Key City of Toronto performance results among the highest in the Province
TORONTO, April 27 /CNW/ - The Toronto Government continues to make great strides in providing services and programs that contribute to the City's economic competitiveness, prosperity, opportunity and liveability. Toronto's 2005 Performance Measurement and Benchmarking Report demonstrates the City provides stable, efficient, and high quality services in a number of key areas including transit, library services, solid waste diversion, social services administration, fire services, water treatment, and roads maintenance.
The 2005 Report includes the City's own results over a five-year period
as well as comparative data input from 14 other participating municipalities in the Ontario Municipal Benchmarking Initiative (OMBI), which represents 9.1 million residents or 72 per cent of Ontario's population.
The City's benchmarking results indicate that continuing efforts to
deliver efficient and effective municipal services have been very successful.
- Toronto's results show that for 91 per cent of the service level
indicators (i.e. units of service per 100,000 population), service
levels have been maintained or improved in recent years. In direct
comparison to other OMBI municipalities, Toronto ranks higher than
the median for 58 per cent of the service levels measured.
In addition, Toronto's own internal performance measurements (efficiency, customer service and community impact) show over the past few years the City had results that were either improved or stable in 67 per cent of the measures. In relation to other OMBI municipalities, Toronto also achieved the best result in a number of key areas including:
- lowest rate of governance and corporate management costs
- highest solid waste diversion for houses
- lowest rate of residential fire-related injuries per 100,000
population
- highest rate of total library uses and electronic library uses per
capita
- highest pavement quality rating for our roads system.
"Although the Toronto Government's municipal property taxes account for only 4.7 per cent of all taxes paid by the average family to all levels of
government, Torontonians enjoy outstanding service and program delivery, and receive excellent value for their tax dollars," said Mayor David Miller.
"People know that they can count on vital, reliable and efficient programs and services that contribute directly to the prosperity of this City and ensure that Toronto is competitive in national and international markets."
"Toronto's performance measurement results confirm the City provides high quality services at a reasonable cost to its residents," added City Manager Shirley Hoy. "This Report builds on our efforts for accountable and accessible government, and demonstrates our commitment to providing new and innovative ways of serving the public, controlling costs, and maintaining a cycle of continuous improvement."
The Benchmarking Report confirms that Toronto's results are comparable to other large single-tier cities in Ontario. Given these results, the Report supports the need municipalities have for revenue sources that grow with the economy, such as one cent of the Goods and Services Tax. Diversified revenue sources, combined with the uploading of social services and the creation of a national program that support transit infrastructure are critical if municipalities are to continue delivering critical, front-line services and programs at these high standards. It is not possible to build a great city on the property tax base alone.
The current lack of sustainable funding is hampering Toronto's efforts at building a great City that all Torontonians are proud of.
For more information, including backgrounders and the full Report, visit
www.toronto.ca/city_performance/index.htm.
Toronto is Canada's largest city and sixth largest government, and home to a diverse population of about 2.6 million people. It is the economic engine of Canada and one of the greenest and most creative cities in North America.
In the past three years Toronto has won more than 50 awards for quality and innovation in delivering public services. Toronto's government is dedicated to prosperity, opportunity and liveability for all its residents.
