Kelly Vodden, MNLCCRC Research Associate

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Kelly Vodden, MNL/CCRC Research Associate
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Results of the 2007 Census

• Changes to questions, data collection methods and
  response rate since 2003
• 2007 170/282 municipalities 60

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Question Categories

• Staff, Mayor and Council
• Regional Cooperation
• Financial/Taxation Issues,
• Office Equipment/ Technology

• Services
• Equipment
• Infrastructure
• Regulations
• Training
• Other

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• Analysis by MNL Region and by Size
• Small less than 1,000 residents
• - 77 of municipalities, 72 of respondents
• Medium 1,000 to 3,999
• - 17 of municipalities, 19 of respondents
• Urban 4,000
• - 6 of municipalities, 9 of respondents
• - excludes City of St. Johns

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Staff

• Significant differences in human resource
  capacity
• 49 communities (40 of small towns) without
  full-time staff
• Small towns average 1 permanent full-time, 5
  total
• Reliance on part-time and temporary staff (25 FT
  vs. 44 medium, 69 urban)
• Medium 6 FT, 13 total
• Urban 51 FT, 73 total
• Avg. 6 employees in Northern, 21 in Labrador

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Staff

• 45.5 covered under a collective agreement
• Small municipalities 6, medium 37, urban 69
• Non-wage employee benefits provided by 34 of
  municipalities 20 small to 87 of urban
• Ability to attract and retain staff?
• Staff skills and expertise?

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Mayor and Council

• Average of 6 members per council
• 96 of available seats are occupied
• Ranging from 95 in small to 100 urban
• Higher contested elections in 2005 vs. 2001
• 38 of sitting council members intend to run
  again in the next election vs. 43 in 2003 (53
  unsure)
• 9 not intending to run again vs. 57 in 2003

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Mayor and Council

• Increase in of municipalities offering
  remuneration (from 64 to 71)
• - 85 in Central, 55 in Labrador, 69 med, 87
  urban
• Increase in the average remuneration
• Mayors by 3, councillors by 15.5 (unadjusted)
• Varying remuneration amounts

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Training

• - 48 answered that their council had attended
  municipal training since 2005 (42 small, 66
  medium, 80 urban)
• - 66 from Municipal Training and Development
  Corporation (MTDC), 57 MNL
• Councillors avail of training 1-2 times per year
  in 51 of municipalities
• 47 indicate the same frequency for staff

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Councillor Diversity

• 51 of the NL population are women
• 28 of councillors are women 16.5 in medium,
  19 urban, 33 small towns
• Labrador has the highest proportion of female
  councilors (39, Northern 37), Avalon, Central
  and Western the lowest (26)

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Councillor Diversity

• Over 20 of council members 60 years (Task Force
  2005)
• 2007 - 34 retired
• 40 56 ( 28 pop)
• - 30 46-55 ( 17 pop)
• - 30 21-45 ( 33 pop)

Preliminary 2007 Councillor results
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• Most municipal councils (56) meet monthly, 41
  meet every two weeks
• Only 60 of small municipalities have committees
  of council, rising to 100 of urban
• 57 have committees with citizen members
• 40 Northern, 48 Eastern vs. 89 Labrador
• 83 utilize a newsletter for communication,
  public meetings and brochures also heavily used

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Regional Cooperation

• 74 of municipalities sharing services with
  neighbouring municipalities or other partners,
  rising from 53 in 2003
• Most common in urban municipalities (93)
• vs. 67 of small municipalities
• Central 85 vs. Eastern region 61
• Significant increase on the Avalon, decline in
  Labrador

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Regional Cooperation

• 323 service sharing arrangements identified
• Fire protection most commonly shared (41)
• Followed by waste disposal (35) and garbage
  collection (25)
• Fee for service most common (38)
• Sharing with other municipalities (77), LSDs
  (29)

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Why share services?

• Maintain existing services 56
• Cut costs 52
• Provide new or improved services 40
• Establish good relationships 37
• Improve environmental practices 36
• Share information and ideas 26
• Increase revenues 13
• Access to government funding 10
• Varies by region and size

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Finance

• 58 of municipalities saw their revenues increase
  from 2006 to 2007 (49 2003)
• Only 8 experienced revenue decreases
• Increases in 81 of Western municipalities vs.
  45 of Northern, 50 of small communities
• Caution how much was the revenue increase?
  Increases in costs? type of new revenue?

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Finance

• 80 have problems with delinquent taxpayers
  (88 of small towns)
• decreased from 87 overall in 2003
• Municipalities with 30 of 2006 tax revenue
  outstanding 20 in 2003, 9 in 2007
• Better in some regions (Avalon, Eastern), worse
  in others (Labrador, Northern) since 2003!!

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Office Technology

• 79 of municipalities have internet access vs.
  57 in 2003
• 74 of small, 87 of medium and 100 of urban
  municipalities
• Reliance on dial-up internet fell from 89 in
  2003 to 40 in 2007 43 in small, 5 medium and
  0 urban, Central 63, Northern 50, Labrador 10
• Only 46 have a website (a decline since 03)

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Services

• of municipalities that run their own fire
  department dropped to 75 from 81, sharing
  increased
• 95 are run by volunteers
• 31 pay an honorarium to volunteer firefighters
  (up from 23 in 2003)

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Services

• of municipalities using landfill sites for
  solid waste increased to 81 (from 68) and those
  using incinerators fell to 20 (from 34)
• 37 have recycling in their municipality
• 80 urban, 23 medium 34 small
• 10 Northern/11 Eastern vs. 53 Central
• 63 contract out municipal services (garbage
  collection 1, snow removal 2)

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Infrastructure

• - 81 or more of residents are hooked up to a
  municipal water system in 81 of municipalities,
  to a municipal sewer system in 58 of
  municipalities
• - 70 dispose of wastewater and sewage via an
  outfall to a water body, 10 have primary and 2
  secondary treatment
• - 47 contain properties using private septic
  systems
• - 80 have a fire hall, 78 parks and
  playgrounds, 20 an arena, 13 (22 responding
  towns) a swimming pool

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Economic Development

• 65 participate in their REDB, 49 in a Chamber
  of Commerce, 32 in an RDA, 16 a CBDC
• 19 have an economic development committee
• 12 their own economic development staff

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Prospects for your town/city five years from
now?- better or much better than today 44-
same or unsure 43 - worse or much worse 13
Preliminary 2007 Councillor results
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Thank you

• to the 170 municipalities that participated in
  the 2007 Municipal Census survey!!