The Ontario Municipal Chief Administrative Officers' Benchmarking Initiative (OMBI) this week released a report that measures how efficiently and effectively Ontario municipalities, including the City of Greater Sudbury, deliver programs and services.

The 104-page report focuses on services common to all municipalities including roads, transit, policing, long-term care, libraries, water and wastewater systems, solid waste management and social assistance. It provides year-over-year data, allowing city administrators, elected officials and citizens to compare 2006 performance levels to 2005 performance levels set out in the OMBI's first report issued one year ago.

The joint initiative involves 15 municipalities representing 9.1 million residents or 75 per cent of Ontario's population.

'The OMBI report allows us to compare our performance to that of other municipalities across the province,” said Greater Sudbury Mayor John Rodriguez. 'The OMBI notes that factors such as a municipality's socio-demographics, geographic location, population density and size can influence its performance. So, these things need to be taken into account when making comparisons between and among different municipalities. But since this latest report provides us with two years of data, we can now see those areas where we have improved as well as those areas where we need additional work.”

Greater Sudbury's Chief Administrative Officer Mark Mieto said the OMBI report helps municipal officials identify best practices that can lead to service improvements across the province.

'One of the objectives of the report is to foster a culture of service excellence among the participating municipalities,” said Mieto. 'City staff will be reviewing the report to see where we can improve and, at the same time, share our success stories with our colleagues across the province.”

The OMBI report is available on the Greater Sudbury website at www.greatersudbury.ca. More information about the OMBI is available at www.ombi.ca.

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