Not a lot of uptake on public input sessions as Chatham-Kent launches a review of municipal services.
Mayor Darrin Canniff says they’d hoped more people would have taken part in the ward-by-ward input sessions over the past few weeks.
“There wasn’t a whole lot of people out there,” Canniff says. “We were hopeful people would come out and comment on the services they receive, whether that’s good or bad.”
Consulting firm KPMG has been hired to conduct the review, and Canniff says they’ll carry on, even with limited input from area residents.
“They have lots of things to look at, they’ve done this in several other communities across Canada, that’s one of the reasons we hired them. We’re looking forward to that report of areas that we can improve our service, improve how we do things, and save some money.”
However, the recommendations will likely be taken with a grain of salt – Canniff says something that might work in another jurisdiction may not suit Chatham-Kent’s needs.
“If they’re going to come and tell us we need less of this and less of that, we’re going to say no, we need this because of Chatham-Kent’s nature,” Canniff says. “We won’t be as efficient as a city that can say you know what, we can consolidate these things. There are something we’re going to say yes, we’re aware of that but no, we’re not going to do that.”
The report and recommendations are due back before council sometime in the fall.
