Business Program Releases Municipal Performance Comparison Study Report

Lakehead University - Orillia business students release results of Municipal Performance Comparison study

(July 22, 2010 - Orillia, ON) An interesting and unique research report has recently been released by Lakehead University - Orillia's Business Administration Program. The Comparative Municipal Performance Measurement Project report compares the municipal performance of the Cities of Orillia and Barrie and the County of Simcoe with that of other similar municipalities.

The project studied data that is collected under the province's Municipal Performance Measurement Program (MPMP), a reporting system that promotes local government transparency and accountability. It provides municipalities with useful data to make informed municipal service decisions, while optimizing available resources. The Lakehead research project takes this information one step further.

While the data is based on reports that municipalities are required to submit for service areas such as roads, water, waste management, parks and recreation, police and fire services, the province does not compare the statistics among municipalities.

"By comparing statistics, we can help taxpayers understand if they are paying a little and getting a lot, or vice versa," explains Professor Herman van den Berg, who assigned the project to his finance students.

"We assume the municipal services in our communities are the standard; that they would be comparable to those in any similar municipality, but this is not necessarily the case," says van den Berg. For example, according to the report, police service expenditures in Orillia are in line with those of the peer group, yet the violent and property crime rates are very high. In Barrie, the report shows that transit costs are fairly high, while the efficiency of service level falls well below the median. In Simcoe County, the operating costs for paved roads are high when compared to the median, while library costs are substantially lower than those of the municipalities in its peer group.

"We would normally expect a direct relationship between the value of level of benefits provided by a municipality and the cost of providing them," says van den Berg. Although the students' work does point out some notable anomalies, van den Berg cautions that they should not necessarily be accepted at face value, but as an indication that further investigation may be warranted. "There are often other factors that may explain the report's findings," he says. "What the report does is help to point out areas that may need improvement and other areas that can be considered best practices."

The project allowed students to focus on an area of finance not commonly found in their textbooks. "Much of our textbook learning focuses on profit-seeking organizations, shareholder values and the bottom line," says Jacquie Kent, one of the student authors of the report. "In this project, we were able to examine the social benefits of non-profit organizations and see how the research has practical applications."

Download the full report here.

For more information about the report or to arrange a presentation of the findings, please contact Professor Herman van den Berg at herman.vandenberg@lakeheadu.ca.