St. Marys to provide building-inspection services to Stratford under temporary agreement

By Galen Simmons

St. Marys will temporarily lend its building-services expertise to the City of Stratford after council approved an agreement to help its neighbouring municipality address a staffing shortage.

At its June 23 regular meeting, St. Marys council approved a building-services agreement that will see qualified St. Marys building officials assist Stratford with building-permit reviews, inspections and enforcement-related matters on a cost-recovery basis. The agreement comes after Stratford approached St. Marys seeking assistance in maintaining building-services operations while addressing a gap in staffing.

“We’re basically looking at shared services for building inspection from the Town of St. Marys to the City of Stratford,” St. Marys director of building and development Grant Brouwer told council. “The backstory is they’re having some personnel challenges. … They asked for support for roughly three months.”

Under the arrangement, St. Marys employees will remain employed by the town while carrying out building-related duties within Stratford under the authority of the Ontario Building Code and Stratford's local requirements. Stratford will appoint the St. Marys officials by bylaw so they can perform the required duties within the city.

Town staff said the agreement has been structured to ensure there is no impact on service delivery for St. Marys residents.

Building officials will provide up to eight hours of service per week in Stratford, with scheduling remaining flexible and coordinated between the two municipalities based on operational needs. If workloads increase in St. Marys, the town's own building services will continue to take priority.

“If we’re going to have challenges on our side, we’re not getting things done on our side, we have the ability to cancel the contract,” Brouwer said. “Even though we think we can help them out … we do have the ability to withdraw if it’s not working out.”

The agreement is structured on a full cost-recovery basis, with Stratford responsible for reimbursing St. Marys for staff wages, employment-related costs, mileage, overtime and other eligible expenses associated with providing the service. According to the report, the arrangement will have no financial impact on the Town of St. Marys.

Council approved the agreement as a short-term arrangement intended to help Stratford while allowing both municipalities to evaluate how well the partnership works.

According to Stratford director of building and planning Adam Betteridge, the city’s building department has two staff members on parental leave – one short term and the other long term.

“The long-term leave was backfilled with a contract position, and the individual who took that position found permanent employment with another municipality,” Betteridge said. “Refilling through another contract would likely not have been realized given only a few months remain until the employee returns from parental leave, so an arrangement with St. Marys was pursued.

“Their building officials are experienced and knowledgeable, so they can hit the ground running.”

The agreement takes effect in June and runs through Dec. 17, with provisions allowing either municipality to terminate it with 30 days' written notice. It also includes an automatic six-month renewal unless either municipality chooses to end the arrangement.

According to the report, the agreement provides an opportunity for St. Marys to support a neighbouring municipality while making efficient use of existing staff expertise without compromising local service levels.

Both Betteridge and Brouwer said the two municipalities are open to a more permanent agreement in the future that would provide backup building-department staff to help fill full-time staff absences resulting from illness or vacations in either municipality.