Funding from the province will boost two internal projects that are currently underway in the Town of the Blue Mountains (TBM) and Grey County.
The Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing recently announced the funding allotments for the second intake of the Municipal Modernization Program. Through that program, the ministry has provided TBM with $146,250, which will be directed to the town’s three-year document management system project.
TBM’s document management system project was approved through the 2021 budget process and will see the purchase and implementation of a corporate-wide document management system.
The system is meant to ensure that all staff have reliable and consistent access to all appropriate town documents. The project comes with a total budget of $270,000, which includes funds to support an 18-month contract software implementation position.
The funding for the project is sourced through a number of different departments, which take the proportional share of the number of employees in each area. However, the main funding source for the project is taxation, which has been split into three equal annual payments of $70,000 per year for 2021 to 2023.
The contribution from the ministry will cover 65 per cent of the total eligible project costs.
“Records management is a two or three-year project but getting this funding is beneficial in terms of the town's contributions and making that money go a little farther,” said Ruth Prince, director of IT and financial services for TBM.
TBM will be required to implement the program and provide a final report that forecasts annual savings and other efficiency outcomes to the ministry by Sept. 30, 2022.
“When we initially saw the application, we knew that it had this deadline and we're confident that we can get what we had committed to done by that date,” Prince added.
In addition, the Minister of Municipal Affairs also shelled out $150,000 to Grey County through the same program.
Those funds will be directed toward a review of the county’s solid waste management service delivery system. The funding has been provided to cover the full cost of an independent third-party reviewer to deliver a final report with specific and actionable recommendations for cost savings and efficiencies by Nov. 30, 2021.
