Larry Mitchell

Personnel recruitment of top rate professionals by municipalities suffers at present because local government is seen by potential employees as being both devoid of interest and unglamorous. This perception can only be changed, if with excellent leadership, municipalities rise to the challenge.

Given the amount of money involved, senior levels of government and other funding agencies are entitled to insist upon better management practices in support of municipal funding proposals. The goal is a process based on uniformly better financial and asset management information and practice.

Canadian municipalities currently produce financial information that is deficient because of limited disclosure and accounting for liabilities. These omissions include a failure to properly account for asset costs leading to accrued asset maintenance deficits, pension fund future liabilities and environmental and disaster contingency funds. For the huge sums involved, to base major borrowing decisions upon financial information that is this complete is imprudent and may border on the reckless.

If good local government is to be achieved a better standard of performance must be mandated for municipalities within Canadian local government empowering legislation.

Unlike the obvious difference between those two items, Canadian municipalities often mix up two very different accounting categories—operating and capital expenditures. The result is that an educated reader is left to guess about municipal financial statements.

Left within municipalities, water will remain just a staid, old departmental activity with little emphasis being given to its special place in the lives of city citizens.