Councils look to re-establish joint-shared services committee

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Plans to resurrect the City of Brantford-County of Brant joint-shared services committee are nearing fruition.

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City and county councillors at recent meetings voted in favour bringing back the committee which stopped meeting prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The decision is expected to be made final at September council meetings.

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The committee will look for ways the two municipalities can work together through the sharing of services for the benefit of both city and county taxpayers. It will include five members from each council.

“I’m very supportive of the city-county joint services committee,” Brant County Coun. Lukas Oakley (Ward 2) said. “I would particularly like to highlight that there will be five members from the city and the county, one from each ward.

“That ensures every corner of the city and the county will have representation at the table.”

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David Miller proposed and received support from county councillors to broaden the scope of the proposed committee to include shared interests.

“I don’t want it to be restricted to just shared services,” Miller said.

Originally established in March 2017, the joint services committee looked at areas of concern including transportation strategies, parks, healthcare and emergency services.

City officials, in a statement, said the re-established committee can look for collaboration in the areas of animal control, organics management, transit, transportation, climate action and development of the Brantford Municipal Airport.

The city and county already work together through established committees to deliver social services and paramedic services to city and county residents. Representatives from both the city and county also serve on the Brant County Health Unit Board of Health and John Noble Home Committee of Management.

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“The hope is that it’s going to create a vehicle or procedure for the city and the county to work together much more closely in providing improved services to the residents of both the city and county, doing things more efficiently,” Brantford Mayor Kevin Davis said at a recent city council committee meeting. “Some examples of that could be organic waste collection, it could be well be automated speed control, delivery of water, and sanitary and storm water services especially in those areas that overlap between the city and the county.

Davis said he hopes the committee will also consider services or infrastructure that don’t even exist at present including an inter-city-county transit system.

Brant County Mayor David Bailey said the county is looking forward to the re-establishment of the joint-shared services committee.

“We’re pleased to be continuing our partnership with the City of Brantford by re-establishing the Joint Shared Services Committee,” Bailey said in a statement. “By sharing services and joining forces on various projects, we increase the level of the services in a responsible manner and take a practical approach to decision-making on what makes the most sense for both of our communities.”

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