The Province has made available the chance for municipalities and their partner organizations to apply to the Municipal Service Delivery Improvement Program (MSDIP). It's a program that provides organizations financial support to complete value-for-money service delivery reviews of programs and services.

City of Portage councillor Preston Meier explains.

"Periodically, the Government of Manitoba will come up with certain programs that are maybe designed to help municipalities in different ways," explains Meier. "And this is one of those programs. What they've done is offered an opportunity to municipalities and, more importantly, their partner organizations, to apply for what's called a Municipal Service Delivery Improvement Program. What that really means is it's just a program that allows organizations financial support to complete a value-for-money service delivery review of their current programs and services."

He notes most of their partner organizations are regional, so it's really a combination between the RM of Portage and the City of Portage, which continues to have great relationship together.

"The councils of the RM of Portage and the City of Portage offered to support the application of any of the joint entity organizations that wish to pursue a submission to this new program. Both the Planning District and the Portage Regional Economic Development board have expressed interest in this program. And for part of the support, we need the resolutions from council."

Meier explains they are able to work with a third-party consulting firm to go over several different parameters.

"And really, what it is, is a proactive third-party approach," continues Meier. "So, the government funds the third party. It's a review of the services, and it's never a bad idea to have a third party look a bit into your organization to see if there is any other value for money. They'll evaluate services or programs and it doesn't mean that there's anything wrong within the organization. It just means that the organization is taking a proactive approach to just have a look at it."

He says another element to take notice of includes the non-binding nature of any of the implementation or any of the recommendations that come out of it.

"So, it's really up to that individual entity, whether they decide to implement any of the recommendations that come from that," adds Meier. "But there's a public report and it would be published online. We just think it's a great thing to look to see if there are any efficiencies anywhere. If you've got the opportunity to take advantage of a program like that, I think it makes good sense."