TODAY’ S MUNICIPAL TREASURER communications, of course, today’ s treasurer needs business and project management skills. Also, people need to understand the full cost of a public service – the full life-cycle cost.”
Cowin added that assessing current municipal assets is a big job, but it is not enough. With many of Ontario’ s 444 municipalities experiencing tremendous growth, treasurers must also have a hand in planning for the people who will be coming. As well, municipalities have forged into new territory in recent years, including public-private partnerships, administration of for-profit businesses and a focus on anticipating long-term future costs and revenue streams – all far beyond the traditional role of the treasurer and necessitating cooperation with other local government departments.
“ Accounting, business, project management, all of that … there’ s no way the treasurer is in a position to do an asset management plan alone,” Cowin says emphatically.“ The treasurer doesn’ t know when pipes will need to be replaced or the best engineering solution to an asset rehabilitation problem. So, it’ s an inter-departmental undertaking that has a strong financial component. Because of that, leadership is also a very important required skill.”
Slow transition Wolters admits it’ s taking longer than she expected for treasurers to move into a more strategic role in municipal government.
“ They still have to do their dayto-day jobs and they need time and access to the right training,” she notes.
The reality that there aren’ t any schools specifically for treasurers doesn’ t help the situation, although some associations – including the Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario( AMCTO) and MFOA – do offer training courses.
As vacancies come open, municipalities are searching out the best candidates to fill the treasurer’ s shoes, but those qualifications don’ t come cheap. For some tiny municipalities, the salary for an experienced treasurer is simply not in the budget.
“ There really does seem to be a bit of a barrier to paying the kinds of salaries necessary to get qualified staff,” says Cowin.“ We’ re exploring some solutions. Some [ treasurers ] are farming themselves out on a part-time basis to more than one municipality, for example.”
Another challenge, he adds, is that some councils still don’ t see the need for change.
“ People are not necessarily convinced yet that treasurers need these skills. But, where skills enhancement has occurred, those councils can see the difference. They are seeing reports in front of them that they’ ve never seen before, including new analyses of important issues. I think they really appreciate that they have more horsepower in their finance and treasury department,” says Cowin.
At the end of the day, concludes Wolters, municipal government is by far the most diverse level of government.
“ There are so many services offered. Public works is not like recreation, or long-term care, or anything else. But as a treasurer, you must know about all of it,” she says.
The complexity of the treasurer’ s role demands that the skills gap between“ old school” ways and the current demands of the day be closed.
“ We have to change. We can’ t continue to operate this way anymore,” says Wolters.
“ I’ d like to see senior municipal managers look at where they need to go and have a vision that will drive some of this change. The treasurer needs to be at the council table as a financial strategist and business partner, no matter what.”
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