MINTO – Town council has officially endorsed a plan to work with other Wellington County municipalities to find operational efficiencies.
Council passed a resolution on May 7 to join the County of Wellington and other member municipalities to engage a consultant for the preparation of a municipal services review.
Wellington County municipalities are among 405 across the province to benefit from a $200-million pool of one-time funding called the Provincial Modernization Grant, announced March 21, to help improve local service delivery.
Wellington County will receive $725,000, while Centre Wellington will receive $618,175, Wellington North $618,175, Guelph-Eramosa $613,775, Erin $602,673, Minto $591,214, Mapleton $581,800 and Puslinch $569,599.
The county will contribute $175,000 toward hiring the consultant and each member municipality will contribute $25,000.
“When we got this grant the CAOs in the county started to meet, and from what I gather it’s one of the first times the CAOs have worked corroboratively this way,” said acting CAO/Fire Chief Chris Harrow.
“The Provincial Modernization Grant was given to us no strings attached … but, in capital letters, in the actual grant verbiage, they really stated that they would really appreciate, or encourage, municipalities to use this money to look for efficiencies, shared services or things that they can do internally or externally with other municipalities,” Harrow added.
He said the consultant would be directed “to start looking at what are the efficiencies that we as the municipalities and the county can do together … as we call it, low hanging fruit that we can pluck off and maybe do some things quickly together to realize benefits and save us some money.”
The rest of the grant money, Harrow explained, will be put into reserves for the implementation of efficiencies in the future.
‘Responsible’ use
“So on the surface I think this is a good idea,” said councillor Judy Dirksen, who noted she was initially concerned when she heard the funds came with “no strings attached.
“I think this is a responsible way to use that money,” she stated.
However, Dirksen expressed concern the consultant would be steered toward finding “low-hanging fruit.
“My only concerns is a consultant is a consultant, so if they have a bent this way then that may be the suggestion,” said Dirksen.
“I hope that they come up with a lot of ideas, some that are really easy, low-hanging fruit and some that are pie-in-the-sky, might-never-manage-it ideas as well.”
Ideas such as shared management of county fire departments, plowing roads across municipal boundaries or shared IT services are among the efficiencies a consultant might recommend, said Harrow.
“I think it’s kind of unique that all eight … are going to work together on this, and having an outsider help us, I think having an extra outside eye might be really good,” said deputy mayor Dave Turton.
“But it’s almost like regional government,” he added. “And we likely should be careful what we wish for.”
