A Quick Tip for Finding Municipal Statistical Data
As municipal consultants we constantly have the need to research municipal operations and data. But have you ever had difficulty finding it all in one location?
My method of choice to research and collect such information for Ontario municipalities is to use the Ministry of Municipal Affairs Financial Information Return (FIR) site. There is a wealth of information available on this site: http://csconramp.mah.gov.on.ca/fir/welcome.htm. Here is what the site looks like.
Municipalities in Ontario are mandated to report their annual operations to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs by submitting a Financial Information Return (FIR) by May 31st, for the preceding year – so for example, their 2014 FIR must be submitted soon.
You can search for information in a variety of ways – By Schedule, by Municipality, Provincial Summaries or Multi-Year Reports. I most frequently search Schedule 40 of the municipalities I am needing to compare, because it contains their expenditures which are categorized into the nine (9) main municipal operations. For my particular purposes, I also tend to frequently look at the Municipal Data, Schedule 10 – Revenues, Schedule 20 – Taxation Information and Schedule 80 – Statistical Data, which includes staffing numbers. There are however, a number of other Schedules you can search to find the specific information you may need.
The one caveat I must mention though, is that although municipal operations can be similarly categorized, there is no way to ensure that a municipality is consistently reporting their information in the same category as another municipality. So, if you are comparing municipalities and a number seems too high or too low in comparison, you should always seek clarification from the municipality to be certain you’re comparing apples to apples.
I can only speak to what I’m familiar with here in Ontario, but I suspect a similar reporting requirement exists between all Canadian municipalities and their respective provinces.
If you’re a consultant or other professional in another province, does your province have a similar municipal database? I would be interested in learning about it so I can share it with our professional members.
Or if you use other methods to find municipal data, I’d love to hear about them too. We all need data – so why not help each other find it!
Susan Shannon – [email protected] Susan’s experiences as both a municipal Chief Administrative Officer, and now as a consultant, led to the development of muniSERV.ca . Her experiences have provided her with the insight she needs to help municipalities and professionals connect.
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