress has been made on is pooled purchasing. It is expected the recommended activities in the report will begin being addressed in early 2022.
Given the delays, staff is expecting a larger common services tender and agreement can be ready for municipalities to review and approve in 2023 for implementation in 2024.
The proposed increase to the existing agreement is approximately 5 per cent per year which will be brought forward annually in the operating budget.
