Town seeks to reduce reporting requirements

A suggestion from officials here to reduce paperwork by cutting down on reporting requirements was well received by the minister of municipal affairs.

Mayor George Bridge reported at the March 4 council meeting the town raised the topic during a meeting with municipal affairs officials at the Ontario Good Roads Association convention in February.

Bridge said the minister asked if Minto was interested in participating in a task force to deal with the issue.

“You hate to go to something and come back with homework,” quipped Bridge, who nonetheless replied that “we would certainly be willing to be on a task force.”

Bridge said municipal staff are required to prepare 270 mandatory reports for the province each year.

“When you’re talking about 270 reports it’s almost one a day, when you take working days,” he noted.

“There’s got to be a lot of these reports that aren’t being used and its just a lot of paper wasted and a lot of time spent,” the mayor concluded.