Municipal control or an alternative delivery method? This is the question that has intrigued all levels of local government and created intense debates between taxpayers across municipalities. The services that municipalities provide are often vital to the existence of a local area. The issues of accountability, cost savings, quality of service and democracy often arise when choosing the best options to deliver services to a municipal area. In recent years the concepts of privatization, alternative service delivery and public-private partnerships are often promoted as ways cut down on overburdened annual city budgets and promote a higher quality of service to citizens. Municipalities have historically always provided basic services such as fire protection, water purification/treatment and recreational facilities. However, would private companies or another municipality be able to better deliver the same services more efficiently or at a lower cost? The city or town often provides a political grass roots approach to most local problems. Municipalities are better positioned and have a wider scope to provide services to their constituents in order to ensure quality of service that does not erode accountability and transparency, or drive the municipality deeper into debt. The new public management states that, “cities are growing more and more like corporations referring to citizens as customers in the sense that they are providing product or goods (services) to the customer (taxpayers).” This had led to an increased demand for better quality at the lowest cost to the taxpayer. When looking at cost saving and alternative delivery municipalities must make a hard decision when choosing to contract out essential services. An exampl... ... middle of paper ... ... "The Problem with Public-Private Partnerships Economic crisis exposes the high costs and risks of P3s." Last modified April 1, 2009. Accessed November 16, 2013. http://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/monitor/problem-public-private-partnerships. Sherwin, Fred. "City to take over operation of Ray Friel Complex." Orleans Online , , sec. Local , April 26, 2012. http://www.orleansonline.ca/pages/N2007042601.htm (accessed November 1, 2013). Warner, Mildred. Pragmatism Over Politics: Issues of Privatization.“International City/County Management Association,” Cornell University Community Research. Municipal Year Book 2004 Washington DC: pp.8-16. Whiteside, Heather. 2013. "Stabilizing Privatization: Crisis, Enabling Fields, and Public-Private Partnerships in Canada." Alternate Routes 24, 85. Supplemental Index, EBSCOhost (accessed November 19, 2013.
The municipal restructuring in Ontario from 1996 to 1999, whether voluntary or involuntary, was the most comprehensive process of municipal reforms since the Baldwin Act of 1849 (Frisken 30). After the election of Harris’ Conservative government in 1995, municipal reform took on a life of its own as it was followed with substantial activity between 1996 and 1999 (Sancton 135-56). This research paper looks to categorize, describe and evaluate the substantial activity that took place between the province and its municipal subordinates. While other papers have argued whether the change of the fiscal relationship was to benefit the province or if the structure of local government had simply become outdated, the issues of why the reforms occurred is not the focus of this research. However, what this paper will evaluate is whether the substantial activity made any long-term changes in the system by outlining the numerous reforms and examining their impact. This paper will begin by assessing the financial reform, which was the starting point for more extensive changes, followed by functional, structural and legislative reforms during 1996 to 1999.
This helps to ensure that the residents get the services they need in a more effective way since they can make the local leaders accountable. This would be more difficult if the local leaders were handling large counties with many residents. However, in the case of Texas, it has too many branches of local government. This brings about more challenges to service delivery than benefits. One of the ways this happens is through increasing the bureaucratic processes. The addition of an extra layer of government such as through local governments only increases the hurdles the citizens have between them and service delivery. Another problem arises with regards to the ability of the many branches to handle specialized services. Some of the commonly needed services by residents include water provision, garbage collection, sewage management, flood prevention, among others (Flores et al.). These require resources that may not be available to the smaller branches of the local government. Therefore, consolidation of some of these local governments would help to improve efficiency in the service
After tracing the evolution of the provincial-local financial relationship in Canada it has become apparent that the trend, throughout history, has been towards greater Provincial control and in turn less fiscal autonomy for the municipality. There has been an increase (due to demand as well as downloading from the provinces) in the functions and responsibilities of the municipality, as well as the cost of these functions, and a decrease in fiscal resources and revenue sources.
Competitive contracting for public services such as fire and emergency medical services is occurring with more and more regularity. It is a practice that may provide cash-strapped communities an opportunity to step away from fiscal liabilities they cannot otherwise manage, saving money and improving departmental efficiency. Many municipalities have turned over the provision of emergency medical services to private organizations reducing exposure in both terms of liability and payroll
Being a Canadian citizen, it is hard for me to think of life without any health insurance. I have had public health insurance all my life growing up and have been free to go to any hospital at any time and get some form of health care. Residing in the United States off and for the last 7 years I have experienced health care from both sides. I feel that private health care has huge advantages over public health care. In the following essay I will explain in three points why I feel strongly about private health care as opposed to public. What is better is always subjective, and I will not try to argue the point of health for all, but instead for the individual who is seeking the best health care possible, and is willing to put the resources into obtaining that. I will be addressing efficiency and quality, not inclusion of everyone (free health care), I will be addressing the root of this and not just that one argument, which would detract from my focus. I will not be getting into the political debate of socialism vs. capitalism, as that is a separate argument in itself, and this country is currently running under capitalism. Again coming from living in both a socialist and then a capitalist society, I feel I can do so in an unbiased manner.
The city’s budget crisis was not a surprise, the City Manager had forecasted the shortfall and brought it to the attention of the city council. Based on the organizational structure, the City Manager clearly had more knowledge and information about the city’s budget, which was his source of power. However, the city council actually controls the resources (money in this case) and how and where to distribute the resource. Both, the City Manager and city council possess authority and power that neither want to relinquish; as a result, the employees suffered. Smithville city leaders needed to come together at the onset of the budget crisis and work together in a direct democratic fashion. When leaders come together and synthesize facts and resources, organizational members can increase the power they exert within an organization (Morgan, 2006). The budget crisis could potentially have been avoided had city leaders made an appeal to the public, explained the situation and offered a reasonable solution to the problem. Moreover, the transparency would have relieved some tension between the City Manager, city council, and the three labor unions. Because the city was not transparent and forthcoming with union leaders, the city negotiators enter the negotiation process giving members false hope of receiving salary and benefit increases when there were none to give. In summary, given the current situation, the City Manager needed to exert his expert power on the budget issue, join alliance with the union leaders, and push the city council to change city charter to implement the sales tax, which would have potentially off-set the budget
The health care system in Canada seems to be a well-functioning system, but is it really? The negatives of the system are rapidly growing and the positives of the system are decreasing in the eyes of Canadian citizens. This paper will weigh the positive and negatives of Medicare, followed by a personal response on what could be fixed in order to make the system better than it is now. The positives of our health care system are great aspects to have, but the system is beginning to show many signs of attrition because of it (Simpson, 2012). Each individual should be charged for a doctor’s service, as it may resort in less wait times and decreased costs in taxes.
Our history of 20th century of Canada on the treatment on immigrants was indeed bias and still occurs to some extent today. Numerous amounts of immigrants were into lose if not all, but very many of their belongings, valuables and family behindhand, to posses a Canadian citizenship. People travelled extensive distances to seek better lives; Canadians faced many with racism because of their differences, in fact it influenced ruined many lives. Immigrants in the past were shamefully discriminated against and exploited by the Canadian changing role of government, producing a dark side to Canada’s history. The three events that accurately validate that immigrants had tough lives were, “The Boat of People,” Chinese due to Chinese Exclusion Act, and the most improved, Merit Point System. These have effected Canada’s society significantly in a negative manner and have helped us learn, improve and equalize our society for everyone.
The private sector is composed of organisations that are privately owned and are not part of the government, corporations and partnerships, for example: retail shops and local business. The private sector progresses expeditious because it promotes quality to win over customers, which will lead to a greater chance of them achieving the objective of making profit. Whereas the public sector is composed of companies, that are controlled and maintained by the government. There are homogeneous attributes between the public and private sector, yet they are to a great extent exceeded by the number of differences and this essay will discuss the major differences between these sectors, which are: transparency, customer feedback, basis of
...r pillars of public administration are equally important in the process of public administration and complement one another in the provision of quality public service. When public administrators have economy in mind they focus on the best combination of available resources to provide optimum public service. To ensure that public service is not limited to only a section of the public, the issue of equity is taken into consideration so that public interest is realized. Efficiency and effectiveness additionally go hand in hand in ensuring that allocated resources are used in the best possible manner to attain set goals. Thus whereas the first three public administration pillars – Economy, efficiency and effectiveness are concerned with how public service is provided the fourth and most recent addition (Equity) concerns with for whom public service is provided.
Privatisation means transferring the control of an enterprise from the government sector to the private sector. Generally, but not always, this also means transferring ownership of the Public sector enterprise as well as control.
Outline and assess the concept of “reinventing government”. What does it mean and what are its strengths and weaknesses? Does the reinvention thesis provide Canadian governments with a viable way to reform and restructure the nature and working of public administration in this country? Why or why not?
This essay discusses the radical transformation of the principles and foundations of public administration from traditional to New Public Management. Firstly the essay will attempt to define the key terms of traditional public administration and the doctrine of New Public Management. Rabin J. (2003) explains that New Public Management embodies “a process in public administration that uses information and experiences obtained in business management and other disciplines to improve efficiency, usefulness and general operation of public services in contemporary bureaucracies.“Traditional Public Administration progresses from governmental contributions, with services perceived by the bureaucracy.
The lack of service delivery is a vital subject that is tackled by countless residents and government officials. Thus, distinct methods are needed to safeguard that services are delivered below the leadership of local government. The purpose if this essay is to converse about the reasons why governments commence on Alternative service delivery mechanisms. This will be accomplished by bestowing definitions of precise concepts by also considering technological improvements as Alternative service delivery methods. Furthermore, this essay will recognize alongside suitable examples, the acts played by voluntary associations and private contractors in advancing competent and effectual ability to deliver services.
The rise of Urban America began in the mid 1800’s with the dawn of the industrial revolution. With it came a rapid increase in the population of cities. This movement towards cities did not last forever, and after WWII, much of the population of cities moved to the suburbs. With the growth and decline of urban environments, and the growth of suburban environments, there has become a mixture of different types of local governments, some of which overlap the same geographical areas. Some view this hodgepodge as a problem, and have offered various solutions. To understand the different types of local governments and how they overlap, one must first understand the development of urban areas, and the movement from urban to suburban areas.