Region, DSBN pan provincial audit fund
Niagara’s regional council already scours its annual budgets, looking for any savings it can to pass on to taxpayers.
But a provincial government offer to pay for line-by-line reviews of municipal, and school board, budgets to find an additional four per cent in savings “seems more like Big Brother wanting to tell us how to do things,” said Niagara-on-the-Lake Coun. Gary Zalepa, Niagara Region’s budget review committee chair.
Niagara West MPP Sam Oosterhoff’s office issued a media release Thursday regarding the Audit and Accountability Fund — announced by Premier Doug Ford on Tuesday — that will provide $7.35 million to help large urban municipalities and school boards interested in conducting line-by-line budget reviews, to help them maintain front-line services by finding potential savings of four cents on every dollar.
“If there was four per cent savings to be found in the last budget, I’m sure we would have found it,” Zalepa said.
In an interview, Oosterhoff said the Progressive Conservatives were elected because voters felt the former government didn’t respect tax dollars, and “we’re demanding that all our ministries and all our partners and demanding of ourselves that we’re going to work harder and smarter and be more efficient with every tax dollar that the people of Ontario entrust us with.”
Oosterhoff, however, also stressed that it’s a voluntary program.
“This will give them a chance to hire outside help and find those efficiencies, find those savings. Ultimately, those municipalities will have to make that decision for themselves, but we very much encourage them to do so for the sake of their taxpayers.”
Regional Chair Jim Bradley said the Region’s finances have already been the subject of a third-party review. Consultant
KPMG was recently hired at a cost of about $400,000 to conduct a third-party service sustainability review of finances to look for efficiencies.
The consultant couldn’t find any, Bradley said.
KPMG instead determined that Niagara is “exceptionally innovative and effective with the budget they have,” he added.
“The Region is being fiscally responsible. It’s being transparent. It’s looking to ensure ongoing sustainability.”
District School Board of Niagara chair Sue Barnett doubts the board would benefit from the funding.
She said trustees are already “as careful as we possibly can be” when establishing budgets.
“If the province wants to put money into hiring an auditor to go over something that’s already audited — twice — then that would be up to Doug Ford to do that,” she said, adding the board’s budget is reviewed every year by both internal staff and external auditors.
“I don’t think he’ll find anything wasteful about the DSBN.”
Despite reduced funding that led to layoffs at other school boards throughout the province, Barnett said DSBN also managed to retain all teaching staff.
“Not a single teacher is getting a pink slip,” she said.