Commission on the Reform of Ontario's Public Services

An example of where the Ontario broader public sector (BPS) can improve its evidence-based
data collection is through the municipal costing of court security and offender transportation
programs. As part of the PMFSDR agreement, this year the province is scheduled to begin
the phased upload of up to $125 million annually at maturity to municipalities for court security
and offender transportation costs. However, neither the province nor the municipalities have
created a standardized inventory of what should be included in municipal costs for court
security and offender transportation. The province will distribute funding to municipalities
based on an expenditure-based model from municipally self-reported data. 1 For example, if a
municipality reports it has 10 per cent of the provincial costs for court security, it will receive
10 per cent of the available funding. Standardizing cost data for municipal court security and
prisoner transportation programs will lead to a more equitable distribution of provincial funding
to municipalities and improved outcomes for the sector.
The sector should identify areas where standardizing data and improving data collection will
assist the evaluation and analysis of policy and service delivery and then commence doing so.
Other areas in which improving evidence-based data collection could help the sector include:
� Correctional services delivery models, including private alternative service delivery;
� Ontario’s policing services model;
� Ontario’s public safety training programs, including but not limited to police, fire and
emergency medical services (EMS);
� Impact of federal legislation on the Ontario justice sector;
� Working with the judiciary and stakeholders to improve data collection;
� Building a new integrated court-case tracking system that will automate data entry and
support the collection of more detailed data (e.g., types of motions); and
� For family mediation and information services, standardized data collection can help
determine the effectiveness of services and the speed at which cases are resolved. Recent
developments include the development and use of a new database to track non-identifying
information about clients including income, issues, referral sources and settlement rates.
Future improvements will include linking of non-court mediation and information activity
with court-case activity to illuminate the linkage between use of services and court activity.
1 “AMO Policy Update,” Dec. 15, 2011. The upload value for each municipality is based on its relative share of the total 2010 municipal
costs. All municipalities, regardless of whether they hosted a court, were asked to itemize their 2008 and 2010 court security and prisoner
transportation expenses. In OPP-policed communities, the OPP provided these estimates.
352