City of Vaughan Receives Innovation Award for New Approach to Service Contracts

Ottawa, Ontario, August 21, 2018 – The Peter J. Marshall Innovation Award Jury presented its highest award to the City of Vaughan for its innovation in its traditional procurement and service contract approach. The Award was presented at the 2018 AMO Conference in Ottawa. The City’s project demonstrated all of the P.J. Marshall Award’s criteria: innovation, tangible benefits to the community, improved efficiency, innovative financing and the ability for other municipal governments to use the project’s concept.

With the goal of optimizing performance, costs, and citizen satisfaction, the City redesigned its procurement and service delivery process for both their Winter Road Maintenance and Solid Waste Collection. The new approach is based on four elements:  market expertise in responding how it would deliver service to achieve the city’s required outcomes; shared responsibility for citizen satisfaction; pricing structure that reflects actual costs and risks; and ongoing collaboration to ensure continuous improvement.  The new contracts have been reduced operational costs for the city, higher citizen satisfaction, increased staff availability, greater preparedness, and better equipment.

  “The jury was very impressed with City’s success and its applicability to a wider range of municipal contracted services,” said Pat Vanini, AMO Executive Director.

“At the City of Vaughan, we are committed to the safety of the entire community and remain unwavering in our commitment to provide snow and windrow removal that stands up to the demanding and unpredictable winter months,” said Vaughan Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua. “The Winter Road Maintenance Services contract elevates our level of service excellence beyond industry standards while increasing value for our taxpayers’ hard-earned money. The Solid Waste Collection initiative is another important example of our continued efforts to safeguard the health and well-being of our local environment and to ensure Vaughan remains a leading green city, home to clean and welcoming neighborhoods. I am proud that these initiatives have been recognized for their outstanding development and implementation, and for achieving our goals to enhance service delivery for our entire community. I want to express my sincerest appreciation to the Association of Municipalities Ontario for acknowledging the exceptional work being undertaken by the City of Vaughan administration.”

The P.J. Marshall Award is an annual competitive process to acknowledge municipalities who have had creativity and success in implementing new, innovative ways of serving the public. It is sponsored by AMO, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, the Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks & Treasurers of Ontario, the Canadian Council for Public Private Partnerships, the Municipal Finance Officers’ Association, and the Ontario Municipal Administrators’ Association.

In addition to the City of Vaughan, the Town of Innisfil also received an award this year for its innovative approach to providing public transit without a bus system.

AMO is a non-profit organization representing almost all of Ontario’s 444 municipal governments.  AMO supports strong and effective municipal government in Ontario and promotes the value of municipal government as a vital and essential component of Ontario and Canada’s political system.