County of Haliburton CAO Gary Dyke wants to continue tackling the service delivery review – tabling a fulsome report to the May 28 County council meeting.
His proposal for a second phase garnered council approval.
The County began the review of 66 services it, and member townships, provide, in 2022. That review found 12 high priority services that could be targeted for efficiencies. Six of them (solid waste management, fire services, economic development, bylaw enforcement, procurement and IT/digital strategy) were addressed in 2022-23.
Dyke said phase two has identified engineering, communications, human resources, and planning.
He said the next detailed review and analysis would be done by County and township staff, led by CAOs. Final reports on recommended options would be provided to County council in September, and to member municipal councils in October.
Dyke said, “on an overall basis, the ones that were implemented were implemented successfully and resulted in increased productivity and service delivery efficiencies.”
Some were not, however, such as councillors rebuking the idea of centralizing solid waste management.
The CAO talked about some of the challenges that have bogged the review down.
He said staff were presented with 12 “significant” tasks, but “a minimal implementation plan.” He said the strategy going forward is to break it down into manageable chunks. In addition, Dyke said there were “no clearly articulated” service agreements between the County and the townships, leading to “ambiguity and misremembering.” He’d like detailed service agreements going forward so, “everyone understands what their role is, who’s lane is what lane, and what to do in the event of conflict.”
No job cuts in County’s services delivery review
He also called for “accountability and effective valuation of what we are doing.” He also felt they need a review of all staff vacancies, when people leave, “to determine the relevancy and value of each role to the organization’s strategic goals.”
Deputy warden Liz Danielsen agreed, “one of the greatest challenges we ran into right off the top was there was so much, so many recommendations, so much work to do.” She said it was “overwhelming.” She felt service agreements are needed.
Overall, she said for the service delivery review to work, “we really need to have buy-in here from all of us in order to go forward. We’ve talked about this an awful lot and we seem to keep kind of stumbling and not going ahead the way we should be.”
Coun. Bob Carter said another difficulty was turning the work “over to a group of people in which jobs could be potentially redefined or threatened. You almost need an outside person to lead the task force… just having somebody maybe a bit more neutral.”
But Dyke said they’d never discussed job cuts. “We’re not thinking of getting rid of people. When someone is leaving, really take a look at it, is there an opportunity for efficiencies here? That gives a sense of security to staff. Finding efficiencies doesn’t mean someone is going to lose their job.”
Coun. Walt McKechnie said he personally felt the process was taking them towards a one-tier government and, “I don’t believe in a one-tier government in Haliburton County.”
But Dyke said they have no intention of looking at single-tier. He said municipal governments do, however, face challenges with a regressive property tax system and spending demands. He said it’s about creating efficiencies and, “how we keep ourselves tenable” with extra pressure for services. Danielsen expressed a “desire to work better together … not taking power, control…no desire for the A (amalgamation) word.”
