County of Haliburton CAO Gary Dyke said he was working with the heads of Algonquin Highlands, Dysart et al, Highlands East and Minden Hills, to “reinvigorate” the service delivery review in 2025.
The consultant’s report was delivered to County council in November, 2020. There has been some movement – such as hiring an economic development and tourism manager, and joint purchasing – however much of what Strategy Corp. recommended has not come about.
Dyke told councillors Dec. 11 senior staff had been modifying the recommendations “because I think there were reasons why it (the process) did bog down. I think we can resurrect it.” However, he said there would be no impact on budgets until 2026 at the earliest.
He committed to, “diving back into, and having a solid relook, at how we deliver services and where we can find both efficiencies and cost savings at the same time.”
Commenting on Coun. Bob Carter discussing affordability for Highlanders, Dyke added, “that’s definitely something we’re working towards.” Carter said he thought there could be efficiencies when it comes to things such as having five roads’ departments in the Highlands.
Coun. Liz Danielsen said, “I agree there could probably be some savings there, but it needs to be worked on, and we need to agree as a council. There’re not just five roads’ departments, there’s five planning departments, there’s five building departments, there’s so many areas where we could, if we were willing to, simplify things, to streamline things into reduced costs. That’s going to take some time. I would just urge all members of council to really think about the benefits of looking again at our opportunities and service delivery elsewhere.”
‘Everybody’s backyard is going to get changed’
Coun. Cec Ryall told his colleagues, “you’ve got to buy into the fact that everybody’s backyard is going to get changed, and if you’re not prepared to let that happen, then there’s the budget. Suck it up.”
Coun. Lisa Schell said she had been sitting at the council table for several years, “and when we first started talking about service delivery review and the ‘A’ word (amalgamation), many members of council at that time weren’t interested in actually getting there. It’s changed around the table as we’ve seen some of the savings that can be made within the departments. I think it’s time that we really, really take a hard look at what that would possibly look like in another term of council. Because some term of council is either going to have to do it or say ‘no, this isn’t going to work’. And I think we’ve made strides in the last two terms of council to realize that it actually makes sense.”
Coun. Walt McKechnie said he is all for saving money “but show me a County where amalgamation has happened and you’re saving money? I want us to work together, whether it’s roads, any of our departments together, to save money.”
Coun. Jennifer Dailloux agreed but added, “I’m still in favour of seeing if we could do it better here in Haliburton. I still wonder if there is a model that could work for us, could work for our four municipalities, and could save us all money. I’m in favour of the idea in principle.”
Danielsen said when they first started talking about amalgamation, she had concerns, but her thinking has shifted. While “still not there” when it comes to amalgamation, she said, “I believe now that the best direction for us to take is to look at the service delivery review that we’ve had done, see where we can have some successes, and savings, because I do believe there’s room for that without us getting all worried about amalgamation.”
Carter added, “we have a little over 20,000 residents in Haliburton County and we have 24 elected officials. And if we take this body (County council), it’s 32 elected officials. We spend an awful lot of time on administration, for an awful lot of money, and having all of these meetings and discussions between the various councils. There has to be a penny or two to be saved at that point. I’m just looking at working together.”
He said the County made a good budget decision in hiring an in-house mechanic rather than going to an outsider. He questioned the need for a council chamber for Minden Hills when the County one is just up the road. “Is there a reason why Minden and the County couldn’t share a council chamber since there’s only two meetings per month? There are an awful lot of places where we can look at things differently, reimagine things…”
