Amalgamation is out, but service integration to be studied

Jeff Green | Nov 20, 2019

The ghost of the Mike Harris government is resting a bit more quietly in Ontario municipal circles.

The province "will not force amalgamation of municipalities," Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark said at a public forum just after the federal election took place.

The province has been conducting a review of 82 upper and lower tier municipalities, most of them located in the vicinity of the City of Toronto, sparking speculation that the review would lead to amalgamation.

As the Ford government demonstrated in the first few weeks of its mandate when it changed the ward system in the City of Toronto in the midst of a municipal election, provincial authorities have broad powers over municipalities in Ontario through the Municipal Act.

Last spring, when the details about proposed changed in the health sector were released, the government began a process whereby Public Health agencies, Paramedic Service delivery agencies, and front line health care agencies are being combined into large regional entities, the idea being that service delivery will be more efficient and less expensive for provincial taxpayers.

All of this led to speculation that small and rural municipalities, of which there are 405 in the province, will find themselves facing amalgamation pressures within the next year or two.

The announcement by Minister Clark put an end to speculation.

“I never took that talk too seriously,” said Central Frontenac Mayor Frances Smith, who is preparing to take on the mantle of Frontenac County Warden in 2020. “It’s easy to say that amalgamation is the answer but when they take a detailed look at the cost of maintaining services and keeping up roads like 38 and 509 that the province downloaded to the municipalities in the first place, they see that there are no real savings to be had.”

Within days of Clark’s comments, a new municipal funding program, the municipal modernization program, aimed at those 405 small, rural municipalities, was announced.

The first intake for the program is providing grants for “reviews of municipal service delivery expenditures by independent third-party operators.”

Frontenac County and its member townships decided last week that they would like to apply for the funding.

At their meetings this week, South Frontenac and Frontenac County Council are both considering making a combined submission to the fund. If the submission is successful, they will undertake a service delivery review focused on taking a regional approach in reviewing operational services to identify efficiencies and best use of limited resources.

At this point, all that is necessary is that an expression of interest form be submitted to the province. The details can be worked out between the 5 municipalities (North, Central, and South Frontenac, Frontenac Islands, and Frontenac County) before a final submission is submitted next month.

The review would take place early in 2020 and a report will be submitted to the ministry and released to the public in late June. Later intakes under the Municipal Modernization Program, which runs until 2023, will provided funding for implementation of identified projects

Frontenac County will also be submitting an expression of interest to the program to conduct a review of the economic development department with view towards making the best use of the limited resources in the small department.