Interlocal cooperation - taking care of business

NRU
Feb. 7, 2018
By Olivia Da Silva

A recent report from the Institute on Municipal Finance and Government has shed light on some of the benefits behind local municipalities working together and pooling resources.

Released in January, the report by ClimateActionWR plan manager Kate Daley and visiting IMFG researcher Zachary Spicer analyzes the challenges and benefits of interlocal agreements among Canadian municipalities. The concept revolves around municipalities contracting one another for services, or combining their resources for more cost efficient service delivery.

Spicer told NRU that some of the benefits of interlocal cooperation include lowering the cost of certain services and delivering them more effective.

"By partnering with another government, you have the ability to potentially lower servicing costs, because you're essentially pooling costs between two or more governments," Spicer said. "You [also] have the potential to improve quality so you can tap into the brainpower that another government may have. Your potential partner may have experts in a certain policy area that you just don't."

One success story cited in the report, is the Northern 6 in York Region. The six most northern municipalities in York Region— East Gwillimbury, Aurora, Georgina, King, Whitchurch- Stouffville and King—established an interlocal agreement over 10 years ago. The agreement focused on efficiencies or service improvements in administrative or operational matters.

One example is the solid waste recycling project that started in 2007. At the time, the six municipalities didn't have a green bin program, and York Region had just recently increased waste diversion targets. In response, the Northern 6 increased their levels of service by contracting with one waste collection provider for all six municipalities.

York Region chair Wayne Emmerson told NRU that the formation of the Northern 6 also contributed to better cooperation among the municipalities.

"Staff were able to collaborate a lot more because the mayors and the CAOs were talking to one another—the staff from buildings to roads to recreation," Emmerson said. "They were all able to talk knowing that the Northern 6 municipalities were coming together."

Whatever their servicing needs, municipalities can still stand to benefit from collaborating with nearby communities, former Whitchurch-Stouffville CAO David Cash told NRU.

"Each area is different in terms of the culture and who does what. I think it's fair to say that a municipal cooperation or shared service delivery can work no matter what, it will be unique to the situation," Cash said. "Some regions have different responsibilities than others in terms of the upper- and the lower-tier division of activities, and so you'll find that the regions sometimes are delivering services in the local municipalities in a shared way already because that's their culture. In my opinion that's just as viable and just as important, it's just a different way of doing it."