The committee has in the past noted that municipal agreements are extremely limiting to communities in their ability to either complete necessary repairs using their own forces or to contract out for the work to be done. The contracts currently state that Public Works and Services must complete the repairs with or without notification of the community and that the department may then bill the community for their services. The community then has no option but to pay the bill presented, despite the fact that they may have been able to complete the repairs with their own staff and equipment at far less cost.

The committee stated that present municipal contracts are out of date and require re-negotiating. The department initially stated that it was up to communities to approach the department with a request to re-negotiate. Upon further questioning, the Minister committed to providing communities with new draft agreements.

The committee looks forward to seeing an update in the summer of 2002 on the response of communities to the new draft agreements and the number of which have signed agreements.