Saugeen Shores, ON – January 16, 2020
Seven municipalities come together to seek better ways to deliver services
Municipalities facing a host of common challenges have agreed to work together to find new and better ways of meeting the needs of people in their communities.
The commitment to fresh thinking and cooperation will be channeled through the Municipal Innovation Council (MIC), a joint body set up by an agreement between the Town of Saugeen Shores, Arran-Elderslie, Brockton, Bruce County, Huron-Kinloss, Kincardine and South Bruce. The MIC is a three-year pilot project aimed at finding – and implementing – smarter and more effective ways of delivering municipal services.
The new body was formally unveiled at an Innovation Breakfast in Port Elgin on Jan. 16 that was sponsored by the Nuclear Innovation Institute (NII), which will provide the MIC with advice, space, technology resources and other support for its activities.
More than 100 participants were present for the MIC’s inauguration. The formal launch was followed by a working session with MIC partners to start the process of identifying key issues and areas of focus that could benefit from new approaches. The workshop was led by Lindsay Farlow, the Head of Corporate Innovation at Communitech in Kitchener-Waterloo, who had earlier addressed the gathering on how to kickstart a culture of experimentation and improvement in rural government.
“Innovation is about finding the right ideas and solutions to a problem - and then implementing them,” said Bruce Wallace, NII’s President and CEO. “But we know that change isn’t always easy. So NII has pledged to support our municipalities in their drive to transform how they act on key issues that matter to people.”
The MIC is the culmination of an agreement signed last year between the Town of Saugeen Shores and NII, which gave Saugeen Shores a leadership role in developing the concept and establishing partnerships for the MIC to become a collaborative partnership across the region.
“Saugeen Shores is proud to have acted as the leader to bring partners together,” said Mayor Luke Charbonneau. “Now the MIC belongs to seven local municipalities. This speaks to the appetite for innovation and collaboration in our region.”
About the Nuclear Innovation Institute
The Nuclear Innovation Institute (NII) is an independent, not-for-profit organization that provides a platform to accelerate innovation and the implementation of business-relevant solutions for the nuclear industry.
NII’s goal is to shape a Canadian nuclear industry that embraces new thinking, new technologies and new lines of business that can drive the global shift to a low-carbon future.