posted February 4, 2008

EVERYBODY PAYS: ABOLISHING PRIORITY CENTRES

From the City's report: "Everybody gets to play (TM)"

P.3 “Basis for this report”: “In 2006, PF&R initiated, as part of the City’s program review process, a full costing and pricing study on selected recreation programs and services to provide information to support decision making on services, fees and subsidies”

p.4: “A Corporate User fee policy is being developed for Council consideration in 2008. Pending the new policy, divisions are to follow the 2007 directive on user fees which states that ‘where direct users can be identified, City user fees be established to recover the full cost of the relevant service and be increased by the rate of inflation, while ensuring that the most vulnerable are protected.’

January 28, 2008: Request to Chris Gallop, assistant to Councillor Adam Giambrone, to get the "Full Costing and Pricing Study."

Full Costing and Pricing Study: This is what the PFR user fee increase report is based on. The study is part of the Program Review Framework approved by Council June 26.

I also want to know who did the report. It was supposed to be "staff independent of the program" and it was supposed to "assess their continuing relevance to community needs and how well they achieve their intended results, based on established selection criteria."

So who were the staff and what were the "established selection criteria"? Perhaps they will be listed in the report.

February 6, 2008: e-mail from Jutta Mason to Wynna Brown, assistant to PF&R general manager Brenda Librecz

I just heard from Councillor Giambrone's office that the completed program review listed on page 15 of the city budget is not actually complete, i.e. it's not available. Did I understand that right?

On page 15 of the budget it's called "review cost recovery model for recreation," and it's ticked off in the "completed" column. In the PFR "Everybody gets to play" document it's called "Full Costing and Pricing study," and it's given as the foundation of the new user fees.

Can you let me know when you will be releasing this?

February 11, 2008, e-mail from Ann Ulusoy, PF&R Director of Management Services:

All Program Reviews are considered complete after they are presented to the City Unions. We will be meeting the Unions over the next 2 weeks and the final report will be presented by Shirley Hoy to Council on March 5, 2008. We will release the review after March 5.

February 11, 2008, comment from a union steward:

What is the justification for basing policy on a report that is not public and has to be checked over first by unions?