Recent growth and the resulting increased demand on services has Altona Council eyeing an organizational review of public works services in the community, including transportation, the landfill and public utilities. That's if its application to the province's Municipal Service Delivery Improvement Program is successful.
    
The fund provides municipalities and planning districts with financial support to complete value-for-money service delivery reviews of programs and services. 

"When we consider how we deliver services to the community, it's important to consider how we can maximize value while still improving the high-quality services our community expects," explained Mayor Harv Schroeder. 

Approved municipalities and planning districts would work directly with a third-party consultant from a list of prequalified firms to manage a service delivery review. They will analyze the effectiveness, efficiency and economy of dollars spent on services or programs that have been identified by the municipalities or planning district. 

Schroeder noted, this review would include all of the equipment and tools used by these departments, and staffing. 

"The town has been growing over the last number of years and adding more streets, and the workload becomes more," he explained. "And so, there's a time where we need to decide or look at whether we need to upgrade equipment, add equipment, add staff or do we look at other ways of dealing with those to keep costs down but keep the services at a reasonable rate?"

At the end of this review process, the municipality or planning district would own a report of their analysis and actionable recommendations, which must be posted publicly and submitted to the Minister of Municipal Relations. 

 

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