The Ontario government will make a one-time investment in small and rural municipalities to improve local service delivery and efficiency, which means over $12 million for Parry Sound-Muskoka municipalities, according to an announcement from Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark on March 20.
Municipalities throughout Parry Sound-Muskoka will receive $12,579,480 to improve service delivery and each municipality will decide how to best use the funding for their local communities. The support is directed at Ontario’s small and rural municipalities that may have limited capacity to plan, modernize and improve the way they service their communities.
“This funding will help all the communities in Parry Sound-Muskoka ensure they are providing their residents with the best value for their property tax dollars,” said Parry Sound-Muskoka MPP Norm Miller. “I look forward to seeing what innovative ways our municipal partners find to deliver services in the most efficient way possible.”
Funding, which was allocated based on the number of households in a municipality and whether the municipality is urban or rural, will go to 405 municipalities across Ontario.
“Taxpayers need their local government to deliver modern, efficient services that show respect for their hard-earned dollars. This funding will help small and rural municipalities improve how they deliver services and reduce the ongoing costs of providing those services,” Clark said. “I look forward to continuing to work together with our municipal partners to help people and businesses in communities across our province thrive.”
The province undertook a review of its own expenditures and has told its partners, including municipalities, to take steps to become more efficient through methods like service delivery reviews and the development of shared services agreements, according to the announcement.
“We are very pleased to receive this funding from the Provincial Government,” said Parry Sound Mayor and President of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario Jamie McGarvey. “This funding will support our municipality’s endeavours to modernize our systems and services that will help to better serve our residents.”
Table courtesy of Norm Miller’s office. Photo credit: “Queen’s Park / Toronto” by Gerry Kichok is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
[…] The Town of Gravenhurst will get $604,110 as one of the rural municipalities chosen to receive one-time funding from the province as part of a $12 million investment announced on March 20. […]