Traditionally, municipal governments have focused primarily on their service delivery role. Their representative role, reflected in the election of municipal councillors, was not only overlooked but also undermined by thrust of the reform movement that swept across the local terrain at the beginning of the 20th century. Its rallying cry was that politics had no place in local government and it called for the elimination of wards and for the creation of small municipal councils that would be more effective in expediting decision-making. The call for greater efficiency has persisted to this day, but Gaebler and Osborne (Reinventing Government, 1992) had a good response to the question “why doesn’t government run more like a business?” Their answer: “you mean making quick decisions, behind closed doors, for private profit?”
Over the years since, councils have been preoccupied with their role in providing services and in doing so with minimal increase in property taxes. Focusing on this role directs municipal attention to the provincial level of government, which authorizes what they may do and, in some cases, how they must do it. The province is also the focus of attention as municipalities seek additional revenue-raising powers or, better yet, increased provincial financial assistance – in support of the objective of keeping property taxes low. This upward perspective has brainwashed generations of municipal councillors into seeing themselves as supplicants, hands held out for any crumbs that might be dropped from on high.
Municipalities as Local Governments
But municipalities are not, or at least should not be, primarily vehicles for service delivery. Rather, their primary function ought to be to provide a mechanism for inhabitants of a defined local area to identify, and attempt to address, local issues and concerns. The municipality should be seen as an extension of the community, the community governing itself. A well governed municipality isn’t just, or primarily, efficient in providing services; it is also responsive to public needs and concerns.
When this role of municipal government is understood and accepted, the focus is no longer upward to the provincial government but outward to the local community. The council is concerned with working with its citizens (not customers, the term often used by those promoting a more business-like approach) in articulating a vision for the municipality and developing the means to pursue that vision.
From Local Governments to Local Governance
While this more enlightened approach to the role of municipalities emphasizes that they are governments, the term governance is broader still. It encompasses the relationships between the formal institutions of government and civil society. Thus, local governance refers not only to the local governing structures but also to other public, private, and voluntary bodies that can be harnessed to address local needs. Developing healthy and vibrant communities is less about formal government structures and more about building relationships. Instead of lamenting the limits of legal authority from the province, enlightened municipalities focus on finding the means to get things done. For example, while many of the most dynamic and competitive regions in North America have fragmented municipal government structures, they also have a high level of collaboration and networking amongst government agencies, business interests, and community leaders, and it is often the nongovernmental players that have taken a lead role.
Examples of collaborative action are many and varied. They include recruiting volunteers to manage neighbourhood parks, using taxis to supplement municipal buses during off peak hours, establishing incubators to support local business start-ups, even linking public health agencies with local animal shelters in a fitness program marketed as “walk a hound, and lose a pound.” The previously cited September 2016 issue of Municipal World includes an article about how a number of small municipalities in Ontario have established employers’ councils and local immigration partnerships as part of their efforts to attract immigrants, shore up their populations, and promote local growth. The first step with all these initiatives is for municipalities to shift from their vertical perspective (upward to higher levels of government) to a horizontal perspective (outward to other potential partners).
This Shift in Focus is Long Overdue
Just over 40 years ago, as part of a local government study, I was touring a rural township with the head of council, being shown local features of interest. At one point, we left the township, drove north into another county and then west into yet another county, before proceeding south and then back east, so that I could see the three miles of township road that were behind a lake in the north part of the township. I immediately asked why there wasn’t a contract for road maintenance with the closest township inside the adjacent county. My host told me that there had been such a contract, but the other township didn’t do a very good job, so they look after this stretch of road themselves. This meant, during the winter months, that a truck drove out of the township, lifted its plow, and drove just over 40 miles – through two other counties – before dropping the plow again to clear the snow from three miles of road behind the lake.
Such a bizarre arrangement was not all that unusual when municipalities were parochial and insular. Some still are, but many have discovered the benefits to be gained from working to assemble resources, wherever they may be found, in support of the maintenance and enhancement of their local communities. Municipalities that have embraced the governance model turn away from what Jane Jacobs termed an “ingrained mindset of dependency.” They focus on what needs to be done on behalf of their communities and how to make that happen.