B.   Share Costs with Other Municipalities

1)  Cost Sharing Agreements for Recreation Facilities

Owen Sound residents have by far the lowest ability to pay high taxes yet they are burdened with the full cost of providing services that many residents living adjacent municipalities use on a regular basis. Neither Georgian Bluffs nor Meaford residents contribute anything, beyond their user fees, toward the maintenance of these regional recreation facilities such as the Bayshore, the Rec Centre .

Owen Sound has a population of 21,612 residents and occupies only 24 km2 but is surrounded by Georgian Bluffs and Meaford which have a combined population of about 22,585 and cover an area of 1,187 km2. Therefore it’s understandable that residents of both Meaford and Georgian Bluffs would take full advantage of Owen Sound’s attractions and recreation venues. The number of Owen Sound residents filing income taxes on between 2018 and 2019 reduced by 2.2% according to Statistics Canada 41. In all likelihood, wage earners are just moving across municipal boundaries to reduce one of the growing strains on their family finances – high Taxes and the high rents that result from high taxes. After all, they can continue to enjoy everything that Owen Sound has to offer, while living in Georgian Bluffs or just East of 28th avenue in Meaford.

Given their relative populations, Owen Sound should only be paying for 48.9% of the total cost of regional services, Georgian Bluffs and Meaford should cover 25.2% and 25.9% of the cost respectively, including amortization expense.

It was recently brought to my attention that Owen Sound attempted to negotiate a cost sharing agreement with Georgian Bluffs 10 years ago and failed. Given this I would recommend a different approach. My approach would be to start this budget season by publicly giving them notice that effective January 2025 neither the Rec Center nor the Bayshore will be providing subsidized services to non-residents due to current economic conditions. This will either prompt them to open negotiations or not. Either way it will be a win for Owen Sound. If they come to the table our position should be that Georgian Bluffs and Meaford cover 25.2% and 25.9% of net costs respectively. If they don’t open negotiations it will open new opportunities for these facilities.

As well as preserving existing commercial contracts, this approach would allow for expanding commercial services and ancillary uses at competitive rates, e.g. the Rec Center could contract with a 3rd party fo r the bulk purchase of ice time etc. at market value. If it comes to losing non-residents participation in programs, it should not hurt the business. It could actually help the business by opening new opportunities. This is where the Director of Ancillary Services comes in to grow the business while protecting the original intent of the recreation facilities to provide services to Owen Sound residents at a fair ticket price.

One thing to keep in mind is that these facilities do not exist to provide services to non-residents and the status quo of Owen Sound taxpayers subsidizing recreation for non-residents must end. Either way the potential reduction in expenses is $1,981,452 x 0.511 or $1,012,521.

 

2)  Donate the Art Gallery Collection to the County

The Art Collection that is currently under the control of Owen Sound was acquired from regional artists and donors. It is therefore only fitting that the regional government take possession of the collection and manage it on behalf of all County residents.

The results of the last community survey show that less than 8% of Owen Sound residents regularly visit the Art Gallery. Hence, there will likely be little or no support among Meaford or Georgian Bluffs taxpayers to share the cost of this regional service. Therefore the only solution available to share the cost of this service is to donate the collection to the County for control and maintenance. This would better reflect the regional nature of the Collection and would actually be more appropriate than it being exclusively under Owen Sound’s control.

The same arguments used to justify uploading the Disability Committee to the County apply in the case. The County already provides the region with a cultural attraction in the Grey Roots Museum and Archives. So, adding the Tom Thomson Art Gallery would centralize the Region’s cultural assets in a single location.

The current building housing the Tom Thomson Art Gallery could be offered for lease to a new or existing business and thereby establishing Owen Sound’s first Profit Center. I believe that this compromise solution is a better option then what many are advocating which is to close the Art Gallery and sell the collection so the proceeds could be used to reduce taxes. From an Owen Sound taxpayer perspective it would reduce net expenses by as much as $500,000 once the building lease revenue is considered. This would represent a 1.6% reduction in taxes.

3)   Expand Administrative Shared Services

Owen Sound is not maximizing the use of shared services with adjacent municipalities to reduce the cost of administrative support. Almost all Ontario municipalities share some services to some degree. There is an excellent paper on this subject that I highly recommend. It is authored by Zachary Spicer Institute on Municipal Finance & Governance and published by the University of Toronto, Linking Regions, Linking Functions: Inter-Municipal Agreements in Ontario ⁵³

Inter-municipal agreements are a growing part of the governance landscape in Ontario's municipal sector. Past research - mainly American - has shown that inter-local agreements can overcome institutional deficiencies in metropolitan governance and better provide for policy and service Continuity  ... Zachary Spicer

 

In this regard Owen Sound has a number of administrative services that can be easily shared with the other Ontario municipalities either using a portion of the existing employees from each of the municipalities or contracting to the third party provider. Some good candidates for shared services are Information Technology, Accounting and Payroll but there are several others. High Speed Internet makes it possible for Owen Sound to share services with any Ontario municipality. Therefore Owen Sound should look beyond the Region to identify potential municipal partners.

 

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