An efficient corporation: some successes to date

After amalgamation: what Toronto is doing to improve performance

• A performance measure is a way of costing and tracking the efficiency, effectiveness and community impact of a particular program or service over a period of time.



• Municipal services are highly visible, frequently used and directly affect the quality of life of citizens every day. They include fire and ambulance, garbage collection, snow removal and parks and recreation programs and services. Performance measures can help ensure that all residents and taxpayers receive the best value for money.



• Toronto is working on three fronts in performance measurement: benchmarking performance with other cities in Ontario; tracking its own program and service performance internally and meeting the requirements of the Municipal Performance Measurement Program set by the Province.



• The Chief Administrative Officer of Toronto has been an active participant in a benchmarking project with 13 regional municipalities and six Ontario cities since 1999. Mr. Garrett led the first municipal performance benchmarking initiative in the Province with regional CAO's , when he was CAO in Peel Region. The goal of such initiatives is to track performance and define and share best practices.



• Internally, the City is building a performance-based culture, measuring the performance of staff and of the Corporation.



• Performance measures at the City will use activity-based accounting. For every service and support service there are a list of activities that are being mapped and costed. When this is complete, Toronto will be better able to measure the full cost of a service, track its performance and thereby improve.



• Public sector performance standards are not new. Municipal service value indicators have been used by cities in Ontario, including Toronto, since the 1980s.



• The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing now requires all municipalities to measure and report their performance in nine core service areas: garbage, water, sewage, transportation, fire, police, local government, land use planning and social services.