Municipal Partnership Agreements

The Basic Issue

A new form of accountability structure is becoming more popular in the last few years. It is a performance contract between a senior level of government and a lower level or outside organization. One of the main advantages of it is that it is very flexible, so that arrangements can be worked out on a case by case way.

As these can be multi party agreements, and there is a terminal date, the arrangement avoids long term commitments and arrangements when future conditions are in flux.

Rural Development Institute Research Studies

• "The Structure, Theory and Practice of Partnership in Rural Development" - Richard Rounds.
  These are selected AARG working papers from a national rural economics seminar in 1997.The cover the following topics:
  • #1&2 - Two articles on Community Futures' Role in increasing bottom up co-operation
  • #3 - One article on the theory of partnerships and their place in economic theory, addressing both prerequisites and hijacking problems
  • #4 - One article outlining the life-cycle of one collaborative effort and the problems of each stage. This is particularly good for practitioners.
  • #5 - One article giving a first look at some results (senior government and Inuit)
  • #6,7,8 - Three articles on aspects of co-ops on the East Coast, giving some new perspectives

• "Local Development in Quebec" -Ray Bollman and Richard Rounds.
  These three articles are from an international forum on perspectives on Rural Employment. The three papers deal with local development, local investment, and local industrial systems in Quebec. The third article deals with three districts around Montreal that co-operate in a partnership agreement.

• "Development Strategies for Rural Canada: Evaluating Partnerships, Jobs, and Communities" -
  

• 4 Chapters in Changing Rural Institutions:
•       "Rural Development Through Trade-Volunteer and Business Alliances" Peter Apedaile and David Fullerton (Chap.2)
  This paper, coming from an economic perspective is critical to the understanding of the development of the current rural situation because it is here that the concept of "entitlement" is brought forward.

  The concept is not developed in this article, as the author is far more concerned here with alerting people to the concept of voluntary associations serving as bridge organizations between companies and their representatives in the matter of forging strategic alliances informally across boundaries and barriers. This central concern of his bears some consideration, especially in that the customary channels for informal alliance building are no longer relevant in the global trading arena with its world wide and regionally blocked out trading areas. However, it seems to me a little crass to intentionally use the relationships of life simply for business ends.

  His major contribution in this article is in his consideration of entitlements and their diverse nature in our everyday life. He refers to D.G.Hartle's book, A Theory of Expenditure Budgetary Process, as one of the sources for his understanding of this concept.

•       "Informal Social Networks and Voluntary Associations in Non-Metropolitan Canada" -Bill Reimer (Chap 6)
  This paper notes that the key factor in identifying voluntary organizations is their non-legal character. He sees informal networks as a support to formal relationships, and their health determines the degree of health of the larger formal structures. He notes there is little information on rural social networks in the literature. he raises a number of interesting points:
  • Economic and social aspects of restructuring should be addressed together to make an integrated social fabric.
  • There is a need to develop social cohesion.
  • Increase support for dependant populations as mobility distances increase for other family members.
  • Transfer funds to volunteer organizations (partnerships) not just tasks (downloading).
  • More research is needed in rural volunteer organizations.
  • increase the number of places where people can meet in rural areas.

•       "Performance Contracts and Regional Development: New Approaches to Government-Community Relations in Newfoundland and Labrador"
  -Robert Greenwood (Chapter 8)
  This Paper describes the Newfoundland and Labrador performance contract system which is in place in many communities. Performance contracts are designed to give more control to local communities while still providing accountability for top-down funds from upper level governments. The are an attempt to address long-standing "territorial" attitudes which are not sustainable. In effect is to keep both arena players out on the ice and out of the bleachers. Accountability is for short term outputs rather than medium term outcomes or long term impacts . A global problem is of governments reneging on contracts (with little recourse) owing to:
  • changes in administration
  • fiscal restraint
  • mismanagement of money

  He feels some of this can be prevented. The system is in effect in Scandinavia for several years.

•       "Institutional Partnerships for Rural Renewal" - Shirley P Dawe and David Hajesz (Chapter 9)
  The authors feel there is a need for partnership agreements across geographic and administrative boundaries in order t address Rural Canada's multi-dimensional problems. They are being used in the USA and this paper looks at its use here. It lays down a base of context and definition for case studies and examples to build on.

  Four aspects recommend this process for the Canadian situation:

  1. top down and bottom up approaches are married
  2. it is flexible
  3. diversity is harnessed
  4. power and resources are shared

  Four supports developed in the United States in the areas of policy, administration, technology and finance are examined.

Other Resources