ROMA sessions are never standing-room-only. But this one was.
The heavily attended presentation on municipal staff retention and recruitment at the Rural Ontario Municipalities Association conference on Monday was punctuated by applause breaks, "mm-hms" and laughter, as rural staff and councillors commiserated over their common problem: no one wants to work for them anymore.
Last year, StrategyCorp surveyed almost 2,400 municipal employees as part of a $4-million data-gathering project from ROMA's parent organization, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario.
Planners, building inspectors, emergency service workers and personal support workers are in short supply across all municipalities, it found. The "grey tsunami" is here, and there aren't enough applicants coming in to replace those retiring, StrategyCorp's Sabine Matheson said.
Workloads are growing and so is burnout due to the pressure to “do more with the same, or less," her colleague Stacy Hushion said.
AMO President Colin Best made cost struggles a central part of his address to delegates on Monday, saying cities and towns can't cover the costs of the province's housing demands without provincial help.
"The growth we're experiencing is unprecedented. It must be matched with unprecedented investment in infrastructure," he said.
The government announced some spending on those fronts on Monday, and the association said it's "crucial" that current funding levels be maintained.
Also turning people away from municipal service is the inability to get rid of elected officials who harass their co-workers, said Emily McIntosh of the Women of Ontario Say No, a non-partisan advocacy group lobbying the government to change that. The Tories had signalled support for an all-other-party push, but defeated a Liberal PMB earlier this year.
"When we're talking about rural municipalities trying to retain staff, for example, this issue is directly related," McIntosh said. "We don't want to see municipalities paying out settlements for poor councillor behaviour that could have been resolved with appropriate legislation and policies in place."
On Monday Calandra said he's "working on something" with the attorney general to that effect.
"Whatever I do has to be ... constitutional" and "tested at all levels," Calandra said at ROMA's "bear pit" in response to a councillor question on the topic.
"I don't want to do something or bring something forward that can in any way make it harder for somebody to get the justice that they are seeking," he said.
Calandra said he's heard a lot of opinions but that everyone has told him they just want to feel safe in their workplace.
"And I think we can get that accomplished," he said.
It’s been years in the making- but now ITS PUBLIC and ITS HAPPENING. #accoutabilitynow @ROMA_Ont @AMOPolicy Yes- @PaulCalandra @douglasdowney https://t.co/PkP409DSwN
— Emily McIntosh (@ejhINT) January 22, 2024
StrategyCorp said municipalities could also be clearer in their job post language — "What is a clerk?" Hushion said.
Cities and towns could also think about lowering requirements for entry-level positions and upskilling people on the job instead of requiring specific education or experience, she said.
But 20-somethings aren't thinking about pensions, Matheson said, arguing that to attract young talent, municipalities need to get with the times by offering hybrid schedules. Michael Di Lullo, the CAO of Middlesex Centre, said his municipality offers a schedule where some staff work 10–4 in the summer, and some have Fridays off.
“We’re in a very competitive market for getting people to come join us," Matheson said. "We need to think about the ways that we say, 'Here, kitty, kitty, kitty.'"
Also not helping things are strong mayor powers, which concentrate senior staff decisions in the mayor's office, the survey found.
"With the strong mayor powers, nobody will say anything … they are thinking, ‘Why should I stir up the hornets’ nest?’" the survey quotes one CAO as saying.
Diversity, equity and inclusion could also be improved, Matheson said.
“Man, this is a very white room. It doesn’t look like Ontario’s demography, let alone Toronto’s," she said, though she noted that as a trans woman, she has been treated very well.
CAOs are often treated as "the NHL coaches of the municipal world" — they're "hired to be fired," said Ian McCormack of Strategic Steps, a local government consulting firm.
Treating them as commodities drives up their cost, he said.
Role clarity is another issue, McCormack said. Councils should stay in their lane, leaving things like spec’ing out industrial equipment to the staff, he said.
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast," he said.
The good news: two-thirds of those surveyed said they saw themselves at their current job in two years. Among those who planned to leave, most planned to retire, and most of the rest said they'd go to a different municipality — not the private sector.
Sixty per cent of those surveyed said they were satisfied with their jobs. It dips after a five-year "honeymoon," but rebounds after year 10.
"Not too much rattles you at that point," Hushion said.
What people like about their municipal jobs is often what drew them in, Hushion said: pension, benefits, stability, and the ability to make a difference in their communities.
Still, respondents pointed to salary as their top area for improvement.
StrategyCorp's next step will be surveying students on what they want out of a job since just 20 per cent of employees surveyed came out of school. The majority came from the private sector.
The firm will also put together a set of recommendations for AMO to lobby for, Hushion said.
“We’re only just getting started," she said.
