WELLINGTON COUNTY – Municipalities in northern Wellington County are increasingly partnering in services to find efficiencies and expertise for their communities.
A service delivery review by KPMG identified the top 20 opportunities for townships to find synergies in services. Wellington North CAO Michael Givens said Minto and Wellington North have been “quite aggressive” in looking for partnership opportunities.
At Monday evening’s Wellington North council meeting, they approved a partnership with Minto on hiring a full-time drainage superintendent to split between the townships.
Last month, the two towns agreed to merge their fire department administration for efficiency purposes.
Givens explained in a phone call that the benefit for this relates less to cost savings but to having knowledgeable people available to the municipalities.
“We’re all struggling at a municipal level to ensure we have the municipal expertise and professionals in key positions,” Givens said. “We’re working together to ensure that expertise exists in both of our organizations.
Givens said municipal drains are a major issue in rural areas but there may not be enough work for each town to justify hiring a drainage superintendent full-time.
“I think the partnership idea helps with service levels in a lot of positions,” Givens said. “When you combine it, you increase the service level because you’re able to get somebody who is focused exclusively on that work for both municipalities.”
Minto CAO Derrick Thomson explained that a drainage superintendent is a specialized service that is often split between municipalities.
“There’s some savings to be had by municipalities by sharing the cost of one position,” Thomson said. “Of course if they’re neighbouring municipalities there’s always that opportunity for synergies between the two municipalities in how they deal with drainage issues.”
Minto and the Township of Mapleton recently agreed to split the costs on a youth centre in Palmerston near the high school where many of their young people attend.
Thomson said there are no other partnerships in the works but Minto is always open to more opportunities.
Givens said the town is potentially working the County of Wellington on a public works share in Arthur and anticipates more partnerships and efficiencies that were identified by KPMG.
“We’re not going to be able to get to all of those in the short term but certainly they are something we consider,” Givens said. “I anticipate within the next two or three years there will be some other opportunities around partnerships.”
