Local governments have always provided you with the services that are the foundation of your quality of life, wherever you live in Ontario. 

Today, municipalities now deliver more of the services that you and your family rely on for your health, safety, security and well-being.

Responsibilities of Local Governments

Your local government is a key provider of important social and health services, economic and community development activities that make your community a great place to live.

Changes to the provincial-municipal relationship in Ontario have transferred certain service and financial responsibilities to the local level of government, in return for the province removing one half of the costs of education from the property tax base. These changes are the result of the Local Services Realignment ­ or LSR ­ initiative.

What was Local Services Realignment (LSR)?

LSR brought about fundamental changes to provincial and municipal roles and responsibilities. 

First announced in 1997, LSR was a major step toward more efficient and cost-effective government in Ontario. LSR changes reflect many longstanding recommendations for how the province and Ontario's municipal governments manage and fund key public services in Ontario. 

The LSR reforms were built on a number of goals shared between the provincial government and municipalities in every part of the province. These goals are:

  • greater accountability to the taxpayer
  • protecting priority services and maintaining critical standards 
  • streamlined service delivery 
  • capitalizing on local expertise and innovation with greater autonomy for local government 
  • reducing duplication and waste between levels of government
The LSR initiative means that more services that you use every day are being managed and run by your local governments including:

Emergency Services: Municipalities are now fully responsible for paying for local policing services, including those provided to municipalities by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) services. Municipalities also have new fire prevention responsibilities. Land ambulance is a health and emergency service that is being transferred to municipalities, although the province still funds approximately 50% of the costs. 

Social and Community Health Services: Municipalities have more and more responsibility for social and community health services. They are taking steps to make sure that these important services are provided effectively and efficiently. Now municipalities are:

  • delivering the Ontario Works Program (welfare)
  • assuming greater financial responsibilities in the child care system
  • taking on new funding responsibilities for public health 
  • paying for social housing, and, beginning in 2001, will be taking on responsibility for its day-to-day management and administration from the provincial government
The provincial government still provides funding support for certain public health and welfare service delivery.

Transportation and Utilities: The changes mean that provincial subsidies for municipal transit, GO Transit and local airports have ended, except for funding some remote airports in Northern Ontario. The province is no longer involved in the delivery of these local services. This responsibility is now fully transferred to municipal governments. 

Municipalities are currently responsible for many roads that used to be part of the provincial system. In 1997 and 1998, 5,175 kilometers of roads were transferred to municipalities by the provincial government, along with one-time funding to help offset capital costs. 

These responsibilities were transferred to municipalities as part of the broader realignment of service delivery between the province and municipalities and the exchange of funding responsibilities for services such as education.

In the end, this realignment of service delivery and funding responsibilities have lead to greater accountability to taxpayers, streamlined services and a reduction in duplication and waste, as well as greater autonomy for municipalities.

Archival Information on LSR.

Provincial Municipal Fiscal and Service Delivery Review

The 2008 Provincial-Municipal Fiscal and Service Delivery Review will shape the future of the services delivered to Ontarians by provincial and municipal governments and demonstrate the productive approach to intergovernmental cooperation that the province, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario and the City of Toronto have adopted.

 

 

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