Report to/Rapport au :
Agriculture
and Rural Affairs Committee
and Council / et au Conseil
Submitted by/Soumis par: Rural Issues
Advisory Committee
Comité consultatif sur les questions rurales
Contact Person/Personne ressource : Marc Desjardins,
Coordinator / Coordonnateur,
Rural Issues Advisory Committee / Comité
consultatif sur les questions rurales
(613) 580-2424 Ext / poste, 28821 /
Marc.Desjardins@ottawa.ca
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SUBJECT: |
minimum
level of service delivery in rural ottawa
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OBJET : |
niveau minime de service dans les secteurs ruraux
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REPORT
RECOMMENDATION
The Rural
Issues Advisory Committee recommends that the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee,
recommend Council approve, that, as a policy guideline, the delivery of
services to residents of rural Ottawa should be no less than, and at least
equivalent to the level of service provided by the area municipalities prior to
amalgamation.
RECOMMENDATION DU RAPPORT
Le Comité consultatif sur les questions rurales
recommande au Comité de l’agriculture et des questions rurales de recommander à
son tour au Conseil municipal, qu’à titre de ligne directrice générale, la
prestation de services aux résidents des secteurs ruraux d’Ottawa soit au moins
égale, et en aucun cas inférieure, au niveau de service offert par les
municipalités de la région avant la fusion.
BACKGROUND
At the request of the Rural Issues Advisory Committee (RIAC) member, Mr. B. Tupper, the RIAC discussed the above-noted subject at its September 19, 2006 and at its October 17, 2006 meetings.
Mr. Tupper asked
that this matter be placed on the above-noted RIAC agendas so that members may
discuss service levels in Rural Ottawa with respect to: what level of service the rural communities
should receive; what level of service they currently receive; and what level of
service they historically received. This
would apply to such services as road maintenance, snow--plowing, roadside maintenance,
maintenance and operation of community facilities, ice arenas, libraries, etc.
As a result of
their discussions of this topic, members of the Rural Issues Advisory Committee
felt City Council should set, as public policy, the level of service delivery
in rural communities and, once set, City Council should be the overseers of
that service delivery.
In discussing the matter on September 19, Mr. Tupper provided an overview
of his objectives in raising the matter for discussion; changes to service
levels since amalgamation and a need for residents to know what they could
expect in terms of service levels and standards for service delivery. RIAC members discussed some of the problems
experienced by rural residents with respect to service levels and acknowledged
the difficulties in quantifying service levels.
In discussing the matter on October 17, Mr. Tupper
referenced the Committee’s discussions of September 19 and proposed the
following motion, which received unanimous support from RIAC members:
WHEREAS the Rural Issues Advisory Committee (RIAC)
is charged with the responsibility of recommending to the Agriculture and Rural
Affairs Committee (ARAC) strategies to improve the delivery of municipal
services to rural residents;
AND WHEREAS service delivery to rural Ottawa is
being re-organized as a result of the Rural Summit and under ARAC and the
recently established Rural Affairs Office;
AND WHEREAS it would be beneficial to rural
residents to have some definition of the level of service they might expect;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the RIAC recommends to
the ARAC that, as a policy guideline, the delivery of services to residents of
rural Ottawa should be no less than, and at least equivalent to, the level of
service provided by the area municipalities prior to amalgamation.
In order to provide adequate background information
and comment on this Rural Issues Advisory Committee
(RIAC) recommendation,
the Rural Affairs Office has worked with Sstaff
in Community and Protective Services, Corporate Services, Planning, Transit and the Environment, Public Works and Services. The Rural Affairs Office and the Rural Affairs Office was consulted in the
preparation of this report. provides
the following review, comparison
and comments based
on the information on current and pre-amalgamation service levels
provided by the various departments. The following represents their comments on the
implications of the report recommendation.
Rural
Affairs Office (Lead Department)
Based
on the motion submitted by the Rural Issues Advisory Committee, the Rural
Affairs Office has been working with the City’s departments: Public Works and
Services, Community and Protective Services, Planning, Transit and the
Environment, and Business Transformation Services to compare pre and post
amalgamation service levels in the rural area.
City services in the rural area have, for the most
part, increased since amalgamation. The involvement of senior staff in the Rural Summit
process has helped to ensure that areas that had required attention have been
addressed. Further, additional funding
through the Rural Summit budget allocation has supported their efforts. Due the various practices and
service levels in the former municipalities, it is impossible to say that
service levels in the rural area have increased across the board. However, when compared on a pragmatic,
item-by-item basis, service levels have generally increased since amalgamation
with few exceptions.
The Rural Affairs Office acknowledges that this
assessment is contrary to a widely held public perception that is clearly
evident through the recent Decima Citizen Satisfaction Survey. One explanation for this may be, that while
many services have improved, the personal relationship with staff has been lost
through the transition to one larger organization. The impact of losing that personal connection to staff was a
significant point of discussion throughout the Rural Summit process. Recognizing this concern, branches such as
Surface Operations have realigned some staff to return them to the areas where
they worked prior to amalgamation.
Another explanation may be that the process to obtain City services, in
some cases, has become more bureaucratic in nature.
In
areas where service levels have decreased, the Council supported reductions
have been implemented in order to cut costs or increase efficiency of service
delivery. As the City of Ottawa has
evolved since amalgamation, there has been a significant change in the way we
deliver many of our services.
In making the comparisons, the Rural Affairs Office
has made an effort to refrain from using cost as a comparator. Cost, while easier to measure, does not
adequately represent our resident’s definition of service delivery. Instead, the Rural Affairs Office has made
an attempt to focus on output, or things that directly affect rural
residents. In doing so, the services
have been described, as residents would see them, not necessarily by department
or branch that provides the service. In
some service areas we can be very definitive about service levels, and in other
areas it is a greater challenge. There
are two areas, roads maintenance
and parks maintenance, where there are very clear, council approved service
level standards. Having these clearly defined standards
provides a better understanding of service levels for staff, members of Council
and residents.
It is important to note that
many of the City’s services could not be provided without the assistance of the
‘Centres of Expertise’ that have not been highlighted individually. It is
through these ‘centres’, such as Human Resources, Finance, and Information
Technology that support is provided to enable the delivery of front line
services to the rural areas.
This
review of rural service levels has demonstrated that service levels have
generally increased since amalgamation.
In
areas where service levels have decreased, the Council supported reductions
have been implemented in order to cut costs or increase efficiency of service
delivery. As the City of Ottawa has
evolved since amalgamation, there has been a significant change in the way we
deliver many of our services.
Staff
supports the spirit that the City should be providing the best possible service
to our residents, and we believe that as a whole, our services exceed service
levels prior to amalgamation. However,
it is sStaff’s recommendation
that, at this time, is
that it would be impractical to state that all service levels must
be, at a minimum, the same as before amalgamation. In order to achieve this goal, additional resources or a
reduction in services that have been improved since amalgamation would be
required to offset the costs of achieving a pre-amalgamation benchmark for every
service. The level of resources
required to reach this benchmark has not been quantified
as part of this review.
The rural Client Service Centres are currently open
one day per week and offer a full suite of City services including information
on planning applications, building permit application reviews, fire permits,
information and registration for City programs. Suburban and urban Client Service Centres offer the same
services, but operate on full business hours.
The reduced operating hours of the rural client
service centres is perhaps the most apparent service reduction that has
resulted since amalgamation. This
service reduction was identified through the Rural Summit. Based largely on the
costs associated with providing full services at these locations, the
residents’ recommendation was not to return to full hours but rather enhance
some of the other service options available to rural residents.
The City of Ottawa operates a dedicated call centre
with 24-7 availability for emergency service issues. This call centre also enables a single point of contact to all
City services, through 3-1-1 or 311@ottawa.ca
which removes the question of who to call at the City. The extended hours of the call centre are an
improvement over pre-amalgamation where the offices would typically receive
calls from 8:30am to 4:30pm.
Enhancements identified at the Rural Summit such as improved training on
rural issues for call centre staff have been implemented with very positive results. Adoption of additional technology, such as
the Speak@Ease automated call directory has
further improved the 3-1-1 experiences for clients.
One of the other enhancements identified at the
Rural Summit relates to the City’s website, which is increasingly used to
deliver information and services to residents.
The creation of Rural Connections, a centralized source for rural
information and services greatly increases the ease of use for self-serve
information. This is particularly
useful for residents using dial-up Internet by filtering out all of the urban
related information. The range of
information and services available online are improved in comparison to the
websites of the former townships.
City owned buildings in the rural area account for
9.5% of the entire City owned building space.
Since amalgamation, the number of buildings under City ownership has
increased as a result of the downloading of ambulance service. In order to ensure that these buildings are
being kept in good repair, the City has completed ‘Facility Condition Audits’
for 650,000 square feet of space in the rural area. Transition to a proactive/preventative maintenance program, which
is enabled through this program, results in lower overall maintenance costs and
reduced downtime for rural facilities.
This audit process has identified many repairs and
improvements that have been implemented as a result. This includes significant capital investments to rural facilities
and community centres, such as wiring upgrades, furnace and HVAC replacement,
new windows, doors, flooring and accessibility improvements.
Rural arenas have seen major investments including
new flooring and upgrades to dressing rooms and spectator areas along with
improvements to ice surfaces such as new boards and glass, protective netting
and repairs to ice plants and cooling pipes.
The audits have also identified $5.1M in life cycle renewal or major
repairs that will be considered over the next 5 years.
Significant investments in paramedic services have
resulted in dramatic improvements to rural paramedic services. In the rural areas, response times have
decreased since amalgamation from well over 22 minutes to just over 17 minutes
(for 90% of cases), a drop of 23%. The
number of highly trained Advanced Care Paramedics, City wide, has increased
from 74 to 121 – a 63% increase. Having
better trained paramedics, that are responding quicker, results in a better
chance to save more lives.
With amalgamation there was a great deal of concern raised in the rural community over the loss of full-time firefighters from the volunteer service. The full-time firefighters brought a great deal of skills and experience to the volunteer ranks. In order to ensure that this change would not mean a decrease in the ability of volunteer firefighters to respond to emergencies effectively, there were a number of actions taken. Resources were made available to provide all new recruits(career and volunteer) with identical training based on the Ontario Fire Marshall endorsed curriculum. The compliment of volunteer firefighters for each station was standardized at 25, a significant increase for some of the former municipalities.
Significant capital investment ($21.8M) since amalgamation has resulted in improved and new fire stations, fire trucks and equipment for fire protection in the rural areas. Through the unified fire service approach, there is also immediate access to specialized equipment and fully trained personnel such as hazardous materials, high angle rescue and confined rescue teams for silo rescue. The additional resources provided by the ability of the suburban fire stations to jointly respond or backfill in the case of a major emergency provides for enhanced fire service delivery throughout the vast rural area of the city.
By-law services have increased their hours of
operation since amalgamation. By-law
staff are providing coverage until midnight with extended hours until 2:00am on
weekends and throughout the summer months.
Prior to amalgamation, there was limited service on evenings, weekends
and holidays.
While the process for applying for cultural and
community funding may be longer and more formal than in the former
municipalities, funding programs are more targeted, resulting in an increase in
the amount of municipal funding available for rural communities, groups and
associations. Community groups, museums
and special events such as rural fairs have benefited from this additional
funding for both operations and capital improvements.
Rural fairs have seen their combined support for
operating expenses increase from $25,000 in 2002 to $45,000 in 2006. Rural community museums have seen their
operating funding increase from $124,000 (for 5 museums) in 2002 to $542,018
(for 6 museums) in 2006. Arts and heritage groups are also eligible for funding
to offset their costs for repairs or new construction. In 2002, rural groups were not familiar with
the new funding opportunities or process, therefore in that year; rural groups
were awarded $3,724 for minor capital projects. By 2006 this increased to $16,228.Rural museums and fairs also
received $78,000 in one-time capital grants in 2006, funding that did not exist
in 2002.
In 2006, 33 rural organizations received Renewable Community Funding for a total amount of $290,865.
An Allocations Committee, comprised primarily of
community members, including representation from the rural areas makes
decisions for the Community Project Funding Program. In 2006, 4 rural organizations received Non-Renewable Community
Project Funding, for a total of $17,930.
Prior to amalgamation, the Regional Municipality of
Ottawa-Carleton or the Province of Ontario largely offered social services such
as affordable housing, long-term care, and support for people with
disabilities. Despite the downloading
of provincial services, there has been no decline in social service levels. We have seen modest increases in long-term
care beds and affordable housing units in rural areas since amalgamation.
Since amalgamation Parks &
Recreation have enhanced service levels to the rural area by offering increased
recreational programming, making investments into rural parks and providing
major and minor capital funding for recreation facilities in partnership with
rural community associations. New
programming options include adult fitness, children's camps and special
interest courses and youth programs. In
2002, 62 programs were offered in the rural areas reflecting what former
municipalities offered, while there are 444 programs offered in 2007. The City partners with local community
associations to deliver recreational programming, maximizing the contributions
of volunteers, wherever possible.
Capital investments in recreation
infrastructure have included new playgrounds and playground equipment, outdoor
rink boards, landscaping, pathways and trails and park features such as
gazebos. Annual investments have
increased from $104,000 in 2001 to more than $773,000 in 2002, and $945,000 in
2003. Good portions of the new
investments have been through the Minor and Major Community Partnership
Programs, highlighting the popularity of these funding streams with rural
community groups.
Access to ice time will be enhanced in
West Carleton with the completion of the new arena in Kinburn.
Rural libraries have benefited from an exponential
increase in the size of the collection that can be accessed from any one of the
33 locations. Rural branches have also
seen significant improvements in the use and availability of technology. The catalogue can be accessed through the
internet, or computerized access at all of the branches. Libraries are also host to public internet
access terminals that offer free high-speed internet access.
Prior to amalgamation, the municipalities had
various levels of economic development involvement. Since amalgamation, a co-ordinated approach has been adopted with
the Ottawa 20/20 Economic Strategy. The
strategy has outlined a number of key areas that should be supported in order
to improve the health of the rural economy.
Rural initiatives account for a significant portion of the City’s
economic development activities and have resulted in some great success stories
such as the creation of Ottawa’s Countryside – a group of rural tourism
businesses that co-operatively market to promote the rural experience and various
projects promoting ‘Buy Local’ for local agricultural products. These buy local initiatives have been
further complimented by the introduction of the Directional Farm Signage
Program that permits directional signs in the public right of way enabling customers
to find, and buy locally grown food.
The City has made significant progress in reaching
every resident, farm and business with high speed internet. This effort has culminated with the City of
Ottawa’s partnership with Barrett Xplore that will see the City invest up to $1
million to substantially complete rural broadband access by the end of August
2007. This achievement would have been
difficult, if not impossible without the financial resources and co-ordination
made possible by being part of a large municipality. This co-ordinated effort
has also proved to be fruitful in the implementation of a Citywide toll-free
calling area that will come into effect June 18, 2007.
Building Permits are processed by the City’s
Building Code Services Branch, which is the municipal
authority in Ontario Building Code knowledge, regulation, and enforcement. Prior to amalgamation, each township would
have had a building official on a full or part-time basis. Having limited qualified staff created
potential gaps in service when staff took annual leave or were ill. The current structure, with more resources
to call on is less prone to disruption due to holidays or illness. Having access to more staff has also enabled
Building Code Services to develop and maintain specialised Building Code
expertise for certain types of structures, such as farm buildings.
Building Code officials are currently
accessible in rural Client Service Centres one day per week. While this is a reduction compared to pre-amalgamation,
suburban Client Service Centres have Building Code staff available five days
per week. Following amalgamation, the
initial point of contact for obtaining a building permit would have been Client
Service Representatives. Since July
2005, Building
Code experts have been re-integrated into the front line at the Client Service
Centres to provide a continuous point of contact for clients. These Building Code experts work with
clients in advance of submitting their applications to ensure that applications
are ‘complete’, and pre-screen and direct the applications to the appropriate
staff. This has minimized the number of
‘incomplete’ applications that would require the client to provide additional
information, causing delays. In 2006,
the Building Code Services Branch was able to meet the Council mandated
timelines for small homeowner projects 72.32% of the time.
As a result of the Rural Summit, a grant program has
been established to offset building permit fees for farm structures that are
required to comply with the Nutrient Management Act. Staff are working with manufacturers and distributors to
streamline the building permit application process for pre-engineered, fabric
hoop (Coverall) type buildings.
While many rural residents may never need a zoning
change, those that do, have seen a significant change as the City has evolved
toward a specialist model as opposed to the generalist model of the former
townships. Prior to amalgamation,
individual staff members would have dealt with all types of planning
applications ranging from committee of adjustment, to zoning by-law amendments.
Under the current City structure staff have become more focused on a particular
aspect of approvals either by application type (i.e. Committee of
Adjustment) or subject matter (i.e. infrastructure approvals).
This specialization has both advantages and
disadvantages with how it relates to customer service. The planning and approvals staff has a
better understanding of their field of expertise, but the personal connection
and broad understanding of a file and client is more difficult to
maintain.
With the new and increasing complexity of provincial
requirements, through the Planning Act and environmental policies, it becomes
more and more difficult for staff to maintain the broad skill set that was
historically available.
Through the evolution to this specialist model,
there have been some extended timelines for planning approvals, but
improvements continue to be made to the process and these timelines have been
consistently shrinking in recent years.
Prior to amalgamation, planning staff would have
been available in the former townships on a full time basis. Currently, Development Information Officers
are available in the rural Client Service Centres one day per week and suburban
Client Service Centres five days per week.
Development Information Officers provide information on Official Plan
guidelines, the planning process and planning applications. This face-to-face interaction has provided
an improved level of client satisfaction.
Roads are considered by many rural residents to be
the most important service the City provides.
Despite major recent investments into our rural road infrastructure,
there are still many roads that are in need of repair or upgrade. When comparing service levels for road
maintenance, it is important to differentiate between operational services and
life cycle maintenance. Operational
services include grass cutting in the ditches, grading and snow control. Life cycle maintenance speaks more to the
condition of the roads, and covers major expenses such as repaving.
Public Works and Services submitted a report in 2003
on maintenance quality standards that was subsequently approved by
Council. As part of this report, a
comprehensive look at proposed maintenance standards compared to those for
every former municipality was provided, (http://ottawa.ca/calendar/ottawa/citycouncil/occ/2003/06-11/ttc/ACS2003-TUP-SOP-0004.htm).
The results of this comparison show that all of the current roadway maintenance
standards are comparable, with some enhancements, to those from the former
rural municipalities.
Under our current budget pressures, funding for
life-cycle investments across the City has been reduced. This has resulted in a drop in the
conditions of our entire road network, in both urban and rural areas. As outlined in the City’s 2005 Annual
Report, the conditions of our roads have decreased since amalgamation. In 2002, 98.6% of our paved rural roads were
considered ‘adequate’ or better. By
2005, this measure had slipped to 84.2%.
While this decline is largely due to budget constraints, overall aging
of our infrastructure also contributes to increased demands. Since 2005, we have seen increased funding
for rural road rehabilitation. Roads
were identified through the Rural Summit as a major priority. Subsequently the Rural Summit Task Force
recommended that investment into rural roads and ditches should make up the
single largest component of the Rural Summit budget allocation. This funding,
if sustained, will help prevent further deterioration of our rural road
network. Significant additional investment
will be required to bring the condition of our rural roads up to
pre-amalgamation levels.
Public green-space is one of the major factors that
contribute to the quality of life in Ottawa.
Since amalgamation, the maintenance levels of our rural parks and sports
fields have increased, in some cases significantly. Specifically, rural sports fields benefit from increased grass
cutting, fertilization and aeration. In
2005, Public Works and Services submitted a report outlining proposed park
maintenance standards, (http://ottawa.ca/calendar/ottawa/citycouncil/occ/2005/11-30/hrss/ACS2005-PWS-SOP-0009.htm). This report provides a detailed comparison
of current park and sports field standards to pre-amalgamation levels. The rural areas are also home to significant
tracts of public forests. The management
of these natural resources has improved with the abilities of the City’s forestry
division.
While many people consider transit an urban service,
investments since amalgamation into new Park and Ride lots and increased
express routes have yielded impressive service enhancements. The 12 new Park and Ride locations, and additional
79 rural bus trips per day have supported a 550% increase in rural ridership
(includes Stittsville). A current total
of 563,400 trips per year compares to 86,000 before amalgamation. Para Transpo users also have improved travel
options since the service is now available between two rural points as opposed
to only providing service into, and out of the urban area as was the case
during pre-amalgamation.
City staff has been working hard, particularly since the Rural Summit process in 2005 to understand rural concerns and improve service levels to rural residents. These examples provide a clear indication that the City has improved upon service levels in the rural area since amalgamation. While there will always be some services that may be reduced, or delivered in a different manner, City staff are committed to delivering the best services possible within the budget constraints we are facing.
FINANCIAL
IMPLICATIONS
The financial implications associated
with the approval of the recommendation are not
known at this time. Increased resources would be required to conduct further
analysis to measure the
financial impact.N/A
SUPPORTING
DOCUMENTATION
Document 1 Extract of Minutes from the September
19, 2006 RIAC meeting
Document 2 Extract of Minutes from the October 17,
2006 RIAC meeting
DISPOSITION
The Committee Coordinator will inform the Rural Issues Advisory
Committee of the Standing Committee and Council decision on the recommendation.
Minimum level of service
delivery in Rural Ottawa - discussion
niveau minime de service
dans le secteur rural d’ottawa – discussion
Member Tupper provided an
overview of his objectives in raising the above-noted matter for discussion and
indicated he was prepared to defer the item to the next regular meeting,
provided it was first or second on that agenda.
Committee members briefly
discussed the matter, acknowledged some of the difficulties in quantifying
service levels and concurred with the importance of having a fulsome discussion
on it.
Action: Committee
Coordinator to list the above-noted item on the next regular meeting agenda –
as the first or second item on the agenda.
Minimum level of service delivery in Rural Ottawa - discussion
niveau
minime de service dans le secteur rural d’ottawa – discussion
B. Tupper, RIAC Vice-Chair
Vice-Chair Tupper referenced the brief
discussion held at the previous RIAC meeting with respect to on this
matter. Having given the matter some
thought since the last meeting, he outlined his thoughts and concerns with respect
to service levels. He believed some had
improved, some had remained essentially the same, and some had deteriorated
since amalgamation. He felt it was
important for rural residents to know what they could expected in terms of
service levels and to have some mechanism for holding the City accountable in
that regard. In closing, Vice Chair
Tupper introduced the following motion.
Moved by Vice-Chair B. Tupper
WHEREAS the Rural Issues
Advisory Committee (RIAC) is charged with the responsibility of recommending to
the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee (ARAC) strategies to improve the
delivery of municipal services to rural residents;
AND WHEREAS service delivery
to rural Ottawa is being re-organized as a result of the Rural Summit and under
ARAC and the recently established Rural Affairs Office;
AND WHEREAS it would be
beneficial to rural residents to have some definition of the level of service
they might expect;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED
that the RIAC recommends to the ARAC that , as a policy guideline, the delivery
of services to residents of rural Ottawa should be no less than, and at least
equivalent to, the level of service provided by the area municipalities prior
to amalgamation.
CARRIED
Action: The Committee Coordinator to forward the RIAC motion to
the ARAC through a Committee report.