The provincial government is investing $40 million to help small and rural municipalities “improve the delivery of critical programs and services”.
The Municipal Modernization Program is part of the $125 million investment through 2022-2023 made by the government to help northern municipalities become more efficient and save taxpayers’ dollars.
“My announcement yesterday provides [these] municipalities to find ways to modernize services for residents and businesses,” said Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Steve Clark.
Clark says that many municipalities have used the funding to conduct reviews of service delivery, as well as looking at administrative expenditures and finding efficiencies.
“It has also been used to implement a range of projects, including the development of online systems to improve local connections with citizens. COVID-19 has told us that many more people are working from home and this fund gives municipalities an opportunity to modernize and upgrade their IT systems, or just be able to provide a local service to be accessed digitally, where normally it would be accessed face to face.”
Clark says that it also allows neighbouring municipalities to work together by developing shared services.
“We are going to continue to go to bat for Ontario’s 444 municipalities. We believe, quite strongly, that municipalities are going to be leading the recovery in a post-COVID-19 Ontario. It’s important we give them the tools, resources and the funds to make sure they’re positioned for that recovery,” Clark finished.
