The Township of Pelee is one of 405 municipalities to receive a Municipal Modernization Grant as part of a $125 million roll out of funds from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing to help small and rural communities find opportunities to share resources and deliver services to taxpayers more efficiently.

Pelee was awarded $234,900 and Strategy Corp (offices in Toronto and Ottawa) was engaged to execute a Service Delivery Review.

On May 10, Strategy Corp made the final presentation to the Township of Pelee Council with key findings and specific recommendations to be implemented in multiple phases over the next seven years.  The report identifies gaps around a lack of unified vision for forward progress, corporate standards, financial and staffing capacity.

Recommendations include developing a vision through a robust strategic planning framework from which most all other recommendations flow.

Gaps in cohesive decision-making between Council, Administration and Committees of Council were fully analyzed with recommendation for written reports, structured mandates and annual work plan for each committee in order to ensure alignment to the Corporate Strategic Plan, roles are defined and time is properly valued.

Expanding the staffing complement by restructuring to add an Operations Manager and Community Services Manager thereby removes five direct reports from the CAO/Clerk and provides an opportunity to diversify expertise in the leadership team.

Recruiting on- and off-Island talent or creating shared positions with other municipalities are possibilities that the review explores.

Pelee Island has a uniquely small and fixed tax base with a limited financial capacity. Strategy Corp laid out a path to success for making sound provincial and federal asks backed by strong business cases for items such as increasing transfer payments from Ontario to 20% from the benchmark of 2.5% and obtaining “remote” status to improve revenue from government funding streams.

Clear priorities were set for the current Council with the bulk of the work of developing a new Corporate Strategic Plan coming at the start of the term of the next Council.

The Township of Pelee Service Delivery Review is a public document and posted online at pelee.org.

Further Reading:

Strategy Corp — Township of Pelee: Service Delivery Review

Service modernization funding for small and rural communities

Photo provided by Cathy Miller

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Cathy + Kevin Miller
InnKeeps
The Wandering Dog Inn
www.thewanderingdoginn.com
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