Council Introduces Comprehensive Departmental Review and Reporting Program

Following Budget 2016-18, the City is introducing a new comprehensive departmental review process that will analyze every service and program to determine which should remain and in what form, given current fiscal restraint.

“When Budget 2016-18 was announced I spoke about focusing on core operations and how we must position the city in sustainable way,” stated Councillor Jonathan Galgay, Chair of the Finance and Administration Standing Committee. “The comprehensive review program introduced today is the result of this mandate.”

Based on best practices of other public sector program reviews in this province and country, the review process will include a series of elements:

• A review of every program and service offering
• Quarterly budget reporting and updates
• Development of a five year rolling budget to support enhanced budget forecasting
• An annual update to the ten year capital budget
• A year-long budget planning process 

“Our strategic plan calls for the City to be an effective organization,” said Mayor Dennis O’Keefe. “One which continues to build robust systems and frameworks and responds to a constantly changing environment.”

The review will be set in place with an oversight committee of senior staff and council members to guide the program through its various steps.  It will include a set of guidelines incorporating questions about program role and affordability, opportunities for realignments internally or externally, opportunities for transfers to, or cooperation with community partners and related affordability considerations.
 
The target date for the delivery of a summary report from the program review is late 2017.

Media Contact:
Kelly Maguire
Media Relations
City of St. John's
709-576-8491
kmaguire@stjohns.ca