Performance measurement in most municipal operations is almost non-existent. That reflects the difficulty in determining what should be measured and the difference in service levels and resources that render benchmarking municipalities almost useless. It is understandable that most administrations do not allocate much of their budgets, already under intense scrutiny, toward providing measurements that might open them up to more criticism.
As a recent column by Dave Dale points out though, that can lead to a loss of credibility undermining those efforts that are important in the grand scheme of things and derail projects that should be undertaken with opposing viewpoints fairly and extensively considered.
Performance measurement for municipalities first became mandatory in 2000 when Mike Harris’ Common Sense Revolution wanted to assure service delivery levels after downloading responsibilities to municipalities. The Municipal Performance Measurement Program (MPMP) used data reported by municipalities through the annual Financial Information Return to calculate 58 measures across 12 service areas. The program was discontinued in 2015 after complaints about the workload it created for municipal staff combined with differences in data recording and accuracy reducing the overall effectiveness of the reports.
The Ontario Municipal Benchmarking Initiative (OMBI) was also created in 2000 as a collaboration between the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing and 15 Ontario municipalities. In 2016 it expanded nationally and rebranded as the Municipal Benchmarking Network (MBN). It hoped to share performance data among its participants encouraging competition and improvement providing taxpayers with a better understanding of how their tax dollars were being used.
Also starting in 2000 BMA started compiling a Municipal Benchmark Study which has grown to include 126 municipalities in 2024. North Bay is a participant in the BMA study and posts the annual report here. However, far from being a readily accessible resource for the public to learn about the civic performance of North Bay, it is a collection of data that is overwhelming in its detail and does not succinctly reassure residents that overall performance is being well managed.
In fact, if one were to rely on the North Bay website search engine, you would never locate the page, nor has there ever been any media release or summary issued to inform the public.
The Strategic Plan developed by North Bay council in 2017 identified a performance measurement framework as a priority for a responsible and responsive government, but it took a KPMG organizational review in 2023 to remind the administration that direction had been given six years earlier.
That review made a number of good recommendations (the performance framework was number one) and apparently cost the city $198,000, (the June 20, 2023 minutes refer to Report to Council CORP No. 2023-85, but surprise…that report is not published on the website!)
The implementation plan for the KPMG Organizational Review (including the Redbrick Communications plan) was presented to council in Oct 2024 and we have now seen another year go by with no update issued on the progress of implementing the KPMG recommendations.
Dave and I hope to post a series of articles in the leadup to the 2026 municipal elections that will serve to remind voters of the accomplishments of this council compared with their stated intentions prior to taking office and hopefully review what the new candidates feel are their priorities.
Through that process, we also hope to present data that illustrates our points and what other municipalities have done in that regard. For example, even though there is a KPMG study on the Sudbury website that details how difficult benchmarking and performance measurement is for municipalities, there are some municipalities that have gone ahead and developed performance dashboards. They are not perfect, but represent an effort to inform residents, in a convenient manner, of how the municipality is performing. Ideally, a performance dashboard should contain meaningful measurements in all municipal service areas, with clickable links to historical performance.
The information needs to be recent with explanations how the measurement ties to the strategic, asset management or other plan. Although the historical record enables benchmarking with itself, none of the dashboards include other comparative municipalities in their data. A joint effort with similar municipalities could provide similar metrics and a way to find best practices or recent innovations.
Check them out yourself:
Brampton Toronto Hamilton Halifax
Innisfil Northumberland County Dryden
Worked at the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission for his career, in a number of positions, from front line supervisor to union leader. After retirement in 2011, he continued his interest in government policy and uses social media to stay active in political discussions. Send feedback to: [email protected]
