Knowing what goes on in our cities and towns isn’t easy. Finding out how much money our local governments spend, where they spend it and whether they spend it wisely is difficult. So AIMS set out to find out through our municipal performance reports.
Originally AIMS produced reports for every town and city in the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Then it moved nationally to grade 31 of Canada’s largest cities and capitals.
The methodology for the reports compares both actual and in context performance, so you can see your city’s performance considering such factors as population and socio-economic status. An overall grade of "C+" is considered average. Cities performing above that are doing well. They generally provide you good service at a reasonable price. Cities receiving a lower grade may provide a poor service at a low price, or good service at a high price, or poor service at a high price.
AIMS President & CEO Charles Cirtwill explains the reports are about allowing you to judge the performance of your city or town. "In the end, only the taxpayer can judge the balance between the services received and the money spent,” he says. “You may not mind paying a lot of municipal tax to help pay for high-end snow clearing, but to enter that debate you need to be informed. That’s what this performance report does."
The full explanation of what is included under each measure is found in the
Guide to the Municipal Performance Report ..
Follow this link to the
National Municipal Performance Report.
Follow this link to the
Municipal Performance Report for Nova Scotia.