A massive review of the services delivered by Greater Sudbury – and recommendations on how to save as much as $4 million – is expected to go to city council Feb. 18.
The core services review, completed by the accounting firm KPMG, was originally on the agenda last month, but the meeting ended before the item came up for discussion.
Normally anything remaining on a city council agenda is carried over to the next meeting. But in this case, KPMG wasn't available for the next meeting.
The review identified 10 areas where the city could save as much as $4 million a year relatively quickly. The biggest source of potential savings – $1 million annually – could be realized within two years, the report said, but will be the hardest to implement.
KPMG said that no detailed review of how many facilities the city has, compared to how many are needed, has taken place since amalgamation two decades ago.
“Our review identified facilities with low utilization and cost recovery percentages, including two arenas, four community halls/centres and two pools,” the report said. “Through rationalization of facilities, the city can focus its operational maintenance spend and capital investments to providing modern, up-to-date, multi-use facilities without a significant impact on the taxation levy.”
As part of the report, service, taxation and spending levels in Greater Sudbury were compared to four other Ontario cities to see where we rank: Thunder Bay, Windsor, Guelph and London.
When it comes to facilities, the report said we have more indoor recreation space than any of those other cities – 114,000 square metres, compared to an average of 78,000.
Those facilities cost a total of $9.1 million a year to operate and maintain. Minus the revenue they generate, the net cost to property taxpayers is $5.27 million.
That could be reduced by 19 per cent or $1 million if underused ones were closed, KPMG said.
Close to $1 million in annual savings could also be had if the city reduced the amount of parkland it maintains, the report said. Greater Sudbury maintains more than double the amount of parkland compared to the four other cities – a total of 1,400 hectares, at a net cost of $4.8 million.
Other ideas in the top 10 include privatizing operations at Adanac and Lively Ski Hills. Sudbury is the only one among the comparator cities to offer the service, the report says, and it costs taxpayers $243,000 a year. That money could be saved if they were taken over by the private sector.
