KLINCK.
‘It looked as though from that last meeting that they’re leaving out the citizens until later on, which is a great big mistake’— Liam Cragg
MUSKOKA - Belt-tightening decisions on services offered by the District of Muskoka are being made in a “silo,” devoid of public input and local considerations, critics fear.
In an Oct. 14 meeting, the district’s corporate and emergency services committee tweaked a proposed review of district services by eliminating a citizen’s advisory body, and by giving its own members authority over penny-pinching recommendations forwarded to district council by the district’s three other standing committees.
Members of the seven-member corporate and emergency services committee are District Chair John Klinck, and the six mayors of Muskoka’s area municipalities.
“It looks like it was a light version of what was originally presented, certainly watered down in terms of citizen participation and only focusing on the district and not the other municipalities,” said Bracebridge Coun. Liam Cragg. “You’re looking inwards at one silo, and there are seven silos.”
A co-founder of One Muskoka — a grassroots group that is questioning the value of two-tier governance in Muskoka — Cragg pointed to the amended review’s lack of public input, and the possibility it would not dig deeper for savings by including the district’s six area municipalities.
“The district does not collect taxes, but the other six municipalities do,” he said. “If they looked at that in a group, they’d say ‘why doesn’t one of us just do the tax collection for everyone else, and they’ll bill accordingly.’ Certainly the mayors all wanted the review for the district to leave no stone unturned, but I didn’t hear them saying they’d do the same thing for their municipalities in concert with the district review.”
Cragg said a common services review would be no different than audits done in the private sector to make organizations more efficient.
“That’s not changing structures, that’s not getting rid of politicians … but that’s just becoming more efficient,” he said.
One Muskoka co-founder Mike Provan echoed Cragg’s concerns, and said he was “disappointed” the public isn’t being given an upfront role in the review process.
“It looked as though from that last meeting that they’re leaving out the citizens until later on, which is a great big mistake,” he said. “That’s what it’s all about in the world right now, involving citizens, and to leave them to the end is a big mistake for the district politicians.”
At the meeting, Klinck said he would not support the amendments to the service review when it goes for council’s final approval.
“I am terribly concerned about a process on service that doesn’t involve an integrated committee process,” Klinck said. “I won’t be supporting the amendment as I feel that strongly about the horsepower we can get from our committees.”
Bracebridge Mayor Graydon Smith seconded Klinck’s concerns.
“I think we have an established committee structure in place that will serve this process well,” he said.
Under the original review model proposed by district CAO Jim Green, recommendations from the district’s four standing committees would be forwarded to a superseding steering committee comprising each standing committee’s chair. That steering committee would then forward those recommendations to council. At the same time, council would also consider public input through a citizen’s advisory body comprising up to nine non-elected members.
But under the changes, members of the corporate and emergency services committee will fill the seats of the steering committee.
In lieu of a citizen’s advisory body, the amendments directed district staff to “begin communicating with the public to explain the services review initiative,” and to “encourage their participation in the future.”