The results are in from the Town of Altona's public works service delivery review.
Paid for by the Province of Manitoba, auditors from Deloitte were contracted to perform the value-for-services review. They conducted stakeholder interviews, document reviews and evaluated how the town stacked up to similarly sized municipalities in the province with the goal of identifying opportunities to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability.
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After reviewing the transportation, landfill, and public utilities services within the department, they zeroed in on six focus areas - Human Resources, Budget Management, Documentation of Standard Operating Procedures and Key Performance Indicators, Operational Master Plan, Technology Implementation and Shared Services Agreements, listing a series of recommendations in each.
For Mayor Harv Schroeder, some of these recommendations didn't come as a surprise, noting there were areas he could see needed attention, like human resources, considering the recent growth of the community and the potential future growth on the horizon.
"There's always been a bit of a lack of workers in the busy season, so we knew that we would need to add to staffing at some point," he said.
And that's exactly what Council did. The report was barely off the presses and officials approved the hiring to two additional permanent fulltime staff - a former seasonal worker and another who was previously on a term contract.
"We know, down the road, that we'll be needing to fill a spot at the landfill for a time," explained Schroeder. "And summer staff, they come fairly early in Spring but they leave earlier in Fall and we still have a lot of work that has to be done before the Winter season. So, we've filled those two positions. I think they will be a great asset to the public in getting more work done that needs to get done."
Looking ahead, Schroeder says Council and administration will continue discuss the report, noting some of the recommendations align with what is already being explored.
"While others may not be feasible in the short term, we will take time and carefully evaluate the suggestions and plan our next steps accordingly," he noted.
One of those next steps will likely be on the administration side of things, added Schroeder, having already provided the department with the tools required to track the necessary data to find out what more is needed.
The Mayor noted, the recommendations made in the review are intended as guiding points for how the Town can begin to enhance services and efficiencies in the public works department, and says it is now up to Council to prioritize them.