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Staff Report
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Report To: General Government Committee
Date of Meeting: January 27, 2020 Report Number: CAO-003-20
Submitted By: Catherine Carr, Manager of Internal Audit
Reviewed By: Andrew C. Allison, CAO Resolution#:GG-062-20, C-045-20
File Number:
Report Subject: Forestry Service Delivery Review
Recommendations:
By-law Number:
1. That Report CAO-003-20 be received;
2. That Council endorse the recommendations of the Forestry Service Delivery Review;
3. That the recommendation to conduct a customer service and work order process
review be initiated immediately by staff; and
4. That the other recommendations set out in the consultant's Service Delivery Review
of Forestry Services be prioritized to enhance Forestry services.
Municipality of Clarington
Report CAO-003-20
Report Overview
Page 2
Through Report CAO-002-17, Council approved a service delivery review approach.
Services to be reviewed are chosen by the Audit Committee based on a set of criteria
defined in the report. This Report presents the results of the independent review of Forestry
Services and recommended actions to improve this service delivery.
1. Background
1.1 Council approved a formal process to review Municipal services as presented in Report
CAO-002-17. The Audit Committee chose Forestry Services as the third Municipal
service to be reviewed.
1.2 The service delivery review methodology approved by Council in 2017 included 10
questions to be answered as part of the review. Through a Request for Proposal (RFP)
process, WSCS Consulting Services (Tammy Carruthers) was selected to undertake the
review. WSCS has extensive municipal experience and has completed the two previous
service delivery reviews.
1.3 A steering committee was formed to coordinate the service delivery review process. The
steering committee members were the Director of Operations (retired), Manager of
Operations (now Acting Director of Operations), Parks Supervisor, one of the Parks Lead
Hands (Arborist) and the Manager of Internal Audit. The process required a significant
amount of resources including staff in the Operations Department as well as
consultations with other departments, external stakeholders and members of Council.
Much of the work for this service delivery review was done during the same time period
as the Organizational Structure Review.
1.4 WSCS Consulting made 14 recommendations for service delivery improvements. Some
of the recommendations overlap into other areas of work within the Operations
Department.
2. Recommendations
Work Order and Customer Service Review
2.1 Recommendations 1 and 2 discuss the need for a business process review of customer
service and work orders throughout the Operations Department. Staff have been working
at improving processes and have implemented some changes. However, a wide -range
review would be very beneficial. This requires time and resources. The consultant has
recommended an investment of $70,000 consulting fees including business process
Municipality of Clarington
Report CAO-003-20
Page 3
review and development of policies, procedures and training. Rather than using outside
consultants, a team of employees can be formed to undertake the recommended
business process review as part of a Green Belt certification exercise under the
Municipality's Lean Sigma Six program. The recommended business process review for
work orders is an ideal fit for this program. The team will work with the Operations
Department to develop service improvements. This project has been scheduled to start
in early February 2020.
2.2 There will be a cost to integrate the outside field work with the software and the use of
hardware such as tablets. Some of this hardware has been included in past budgets.
This process improvement would greatly reduce the administrative time, cost and data
quality once implemented. To maximize these efficiencies, it is imperative to conduct the
business process review noted in 2.1.
2.3 Currently, the Operations Department uses the software CityWide Works. The Finance
Department uses the Tangible Capital Asset module of CityWide. The benefit of this
software is that it can link work done on Municipal assets. The Municipality is also
looking at replacing the current software used by multiple departments namely
Engineering, Operations, Planning and Clerk's (By-law Enforcement) with a possibility of
expanding use for as a Customer Response Management system. If the Operations
Department were to adapt to the new software in the future, the work done on business
process review would only increase the success of the implementation of new or existing
software.
2.4 From a customer service view, it is recommended that a customer portal be developed to
allow for online requests, tracking and satisfaction surveys. (Recommendation 4)
Additionally, the tree replacement process allowing residents to select a species of tree
should be discontinued as it is an administrative burden that is shown to be largely
ineffective. Municipal staff have the expertise to choose the appropriate tree for the
location based on local conditions and species diversity in the area.
2.5 By capturing the relevant data from the forestry program, there is an opportunity to
develop meaningful performance standards and indicators on service delivery.
(Recommendation 3)
Staffing and Contracting Services
2.6 The Forestry Service delivery review showcases the need for a dedicated Forestry
Service team. This is discussed in Recommendations 5 and 6. It is recommended that a
Lead Hand (Arborist) be renamed the Forestry Coordinator and that a dedicated forestry
team be developed. Currently there is one lead hand who is an Arborist who reports to
the Parks Supervisor. The Operations Department has been working at improving this
service to deal with the work order backlog. It is recommended that Operations evaluate
Municipality of Clarington
Report CAO-003-20
Page 4
their staff complement and consider training and adding or allocating additional positions
to the Forestry service. (Recommendations 5 and 6)
2.7 The service delivery review also addresses contracting out. As noted in the review, it is
suggested that the Municipality continue with the model of combining in-house and
contracting to delivery forestry services. There are improvements noted in the contracted
service delivery such as tracking and updating work orders, evaluating vendor
performance, and working with Purchasing to follow through with contractor evaluations.
(Recommendations 7, 8 and11)
Policy and Other Work
2.8 There are several other recommendations that should be considered. Some of the
coordination of these recommendations may be better facilitated with the proposed
department structure in the Organizational Structure Review. The creation of the Public
Works Department would combine the skills and knowledge of the staff in the existing
Operations and Engineering Departments.
2.9 The Operations Department has been conducting an inventory of dead trees in some
rural areas to document the scope of the issue in the rural areas. At present, Operations
staff have logged 1500 dead trees west of Bowmanville Avenue. Without adequate
resourcing either in-house or with funding for contractors, the rural tree issues will
continue to be a problem for many years. A comprehensive tree survey of the entire
Municipality is needed. Once established, there should be a process to maintain the
inventory. (Recommendation 9)
2.10 As well, it is recommended that the Tree Preservation By-law #97-35 be updated with
respect to language, references and fees. Council did discuss the challenges on
monitoring trees on private properties in reports OPD-011-17 and CLD-013-16. These
discussions resulted in the Urban Tree Strategy being developed. The Region is
currently concluding the review on their Tree By-law.
2.11 As noted in Recommendation 13, the commitment to the Urban Forest Strategy should
be determined and a work plan developed. Again, this may be better supported with the
creation of a Public Works Department.
2.12 The consultant noted several potential agencies and programs that may be explored to
improve forestry services and the tree canopy. With the proposed department
reorganization, this should be clearly assigned within the appropriate division.
(Recommendations 5 and 14)
2.13 Recommendation 10, an equipment rate study should be investigated in 2020 in
preparation for the 2021 budget as there could be budget implications from the rate
study. This can be done in partnership with Operations and Finance staff.
Municipality of Clarington
Report CAO-003-20
3. Concurrence
Page 5
This report has been reviewed by the Acting Director of Operations who concurs with
the recommendations.
4. Conclusion
Operations staff have made some progress recently but are burdened by the backlog of
forestry work orders. There are improvements with respect to customer service and
work orders that will benefit processes throughout the Operations department. The
Lean Sigma Six program offers an opportunity to do a review of the work order process
with Municipal staff.
The potential creation of the Public Works Department offers some opportunities to
enhance collaborative work for Forestry Services such as the Tree Preservation By-law
and a work plan for the Urban Forest Strategy.
Key to the success in the Forestry Services is establishing a dedicated Forestry team
headed by a Forestry Coordinator. The Forestry Services team should be focused on
forestry issues year-round.
It is respectfully recommended that Council endorse the recommendations in the
Forestry Service Delivery Review.
Staff Contact: Catherine Carr, Manager of Internal Audit, 905-623-3379 ext. 2606
ccarr@clarington.net
Attachments:
Attachment 1 — Forestry Service Delivery Review
There are no interested parties to be notified of Council's decision.
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Attachment 1 to Report
rl CAO-003-20
C149 I iflOOIR
Municipality of Clarington Logo
Clarington Forestry
Service Delivery Review
Reinforces sense
of place and city
identity
Improves
community
coheslon
Reduces sun
exposure
Reduces flows
& nutrients
In stormwater
Reduces air
pollution
Provides shade
and cooling
Pro�,ldes habitat
and greater
bl:)dlverslty
January 2020
Reconnects
children with
nature
Reduces heat
related Ilnesses
Encourages
outdoor activity
1^^^—s mental
ellbeing
Enables energy
savings
Increases
property values
Enables health
savings
Avoids costs of
Infrastructure
damage
Assists in carbon
trade ng
WSCS
NINd Consulting
Think Beyond
The Benefit of Trees WSCS Consulting Inc. Logo
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Table of Contents
ExecutiveSummary.........................................................................................................................................4
ProjectObjective..........................................................................................................................................11
ProjectScope................................................................................................................................................13
Background...................................................................................................................................................19
Forestry Organizational and Regulatory Context...........................................................................................22
EnvironmentalBenefits.................................................................................................................................26
Clarington Forestry Organizational Structure................................................................................................28
Operating Budget 2019 Summary & Comments............................................................................................30
Clarington Forestry Services' Achievements..................................................................................................32
Forestry Work Processes and Staffing...........................................................................................................32
Contractor Procurement and Performance...................................................................................................33
Clarington Forestry Service Profile................................................................................................................34
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT).........................................................................51
Benchmarking — Why Compare to Other Communities?...............................................................................54
Key Observations & Best Practices Common to the Benchmarked Municipalities.........................................54
Key Findings and Opportunities for Improvement........................................................................................60
Forestry Services requests are not customer focused...................................................................................64
Equipment Rates and work order processes do not capture true costs.........................................................69
Procurement and Contractor Management is time consuming and challenging...........................................69
Bylawsare outdated.....................................................................................................................................70
Urban Forest Strategy needs to be coupled with a workplan to succeed......................................................72
Conclusion....................................................................................................................................................73
Acknowledgement........................................................................................................................................73
Appendix A: Stakeholder Interviews.............................................................................................................74
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery
Review
THE NEED FOR GREEN
Executive Summary
The Municipality of Clarington (the Municipality) is a
vibrant community located at the eastern edge of the
Greater Toronto Area (GTA), one of eight
municipalities in Durham Region. Clarington is a large
municipality, covering an area of approximately 612
square kilometres, with four urban centres and 13
hamlets.
With Lake Ontario to the south, Oak Ridges Moraine
and Ganaraska Region to the North, Clarington is rich
with forests and vegetation. Its natural surroundings,
forests and tree -laden urban streets, make Clarington
attractive for residents and visitors alike. Being at the
eastern edge of the GTA with the proximity to the
401/407, make Clarington prime for ongoing
population growth. But this growth creates a host of
environmental challenges, from stormwater runoff to
the urban heat island effect. Protecting and growing
trees and other natural resources will become
increasingly difficult as the climate changes and more
subdivisions are developed.
Trees provide a host of ecosystem services and their
canopies provide habitat for wildlife. The transpiration
process reduces summer temperatures and research
shows that trees can even improve social cohesion
and reduce crime. A healthy and robust tree canopy is
crucial to the sustainability and livability of our urban
areas.
In recent years, Ontario has taken steps to protect the
tree canopy through climate change strategies and
regulatory changes. For instance, in 2019, changes to
the Municipal Act required municipalities to adopt
and maintain a policy with respect to "the manner in
which the municipality will protect and enhance the
tree canopy and natural vegetation in the
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
municipality." The Planning Act and asset
management planning regulations require
municipalities to consider climate change adaption in
long term plans.'
To some extent, Clarington has recognized the
importance of growing and maintaining the tree
canopy through its official plan requirements, and the
Stewardship Program which includes the very
successful Trees for Rural Roads Program.
However, the last Tree Preservation By-law was passed
in 1997, back when the Municipality had a population
of less than 70,000 people. Recent interest has been
expressed regarding the desire to protect trees
through additional bylaws on private property.
However, these appeals have been rejected due to the
cost and management. The challenge is that the
Municipality does not have any mechanism to protect
trees until a development application is filed. Durham
Region is in the process of reviewing its tree
protection bylaw and some changes are forthcoming.
Despite pleas from some residents, in Clarington, only
small woodlots are protected through by-law and
development applications.
Research shows that private by-laws have some
success but the most important outcome is the
increased awareness of the importance of trees.
Enforcement is challenging and expensive.'
Following some interest from Council, the
Municipality developed the Urban Forest Strategy
which outlined strategic objectives into six groups:
• Tree Inventory and Assessment;
• Management of Municipal Forests;
• Level of Service;
• Customer Service / Service Delivery;
• Tree Protection and Management; and
• Forest Health and Pest Management.
While the strategy was formulated through
consultations with staff from Operations, Planning and
Engineering and endorsed by Council in 2018, it was
not "financed" and no detailed work plan created.
Consequently, even though the goals are impressive
' O. Reg 588/17 Asset Management Planning Regulation Knowledge and Support for Private Tree Bylaws in the Greater Toronto
2 Arboriculture & Urban Forestry — Scientific Journal of the International Area.
Society of Arboriculture, Volume 44, No. 4, July 2018 — Resident
Page 5
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
and likely action is required, the strategy is not guiding
the work in Operations.
Part of the challenge is that the Emerald Ash Borer
(EAB) infestation has required significant attention and
investment to the tune of $3 million over 5 years. This
has impacted all other "less critical" forestry requests
which may impact the health of the remaining trees
and/or result in dissatisfied customers.3 The EAB
issue exists in parks and rural areas as well, but the
Municipality has only begun to tackle that issue. If the
infestation in the urban areas is any indication, the
workload and financial impact for the rural areas is
likely exponentially higher.
In order to tackle the EAB crisis along with the
ongoing tree maintenance responsibilities, the
Municipality utilizes a combined service delivery
model of in-house and contracted services. While
typically, the contracted services have been
approximately $300,000 (52%) of the forestry budget,
the EAB infestation and concerns with mounting
workload has pushed that number up to 70% or
$730,000 in 2019. It is important to note that every
year since 2014, the Forestry Services has been over
budget.' While the variances have been significant,
3 2018 Clarington's Urban Forest Strategy
there is not enough data to determine the root cause.
The volume of work hours and associated costing is
not tracked. This makes it difficult to determine the
degree to which outsourcing would be more effective
or efficient.
The workload volumes have been tracked for some
time but with more vigour since 2017 when
Operations implement a customer service request and
work order module. This shows that 50% of the
forestry work orders created for customer
requests/complaints since 2017 are yet to be
completed. With only one arborist and no dedicated
forestry work crews, the likelihood of responding to
these requests in a timely manner is not feasible. At
September 2019, outstanding work orders totaled
2,167 with an average aging of 254 days (over 8
months). At a conservative estimate, this represents
about $350,000 or 4 full time equivalents. With every
passing day, more requests are received and existing
work orders become older. Customers become
increasingly frustrated and dissatisfied with services.
Of the outstanding work orders, 7% are at the second
or third request for service. There are currently no
service standards for forestry service response times.
a Operations Forest 2014-201 9 Report provided by Clarington's
financial system
Page 6
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Customers do not have the ability to file or track
service requests by type online as seen in other
municipalities. So it is incumbent on Operations staff
to manually enter the data into CityWide based upon
telephone or email contact. Updates are provided by
follow up telephone calls, only adding to staff time
who consequently, must deal with the irate
customers. Reviewing the data also revealed that
there were many errors, omissions and
inconsistencies. In some cases, the location was
missing or the type of request was unclear. Staff must
then contact the customer to gain better
understanding of the issues. This also makes it difficult
to undertake analysis or plan the work effectively.
The volume of work and fact that the Municipality is
aware of the issues through recording of service
requests raise concerns about the potential liability
that this may pose. This is particularly true for
situations where trees/branches may cause damage.
As new EAB and other types of infestations are
identified, it is possible that the numbers and issues
may increase if no plan is developed.
Some of the delays in completing work orders can be
attributed to the Municipality's practice surrounding
tree replanting and requests for the types of trees.
This manual process requires the resident to contact
the Municipality to indicate their choice of seven
possible trees. While this seems to be a nice service,
record keeping is challenging and residents are slow to
respond, or not at all. Operations staff must collect
and monitor this information and follow up. Most
municipalities, including Oshawa simply determine
the type of tree to be planted based upon the best
choice for soil conditions and location.
In the recently released Clarington Organizational
Structure Review, the consultants recommended that
Clarington look at the "Possible Outsourcing of
Forestry" and that "there is currently some Forestry
expertise within the Engineering department,
however, this function should fall under Operations
and may be required to scale to meet experience and
service level expectations. In order to scale Forestry
operations efficiently while maintaining service levels
across other areas, outsourcing should be a
consideration."
It is true that Forestry "services" are delivered in a
"piece meal" fashion between Planning, Engineering
and Operations with no clear accountability or
responsibilities.
While we agree that outsourcing forestry is an option,
we are of the opinion that the entire service cannot
be outsourced. We are of the opinion that Clarington
should consider a review of outsourcing other
operations such as winter control, which is much more
Page 7
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
common and effective than forestry operations.
However, this was not in scope for this review but it is
difficult to assess forestry on its own. Even in the City
of Brantford with a population of 97,000, where the
entire forestry service is outsourced, City staff are
responsible for managing the contract. 2019 budget
indicated that the plan was to bring the service in
house with 10 additional staff and over $ 1.3 millions
A review of the outsourced service indicated
dissatisfaction with quality and response time.
Forestry is so intertwined with other plans and
legislative requirements as well as its impact on the
health and beauty of the Municipality, that contracted
services can best be utilized for project work that can
be monitored through effective contract
management.
In order to improve contract performance, the
Municipality must have a clear plan of its desired
achievement, indicators and reliable vendors to carry
out the work. To date, the Municipality has been
challenged with contractor performance and spends
considerable amount of time managing the work of
contractors.
5 https:/ /www.brantford.ca/en/living-
here/resources/Documents/2019-Operating Budget-Estimates.pdf Item
20 and 23
Current Clarington contracts state that the
Municipality will inspect the completed work to
confirm satisfactory performance prior to payment.
This seems to be overly onerous and partially defeats
the purpose of contracting out the work. However, if
the performance evaluation information is gathered
and analyzed, it will provide the Municipality and
Purchasing with the appropriate information for
assessing vendor qualifications and eligibility. Without
clear evidence of vendor issues, it is very difficult, if
not impossible, to prevent poor performing vendors
from bidding on tenders.
Outsourcing decisions must also be accompanied with
good, reliable cost data. This is not available in
Clarington. Labour, materials and equipment costs
per job are not captured. Equipment rates are not
updated. In analyzing the costs for Forestry, we not
only reviewed the financial reports, we reviewed the
processes to capture this information.
We found that the processes utilized by the
Municipality are outdated and time consuming. When
onsite, work planning was undertaken in the morning
when staff reported to the location. Because the
Page 8
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Municipality does not have "crews" assigned to the
Lead Hand, work is not planned beyond one day and is
based upon the crew onsite that day. In other words,
staff work is reactive and the Lead Hands cannot plan
beyond the day as they are unsure who will be at
work. Further, even though some staff have gained
forestry skills, the lack of continuity makes it very
difficult for the Municipality to train the staff in
forestry which is a different skill set from other
Operation's roles.
In terms of the Lead Hand, the Municipality advertised
and hired an arborist who has extensive experience
with a large municipality. However, due to the
structure, the Lead Hand is required to do a variety of
non -forestry work. Given this specialty, it is likely not
the most efficient or effective utilization of the skill
set.
Payroll and cost allocation processes are outdated and
inefficient. Spreadsheets are completed by the lead
chance of error is high. Work order costs and time are
crucial to determine standard costs which will assist in
for work planning and resource allocation.
In terms of workload, even though much of this work
is performed on the Municipality's right of way,
customers perceive this to be on their property.
Complaints will continue to be launched with the
Municipality. Consequently, Operations staff are
charged with following up on these complaints.
Unfortunately, the data collected to date does not
sufficiently capture the time or cost to undertake
inspections and/or deal with complaints.
While outsourcing the service in its entirety is likely
not the best option, there are many opportunities for
better service through volunteers and private -public
partnerships particularly in areas for increased tree
health, canopy growth and inventory collection.
Examples include Oakville's, Forest Health
Ambassador Program and PLANT. Here, volunteers
hand for all the parks staff on their behalf with are trained to undertaken assessments and encourage
assignment of time and equipment to general ledger planting6. Tree inventory volunteers in Wisconsin and
job accounts, not work orders. These are then re- Florida are also successful. Tree Canada, Partners in
entered by administrative staff for payroll purposes Planting programs, Municipal Natural Asset Initiative
which not only represents duplication of effort, the funding would augment the Trees for Rural Roads
b https://www.oakville.ca/residents/forest-health-ambassadors.html
Page 9
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Program. These types of programs could be led by
other partners such as the Conservation Authorities,
the Region or private sector and would assist the
Municipality to achieve some of its goals.
Of course, volunteer programs and public -private
partnerships are only successful with performance,
workload management and oversight, even more
difficult than outsourced contractors.
The most significant recommendation from this report
includes the full implementation of work order
management and time/equipment attribution. This
will allow management to fully understand the
workload and better able to determine the
appropriate mix of contracted services and in house
work. Early in 2019, Operations made some
organizational changes, including a "Contracts
Specialist" with Operations who would be responsible
for tendering and vendor management/evaluation.
The role was unclear in terms of forestry services but
it would make sense to develop contract management
skills in a few key personnel and ensure that they work
with procurement to create a roster of reliable
forestry service providers.
The scope of this review was difficult. Separating
forestry service from the other Operations
department services is challenging. This diversity of
services challenge management and workload
planning. Clarington is not unique in this regard.
Many of the benchmarked municipalities have similar
organizations. The organizational review highlighted
the challenges Clarington faces. We are encouraged
that changes may be made including our
recommendations to improve work management,
regardless of the organizational structure.
Page 10
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Project Objective
This review was intended to provide an objective view
of services, explore opportunities for alternatives and
make recommendations for improvements. The key
focus is to determine if the Municipality has
opportunities to:
a. improve service and outcomes;
b. meet new or increased demand from
customers for services;
c. improve service delivery mechanisms and
processes;
d. maintain existing service levels in the face of
competing priorities or decreasing revenues;
e. reduce costs; and/or improve revenues.
The approach that Clarington chose to utilize was
outlined in the guide to service delivery reviews
released by the Ontario Municipal Affairs and Housing.
The guide suggests that 10 key questions should be
addressed in SDRs as shown in as follows:
1. Do we really need to continue to be in the
business/service?
2. What do citizens expect of the service and what
outcomes does council want for the service?
3. How does current performance compare to
expected performance?
4. Do the activities logically lead to the expected
outcomes?
5. How is demand for the service being managed?
6. What are the full costs and benefits of the
service?
7. How can benefits and outputs of the service be
increased?
8. How can the number and cost of inputs be
decreased?
9. What are the alternative ways of delivering the
service?
10.How can a service change best be managed,
implemented and communicated?
Page 11
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Figure 1:Service Delivery Review - 10 Questions
1 Do we REALLY need to be in this Are services and the required
01 P E N business? 06 assets sustainable in the long
term?
02
What Do Citizens Expect of the
Services?
How Does Current Performance
03
Compare to Expected
Performance?
04
Do the Things we are doing (activities)
Lead to the Results Trying to
we are
Achieve?
0 ^
O
How is the DEMAND for services
being
vh
managed?
07
v
Can the Benefits or Outcomes be
Increased?
yV.t
0 ^
U
Can services be delivered more
efficiently through lower costs or
resources?
09
�
Are there Alternative Ways to
Deliver the Service?
How Do We Balance the Needs of
10
Today While Planning for Tomorrow?
Page 12
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Project Scope
1. Project Initiation: Met with Clarington's SDR
Forestry Services Steering Committee to clarify
expectations, refine lines of inquiry, and
develop a subsequent work program for the
engagement.
2. Steering Committee: Facilitated focus group
session for SWOT, opportunity identification.
Individual interviews with members of the
Steering Committee were also undertaken.
3. Council Consultations: All councillors were
provided the option to meet with the
consultants. Three interviews were
undertaken.
4. Senior Management Consultations: All senior
management involved in forestry were
interviewed.
5. Staff Consultations: Interviewed all Forestry
staff as well as administrative support.
Performed observations and facilitated focus
group sessions. Subject matter experts from
Engineering, Planning, Climate Change,
Communications, Clerk's Office, By-law and
Finance were also interviewed.
6. External Stakeholder Consultations:
Interviewed Conservation Authority staff as
well as community leaders involved in forestry.
7. Environmental Scan: Reviewed relevant
documentation; benchmarked Municipality
services against comparators to identify
opportunities for improved efficiencies and
effectiveness.
8. Review of Current Service Delivery Model:
Developed an inventory of services and
processes provided by Forestry Services.
9. Opportunity Identification: Identified potential
opportunities to achieve the most efficient and
operationally effective approach to service
delivery and address the 10 key questions.
10. Final Report & Presentation: Developed and
presented an interim report to the Steering
Committee with key findings. Final report with
recommendations on the Municipality's service
delivery model scheduled for January 2020.
Page 13
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Methodology
Our methodology shown in Figure 2:project
methodology included:
1. Project Initiation
2. Document Review.
3. Financial and Operational Performance Analysis
and Data Collection.
External Consultation
4. Analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities and Threats (SWOT).
5. Consultations including focus groups,
interviews and observations.
6. Benchmarking and data analysis.
7. Evaluation of the Current Services.
8. Development of Interim and Final Reports.
rking
External Business Practice— Wo11
and
Analysis Processes Develop Session -
Benchmarking Opportunties Priorities
& Best
Practices —
Service Level
Baseline
Project Project Project Project Update
Update Update Update & Presentation
& Input & Input & Input
FIGURE 2:PROJECT METHODOLOGY
Page 14
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
This work was undertaken over a five -month
period commencing August 2019. The
opportunities and recommendations are expected
to be presented to the Committee in January
2020. Figure 3: Project Timeline shows the timing
of each activity. In summary, staff and
management consultations took place in
Figure 3: Project Timeline
A4.
rJ �U JS
August September October
Birk off Interviews F Stakeholder
Meeting Walkthroughs Analysis 6
SWOT Consultations
November
September and October 2019. A "Day in the Life"
was undertaken with forestry staff whereby we
observed their work management, planning and
daily work. Draft report was provided in
December following the release of the
Organization Structure Review. Council report is
expected in January 2020 if required.
December
Analysis & Develop Report
Opportunities & Opportunities
]anuary
Presentation
Page 15
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Opportunities and Recommendations
There are 14 recommendations/opportunities that
arise from the service delivery review for
consideration:
Recommendation 1: Undertake a business
process review of customer service
requests/work orders within Operations
with the view to collect time and
equipment costs at source. This will
require a complete transformation of the
business from the Lead Hand entering data
to staff responsibility through
mobile/internet access. This is what is
done in many other municipalities. An
estimated investment of $70,000 is
required to make this happen including
consulting services, implementation,
procedural development and training
delivery. Additional mobile devices may
be required but an assessment of current
hardware and new requirements should be
undertaken in concert with other
corporate projects.
Recommendation 2: As part of the
process transformation, create Citywide
work order series based upon type
including, at minimum contractor
inspections/complaints, tree replacements.
Error proofing mechanisms should be put
in place to ensure data is clean and
consistent. Look at limited tree
replacement choices for customers.
Recommendation 3: Clarington Forestry
Services should develop performance
standards in measurements, collection and
reporting including work order response
rates and contractor performance. Service
levels should be developed, tracked and
advertised.
Recommendation 4: Clarington should
create an online request system,
integrated with CityWide (or the corporate
service request system) to allow customers
to submit and track forestry requests in
real time.
Recommendation 5: Transform the
position of Lead Hand to Forestry
Coordinator who will be responsible for
managing forestry work with internal staff
and contractors. This position should also
Page 16
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
be responsible to develop private -public or
volunteer partnerships for tree
assessments and inventory.
Recommendation 6: Assign one position,
at minimum, to the Forestry Coordinator,
as a permanent forestry position to assist
in eliminating the backlog of service
requests and support the Urban forest
strategy. Additional training in forestry
practices should be provided to more staff
with the skills to support the Lead
Hand/Forestry Coordinator.
Recommendation 7: Contractor
requirements should include tracking and
updates to work orders and tree inventory
Satisfaction surveys should be added to
the customer portal so that the
municipality can monitor the quality and
responsiveness.
Recommendation 8: Following the
implementation a full work order
management system with time and
equipment tracking and vendor
performance, revisit the degree of
outsourcing in forestry.
Recommendation 9: Develop a plan to
collect tree inventory including application
for funding.
Recommendation 10: Undertake an
equipment rate study to update rates
immediately and on a regular cycle (eg.
every 3-4 years). Ensure that equipment
rates are charged to work orders as they
are utilized as part of Recommendation 1.
Recommendation 11: As part of a
procurement review, Forestry staff should
work with Purchasing to develop a
contractor evaluation system/process. All
contracts should be tracked in a new work
order type in CityWide that includes
criteria for contractors. Consider moving
to a reporting requirement rather than
inspecting all work of contractors.
Performance standards should be put in
place and monitored.
Recommendation 12: Update/expand the
Tree Preservation Bylaw #97-35 including
fees.
Page 17
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Recommendation 13: Clarington should
determine the commitment to Urban
Forest Strategy and ensure a workplan,
with internal and external resources are
assigned. This should form a policy as
required by the Municipal Act.
Recommendation 14: As part of the
strategy, Clarington Forestry Services
should work with the inter -agency working
group such as Durham Region, Clarington's
Climate Change Coordinator, Conservation
Authorities and Community Groups to
build additional volunteer opportunities
(eg. Forest Ambassador Program) and/or
pursue grants (eg. Trees Canada).
Page 18
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Background
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Figure 4: Map of Clarington — 5 Million Tree Project from
Forests Ontario
Situated on beautiful Lake Ontario, the Municipality of
Clarington (the Municipality) is a lower -tier
municipality at the eastern most point in Durham
Region which has picturesque harbours at the eastern
border of the GTA. The municipality has a mix of
urban and rural and is large (611.40 square
72016 Census, Statistics Canada
8Highway 407 extension could bring new markets but also
big risk for businesses
kilometres) which provides an abundance of natural
Forestry assets.
The Municipality prides itself with the "small
Municipality feel" but in fact, the Municipality is not
"small" in relative terms to most municipalities in
Ontario. It represents 0.684% of the province's
population and there are 386 (93%) lower/single tier
municipalities in Ontario that are smaller. However, its
population of 92,0137 has experienced significant
growth at 8.8% since 2011. This is well above Durham
Region's (the Region) growth rate of 6.2% and the
4.6% growth rate across Ontario. This growth has
been primarily along the 401 and the rural areas
remain "relatively" intact with exception to the area
surrounding the 407 expansion. This expansion has
been met with both positive and negative attention. $
In terms of forestry, it is this development that most
concerns arborists and environmental scientists alike.
9
As shown in Figure 4, Clarington is a key contributor to
the 50 million trees Forest Ontario project. Its lush
Second phase of Ontario Highway 407 expansion opens
east of Toronto
9 https://www.greenblue.com/na/trees-in-hardscape-structural-
stability-vs-rootable-soil/
Page 19
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
agricultural land makes for great growing conditions.
The Trees for Rural Roads program has been very
successful. Since 2012, more than 5,800 saplings have
been planted with $160,000 investment since the
inception of the program.10
Clarington covers 61,350 hectares with mapped
forested areas on both private and public land totaling
17,975 hectares, or 29.3% of the total land area when
forest and forest swamp areas are combined as shown
in Figure 5.11
The unique Oak Ridges Moraine12 and Ganaraska
Forest to the north are two of the largest contiguous
forests in southern Ontario. The ecologically diverse
moraine provides varied landforms on the moraine
with woodlands, wetlands, watercourses, kettle lakes
and bogs, have provided an environment suitable for
significant flora and fauna communities to develop
and thrive. The Ganaraska provides large woodlands
that are particularly valuable for conserving
biodiversity. Both areas provide protection for plants
and wildlife in addition to the protection of the
headwater recharge areas of the river watershed.13
10 2019 Clarington Stewardship Annual Report : Report PSD-055-1 9,
December 2, 2019
11 Clarington Urban Forest Strategy 2018.
12 Ecology of the Oak Ridges Moraine - Wikipedia
Major Habitat Types and Land Uses In Clarington
Beach/Bluff
Wetland 14%_
1.83%
Forest/Swamp
4.74%
Forest
24.55 %
Water
.29%
Meadow
9.61 %
Urban
13.64
-Agricultural
45.20%
Figure 5: Major Habitat Types and Land Uses - Source
Urban Forest Strategy
13 https://www.ganaraskaforestcentre.ca/wp-
content /uploads/2017/10/GFMP-2018-2038-September-2017.pdf
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Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
The key focus of the SDR is to determine if the
Municipality has opportunities to:
a. Improve service and outcomes;
b. Meet new or increased demand from
customers for services;
C. Improve service delivery mechanisms and
processes;
d. Maintain existing service levels in the face of
competing priorities or decreasing revenues;
e. Reduce costs; and/or
f. Improve revenues particularly from grants.
Our review revealed that the Municipality needs to
look at the degree to which it feels that tree canopy is
important to its overall vision. Even if the Municipality
determines that it can outsource more of the services,
it needs to improve Forestry Service planning through
dedicated resources and customer relationship
management.
There are also opportunities for interdepartmental
cooperation as identified in the Organizational
Structure Review that will provide better synergies
and improve opportunities for forestry management
and the overall health of the community. If the
recommendations are adopted, duplication of effort
and improved long-term urban forest management
would be a positive outcome.
Page 21
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Forestry Organizational and
Regulatory Context
Figure 6 provides an overview of the landscape of
organizations involved in forestry in the municipal
context.
Tree Canada
Forests Ontario
^^��•�ation Authorities (CLOCA, GRCA)
Durham Region Forestry
Clarington Forestry
munity Partners/Not For Profits
Figure 6: Forestry Organizational Context
There is no one specific organization or legislation that
requires a municipality to provide forestry services.
The level and types of services are generally a matter
of community choice and municipal direction.
However, research shows there is general desire to
protect the tree canopy and address climate change
impacts. As municipalities, like Clarington, become
more urbanized, more attention that forestry is
evident. Legislation has been introduced to force the
issue of climate change and worldwide organizations
are promoting the benefits of trees.
In the case of municipalities, we see a wide array of
levels of service ranging from mostly outsourced
(Town of Caledon) to fully funded urban forestry
teams (Toronto, Oakville). The trend towards in house
expertise and forestry roles is evident in large urban
centres. Brantford, for example, experimented with
fully outsourced forestry services, only to find quality
and response issues.
Below is a summary of the key organizations from
national to local in Clarington.
NaLtuflai vr�arrr�ali0ilS
Tree Canada is a charity dedicated to planting and
nurturing trees. They engage communities,
governments, corporations and individuals in the
pursuit of a greener and healthier living environment
for Canadians. The programs have resulted in more
than 82 million trees, greened more than 660
schoolyards, helped restore places hit by natural
disasters and brought together urban forestry experts
greening cities all across Canada.
Page 22
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Canadian Urban Forest Network (CUFN), affiliated
with Tree Canada is the largest network of urban
forestry practitioners, experts and educators in
Canada. While Clarington may not specifically
connect with Tree Canada, this may be an additional
avenue to look for tree planting partnerships.
The Municipal Natural Assets Initiative (MNAI)
provides scientific, economic and municipal expertise
to support and guide local governments in identifying,
valuing and accounting for natural assets in their
financial planning and asset management programs,
and in developing leading -edge, sustainable and
climate resilient infrastructure. Funding programs are
available to assist local governments with asset
management strategies.
Provincial Organizations
Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry manages
the provinces Crown forests which makes up 91% of
all forests in Ontario.
Forests Ontario is dedicated to making Ontario's
forests greener. Their primarily focus on tree planting
initiatives, extensive education programs and decades
of community outreach have resulted in millions of
trees being planted each year. Partnerships and
planting programs are intended to increase forest
cover, restore forests impacted by natural occurrences
and improve forest conditions in Ontario and across
Canada. The 50 million tree project has been quite
successful.
Provincial Legislation
Forests are managed through a combination of
planning and legislation. There is provincial legislation
such as The Crown Forest SustainabilityAct which
describes forest sustainability and regulates the
protection and sustainable use of Ontario's forested
lands. Environmental Assessments, Planning Act
Applications, and Environmental Impact Studies
provide municipalities with the ability to make specific
requirements.
The Forestry Act applies to forests on private land and
provides municipalities with the ability to pass bylaws
for acquiring forests as follows:
"11 (1) The council of a municipality may pass by-laws,
(a) for acquiring by purchase, lease or otherwise, land
for forestry purposes;
Page 23
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
(b) for declaring land that is owned by the
municipality to be required by the municipality for
forestry purposes;
(c) for planting and protecting trees on any land
acquired for or declared to be required for forestry
purposes;
(d) for the management of any land acquired for or
declared to be required for forestry purposes and the
sale or other disposition of the trees thereon;
(e) for issuing debentures, without the assent of the
electors, for the purpose of purchasing land for
forestry purposes to an amount not exceeding the
amount prescribed by the Minister to be owing at any
one time;
(f) for entering into agreements for the management
of any land acquired for or declared to be required for
forestry purposes;
(g) for leasing, selling or otherwise disposing of any
land acquired for or declared to be required for
forestry purposes."
Conservation Authorities
There are some natural heritage features such as
significant wetlands and significant coastal wetlands
where development and site alteration are not
permitted. Typically, these policies are enforced by
Conservation Authorities in concert with the local
Ministry of Natural Resources staff. In addition, the
Conservation Authorities administer Ontario's
Regulation of Development, Interference with
Wetlands and Alteration to Shorelines and
Watercourses.
Clarington's area is served by two Conservation
Authorities, each with a different focus but both with
the mandate to preserve the tree canopy. Of late,
preservation has been the desired approach as
opposed to replacement.
Central Lake Ontario Conservation Authority (CLOCA)
CLOCA owns just over 2700 hectares of land across its
jurisdiction. Conservation lands have been acquired,
protected, and restored in an effort to support
CLOCA's primary mandate, which includes the
protection, management, and restoration of the
watershed's important natural resources.
Page 24
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Ganaraska Region Conservation Authority (GRCA)
The watersheds of the GRCA covers an area of 361
square miles from Wilmot Creek in Clarington to east
of Cobourg from the south shore of Rice Lake down to
Lake Ontario. This area includes seven municipalities
in whole or in part: Township of Cavan -Monaghan,
Town of Cobourg, Township of Alnwick-Haldimand,
Township of Hamilton, Municipality of Port Hope, City
of Kawartha Lakes and the Municipality of Clarington.
The Ganaraska Forest is at a pivotal moment in its
history. The largest block of continuous forest in
Southern Ontario, it is a huge expanse of 11,000 acres
that represents one of the most successful
conservation projects ever undertaken in central
Canada.
GRCA is a partner with Clarington I delivering the
Trees for Rural Roads program.
Locai urganizations
Several local organizations volunteer their time to
protect the natural environment and tree canopy.
Valleys 2000, Old Bowmanville Neighbourhood
Association, Samuel Wilmot Nature Area Committee
are but a few that contribute to tree preservation and
planting. Of course, tree planting programs all involve
volunteers.
Regional and Local Governments
Durham Region and the Municipality of Clarington
both have roles to play in the protection, preservation
and growth of the tree canopy and forestry services,
urban and rural. Some of these roles are created
through plans and regulations while others are
matters of community choice. In addition, the
Municipal Act allows for by-laws to be put in place to
protect trees. Durham Region's Tree By-law regulates
woodlots over 1 hectare and Clarington's Tree By-law.
To fully understand tree preservation, provincial
legislation must be considered collectively with
Clarington's and Durham's Tree By-law.
Page 25
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Environmental Benefits
Clarington's Urban Forest Strategy as well as
thousands of documents articulate the benefits of
trees. Some of the highlights include:
1. Public Health and Social Benefits
Clean Air: Trees produce oxygen, intercept airborne
particulates, and reduce smog, enhancing a
community's respiratory health.
Access to trees, green spaces and parks promotes
greater physical activity, and reduces stress, while
improving the quality of life in urban areas. Studies
show that urban vegetation slows heartbeats, lowers
blood pressure, and relaxes brain wave patterns.
2. Environmental Benefits
Climate change: Trees sequester carbon (CO2),
reducing the overall concentration of greenhouse
gases in the atmosphere.
Energy conservation: Trees are natural air
conditioners. The evaporation from a single tree can
produce the cooling effect of ten room -size,
residential air conditioners operating 20 hours a day.
Tree windbreaks can reduce residential heating costs
10-15%; while shading and evaporative cooling from
trees can cut residential air-conditioning costs 20-
50%.
Water filtration and retention: Urban forests
promote beneficial water quality and reduce storm
water management costs.
Wildlife habitat: Trees provide important habitats for
numerous bird, insect and animal species.
3. Economic Benefits
Communities and business districts with healthy tree -
cover attract new residents, industry, and commercial
activity. Some findings show that:
• Homes landscaped with trees sell more quickly and
are worth 5% to 15% more than homes without
trees.
• Where the entire street is tree -lined, homes may
be worth 25% more.
• Trees enhance economic stability by attracting
businesses; people linger and shop longer when
trees are present.
Page 26
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
• Where a canopy of trees exists, apartments and
offices rent more quickly and have a higher
occupancy rate; workers report more productivity
and less absenteeism.
4. Tree Benefit "Fun Facts":
• Trees provide inviting and cool areas for recreation
and relaxation such as playgrounds and parks.
• Trees create a tapestry of color and interesting
form that changes throughout the year.
• The color green is calming and relieves eye strain.
• Trees screen unattractive views and soften the
harsh outline of masonry, metal, asphalt, steel and
glass.
• People walk and jog more on shaded streets, which
encourages interaction with neighbors and
improves the sense of community.
• Trees absorb and block sound, reducing noise
pollution by as much as 40 percent.14
14 https://canopy.org/tree-info/benefits-of-trees,Z
Page 27
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Clarington Forestry Organizational
Structure
At the time of review, Clarington Forestry Services
were the responsibility of the Operations Department
Recent retirements have provided management with
opportunities to review the forestry service and
workload. In 2019, an arborist with extensive
experience in the municipal forestry sector, was hired
as a Lead Hand, reporting to the Supervisor, Parks and
Cemeteries. The organizational structure was also
realigned to improve service as shown in Figure 7.
In order to coordinate contractor performance, a new
Supervisor, responsible for contracts was created.
Forestry contract management continued to rest with
the Lead Hand. Forestry services in not mentioned in
the structure nor are crews assigned to Lead Hands.
Lead Hands are reassigned during winter months to
handle winter control operations. Any forestry work is
delayed over the winter months unless emergency
operations are required.
Workload management is very problematic. We
observed that each day, Lead Hands determine what
work is needed and staff are assigned at that time.
With no "crews", there is no defined workplan. This
means that priorities change daily. Consequently, any
non -urgent work is not planned. In Forestry Services,
this means that the work orders are not being
addressed in a timely manner. The Lead Hand
arborist, being the only staff with this skillset, is
completely responsible for the mounting customer
requests with no staff support. As discussed in this
next section, this is not sustainable.
Page 28
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Administrative
Assistant
Operations Software
Claims Clerk
Clerk It
Fleet Clerk
Clerk I
Clerk II (P1T)
SUPERVISOR
RoadslOrono
Leadhand
Heavy Equipment
Operators (4)
Light Equipment
Operatorll (2)
1
Light Equipment
Operator 1(5)
1
Labourer
Seasonal
5 Students
3 seasonal
OPERATIONS DEPARTMENT ORGANIZATION CHART 2019
Figure 7: Operations Organizational
Structure 2019
SUPERVISOR
RoadslHampton
Leadhand
Heavy Equipment
Operators (3)
1
Light Equipment
Operator (5)
1
Light Equipment
Operator 1(3)
Seasonal
4 Students
2 seasonal
DIRECTOR
MANAGER
SUPERVISOR
ParkslCemeteryl42
Leadhands (3)
(2)Cemeferian
LightEg ufpment
Operator U (5)
Light Equipment
Operator 1(5)
Lab urer
Labourers (P!T)
Seasonal
14 Students
3 seasonal
SUPERVISOR
Contracts
Operations
Technician (2)
1
Light Equipment
Operator I
Labourer
Seasonal
t Student
SUPERVISOR
Fleet
Fleet
Coordinator
Fleef Technicians (3)
1
Fleet Technician
Apprentice (PIT)
SUPERVISOR
Bldg. Services
Building
Leadhand (2)
1
Building
Services It (2)
1
Building
Services 1(5)
1
Building
Services I (PM
Page 29
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Operating Budget 2019 Summary &
Comments
Figure 8 illustrates that contracted services are
becoming a larger percentage of the total expenses
for Forestry Services. A contribution of $11.36 per
capita annually based on the Municipality's population
of 92,013 (as compared to Brantford at $14.2 per
capita).
We noted that budgeted salaries and wages for 2019
were significantly lower than 2018 actual results. This
may be due to the plan to outsource more work.
It is important to note that the amount of work and
expense has been significantly under -estimated since
2014. As shown in Figure 9, Forestry Services have
been over budget every year. In 2014, this amounted
to 99% variance. While this may have been due to
allocation issues, it only changed slightly. Every year
saw large variances indicating that the amount of
work was not well known or planned.
EXPENSE CATEGORY
- Total 2019
Budget
Total2018Actuals
Total 2017
Actuals
Total 2016
Actual s
Total 2015
Actuals
Total2014Actuals
CONTRACTED SERVICES
$
730,000
$
216,941
$
332,668
$
344,265
$
349,450
$
409,286
FLEET ALLOCAITON
$
75,000
$
82,132
$
79,279
$
82,691
$
56,525
$
68,679
SALARIES & BENEFITS FT
$
240,000
$
319,325
$
230,776
$
229,147
$
177,395
$
179,967
Grand Total
$
1,045,000
$
618,398
$
642,723
$
656,103
$
583,370
$
657,932
EXPENSE CATEGORY
% of 2019 Budget
% of 2018 Actuals
% of 2017 Actuals
% of 2016 Actuals
% of 2015 Actuals
% of 2014 Actuals
CONTRACTED SERVICES
69.86%
35.08%
51.76%
52.47%
59.90%
62.21%
FLEET ALLOCAITON
7.18%
13.28%
12.33%
12.60%
9.69°%a
10.449/o
SALARIES & BENEFITS FT
22.97%
51.64%
35.91%
34.93%
30.41%
27.35%
Figure 8:Clarington Forestry Operating Budgets and Results 2014-2019 (BUDGET)
Page 30
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Figure 9: Clarington Forestry Budget Variances 2014-2018
$800,000
$600,000
$400,000
$200,000
$0
-$200,000
$400,000
2018Actuals
2018Variance
2017Actuals
2017Variance
2016Actuals
2016Variance
2015Actuals
2015Variance
2014Actuals
2014Variance
FLEET ALLOCAITON
$82,132
-$72,132
$79,279
-$19,779
$82,691
-$27,691
$56,525
-$1,525
$68,679
-$13,679
■ CONTRACTED SERVICES
$216,941
$59,059
$332,669
-591,668
$344,265
-$143,265
$349,450
-$214,450
$409,286
-$299,286
■ SALARIES & BENEFITS FT
$319,325
-$139,325
$230,776
-$50,776
$229,147
-$49,147
$177,395
-$12,395
$179,967
-$14,967
Page 31
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Clarington Forestry Services'
Achievements
Clarington Forestry Services has gone through a
significant period of change and uncertainty, including
the reorganization of the Operations department and
outsourced services. The Forestry Services saw recent
supervision and staffing changes that showed that the
service had some long outstanding issues. It has only
been recently with the recruitment of new staff that
Operations has witnessed the customer service
challenges and increasing workload. Management has
recognized that contract management is time
consuming, challenging and requires a special skill set.
Hence, the changes to the organization included the
centralization of this function. In time, perhaps
management of forestry contracts can be handled by
that new Supervisor position but the Organizational
Review may affect the structure.
Other accomplishments in the forestry area include
the following:
✓ Urban Forest Strategy
✓ Climate Change Coordinator
✓ Work Order/Request Management
Implementation
✓ Trees for Rural Roads
✓ Support for Community Programs and
Volunteers (Valleys 2000, Samuel Wilmot
Nature Area)
✓ Mill Street Trail
✓ Emerald Ash Borer tree removal/replacement
program is near completion
✓ Tree inventory — commencement of tree
information gathering and EAB assessment in
parks
Forestry Work Processes and Staffing
The Manager of Operations and recently hired Lead
Hand/arborist have taken the lead to develop work
management with new software and changing
business practices. However, long standing manual,
time consuming processes remain and customer
service is suffering. Work planning is reactive and not
scheduled. Labour, materials and equipment usage
are not tracked against work orders, but rather non-
integrated outdated spreadsheets which are re-
entered for payroll purposes.
Customer service requests are taken by
telephone/email and entered by administrative staff
as opposed to customer initiation online. Customers
Page 32
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
have no access to updates on requests without staff
interaction.
Consequently, the true cost of work undertaken by
staff is not known and cannot be easily comparable to
outsourced services. Further, the time to complete
these antiquated processes is taking valuable time
away from customer services and the results are
dissatisfaction and a lack of capacity to respond.
Contractor Procurement and
Performance
Clarington Forestry Services has a combined service
model of in-house and outsourced services as shown
in Figure 8.
Contractors are procured utilizing public tenders as
well as a source of standing offers for equipment and
emergency services. In the tenders reviewed during
this project, we noted that each tree or area was
identified in a table as well as a location. Operations
staff put the tenders together and review the results
upon receipt. Following contract award, the vendor
must indicate when work is to be undertaken.
Tenders indicate that an inspection from municipal
staff is required before payment is released. Any
issues with contractors generally surface from resident
complaints and are registered in the work order
management system.
Managing contractors, procurement and the results is
very time consuming. No mechanisms are in place to
capture customer satisfaction of the work completed
by contractors. However, anecdotal evidence
indicates quality and timeliness issues.
Staff indicated that a significant effort is involved and
many complaints are received. However, the current
work order system does not necessarily track the
contractor or the time taken to undertake these
inspections. In terms of performance, we noted that
the tenders do not have specific evaluation criteria to
which the vendor may be assessed.
Concern was expressed over the available number of
forestry contractors in the area. The contractors that
perform quality work are very busy. Finding and
retaining local suppliers of trees is also a challenge.
Nurseries are finding that they cannot provide the
supply at competitive rates.
Therefore, there must be a balance between contract
provisions, performance and monitoring. All this to
say is that Forestry Services staff spend a significant
amount of time and effort managing contracts
without sufficient resources or processes.
Page 33
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Clarington Forestry Service Profile
Forestry Services in Clarington are similar to those in
many municipalities. While much of the services
focus on managing the urban forest, its vast rural
landscape and protection of the trees outside of the
urban areas is also important. The Forestry Services
can be summarized in the following categories:
1. Municipal Urban Forest Management
Managing the urban forest involves development of a
strategy and management plan which outlines the
Municipality's plan for the future. It includes analysis
of non-native species and mapping of encroachments
and education program for residents. As mentioned
above, in 2018, Clarington developed an Urban Forest
Strategy which was adopted by Council in principle.
This strategy, developed in house, was designed to
preserve the tree canopy. At the time, there was
some discussion concerning the imposition of a
private tree bylaw which some municipalities have put
in place. As a joint report, Planning, Engineering and
Operations provided Council with some principles and
intended actions.
Table 1 provides a summary of the strategic objectives
and findings. The action items are also summarized.
However, one will note that no specific staff or
department were assigned responsibility for results.
Timelines were not identified nor were associated
costs allocated. The next significant step that was
recommended in the report was the development of
an Urban Forest Management Plan which would
incorporate most of the action items discussed below.
However, no additional work has been undertaken
since the acceptance of the report. This may be due,
in part, to the fact that forestry responsibilities are
shared with several departments with no specific lead.
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Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Table 1: Urban Forest Strategy - Key Objectives and Action Items
Strategic
Strategic Objective
Objective
Action Items
Objective
Description
Category
3.1 Tree
3.1.1 Tree Inventory
Regular updates to the street tree inventory
Staff will investigate partnership
Inventory and
and Forest Canopy
should continue and resources should be
opportunities with interest groups, schools,
Assessment
Assessment
directed to complete an inventory of the
conservation authorities, and private land
individual trees in parks and open space areas.
owners to collect information on the quantity
and quality of trees and forests on private
land through the use of satellite imagery,
volunteer data collection and other data
acquisition opportunities.
3.1 Tree Inventorl
3.1.2 Street and Park
Diversification of the tree species within parks
Staff has been diversifying the street tree
and Assessment
Tree Diversity
and on boulevards provides a healthier, more
inventory over the last decade
Objectives
robust tree inventory that is less prone to seriou
pest issues (i.e. insects and diseases). The long-
term goal is to have all street tree species occup
less than 10% of the overall total tree inventory.
3.1 Tree
3.1.3 Age Class
A diverse age distribution of trees within parks
An analysis and future projection of growth,
Inventory and
Distribution
and on boulevards reduces issues of peak year
planting and management as part of an
Assessment
Objectives
declines due to natural mortality. Due to the
Urban Forest Management Plan is
large proportion of young trees as a result of
recommended to identify strategies to
subdivision expansion, there will be a future
develop a more diverse -aged tree inventory
issue with natural mortality and decline as
over the long-term.
these trees become mature within the same
decade
3.2
3.2.1 Forest
An Urban Forest Management Plan would
Private tree plantings also contribute to the
Management of
Succession Plans
include objectives and individual forest
urban forest. In new subdivisions, developers
Municipal
succession plans for municipal owned forest in
are required to provide new home owners
Forests
parks and open space areas. Specifically, many
with vouchers for an additional tree beyond
Page 35
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Strategic
Strategic Objective
Objective
Action Items
Objective
Description
Category
forested areas, such as valleylands require
the street trees that are planted as part of
management to ensure the long-term
the public realm.
sustainability of these lands.
3.2
3.2.2 Non-native
Non-native species are becoming more
Staff will continue to investigate
Management of
invasive species
common in natural areas within the
partnerships, provincial and federal funding
Municipal
management
Municipality. Dog -strangling vine, garlic
opportunities to identify, map and address
Forests
mustard, etc. are serious problems that will
the problem caused by non-native invasive
impact long term sustainability of forested
species.
lands. The Ontario Invasive Species Plant
Council has a mapping tool on its website that
members of the public can use to report an
invasive species sighting
3.2
3.2.3 Mapping of
Encroachments by adjacent landowners into
Subdivision developers in Clarington are
Management of
encroachments and
municipal forests and valleylands result in the
required to provide education materials to
Municipal
education program
destruction and/or degradation of natural
new residents on the impacts of
Forests
for residents
areas. They also act as a point source of non-
encroachments on the natural environment.
native invasive species, and can have long-
Staff will investigate additional methods of
lasting impacts to natural areas.
providing information to existing residents
who live adjacent to natural areas.
3.3 Level of
3.3.1 Inspection
A systematic tree inspection program
A regular system of inspection and reporting
Service
Program
following the International Society of
would be developed for municipal street and
Arboriculture (ISA) standards is a best practice
park trees as part of a comprehensive Urban
for all tree maintenance programs.
Forest Management Plan.
Identification of tree issues early with follow-
up maintenance can increase the lifespan of a
tree, significantly reduce risk of damage
caused by tree structural failures, and reduce
Page 36
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Strategic
Strategic Objective
Objective
Action Items
Objective
Description
Category
the long-term costs of management of tree
inventories.
3.3 Level of
3.3.2 Maintenance
Regular pruning of trees increases their health,
Staff will review the pruning program
Service
(Pruning) Cycle
longevity and significantly reduce risk of
towards the goal of achieving a regular
damage caused by tree structural failures. It
maintenance cycle of 7-10 years.
also acts to reduce the number of service
requests made by residents to report tree
problems that would not exist if the tree had
been pruned regularly.
3.4 Customer
3.4.1 Response
Currently no specific performance measures.
Staff will review the current process for
Service / Service
Protocols
This process will be reviewed with the goal of
receiving service requests through to the
Delivery
reducing the timeline between receiving
completion of the tasks and tracking of work.
service requests and final closing of the service
request.
3.4 Customer
3.4.2 Public
Educating community partners on the value of
A comprehensive review and update of the
Service / Service
Education and
native species and the dangers of invasive
Urban Forestry information on the website
Delivery
Information
species could result in less long-term impact
needs to be completed. Create public
Availability
on natural areas. Clarington's website and
education opportunities on the benefits of
social media could be a good avenue to
protecting and managing trees on private
provide information to the public. Trees on
property.
private properties provide benefits to
Clarington as a whole without any additional
investment from the municipality.
3.5 Tree
3.5.1 Private Tree
Tree by-laws regulating injury to and
Staff do not recommend that Clarington
Protection and
By-law
destruction of trees on private property is one
introduce a Private Tree By-law at this time.
Management
tool that some municipalities in Ontario have
Future updates to the Urban Forest Strategy
implemented to try and ensure that trees
and Tree By -Laws will reassess the need for a
Page 37
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Strategic
Strategic Objective
Objective
Action Items
Objective
Description
Category
considered significant in a municipality are not
Private Tree By-law as our urban areas
removed without good reason. However, such
mature.
by-laws can evoke strong sentiment among
some members of the community who feel
that their private property rights are being
infringed upon.
3.5 Tree
3.5.2 Review
Bylaw was enacted in 1997.
Staff will plan regular reviews to the existing
Protection and
Clarington's Tree By-
Tree By-law on a 5-year cycle to ensure that
Management
law
changes to legislation, organization and
relevance are kept up-to-date and
compliment the Region's By-law which
applies to woodland areas over 1.0 hectare.
3.5 Tree
3.5.3 Formalize the
Municipal construction programs do not have
Staff will review the process in place for
Protection and
review process for
formal program to protect trees.
capital projects and recommend any changes
Management
capital projects with
necessary to ensure the protection of trees
tree impacts.
on Municipal construction projects.
3.5 Tree
3.5.4 Increase
Correct implementation of Tree Protection
Staff will research available training courses
Protection and
Oversight
measures is the best practice for providing
to provide the knowledge to inspection staff
Management
tree protection. Training and any other tools
that is critical in ensuring that tree protection
or resources that are made available for
is implemented on construction sites.
inspectors will increase the successful
implementation of tree protection standards
and practices.
3.6 Forest
3.6.1
New pests, or changes to existing pests will
Staff will monitor current and future forest
Health and Pest
Implementation of a
result in the need to develop a Pest
pests (insects and diseases) that may have an
Management
Pest Preparedness
Preparedness Program to ensure Clarington
impact on the urban forest.
Program
stays ahead of impending issues.
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Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Strategic
Strategic Objective
Objective
Action Items
Objective
Description
Category
3.6 Forest
3.6.2 Emerald Ash
EAB continue to be found outside of urban
Staff will continue to address the impacts of
Health and Pest
Borer Program
areas.
emerald ash borer on our inventory of ash
Management
trees. The program will be reviewed and
adjusted to ensure the most efficient and up-
to-date information is used in decision
making.
3.6 Forest
3.6.3 Assessment of
The majority of street trees in Clarington are
Staff will review and update the watering
Health and Pest
the Watering
planted by the developers of subdivisions.
program for newly planted street trees to
Management
Program/Policy for
ensure trees are properly cared for in the
newly planted trees
critical establishment phase of tree planting.
Staff will investigate making Gator Bags, or
similar slow release watering systems, a
requirement for new street tree planting
projects.
3.6 Forest
3.6.4 Identification
Trees have a significant lifespan and staff must
Staff will monitor and stay current on
Health and Pest
and planning for
make decisions today that will affect future
research and information available related to
Management
future forest health
generations. For example, the choice of tree
future forest health issues, including climate
issues and climate
species and location in a park or on a
change
change
boulevard can have affects for several decades
into the future.
Page 39
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
In summary, the Urban Forest Strategy set out some
key objectives and action items. However, no
particular department, staff member or team was
identified to undertake these initiatives. Since 2018,
very little progress towards these goals has been
made. This is mostly due to the lack of funding to
support the plan and no responsibility/accountability.
As identified in the Organizational Structure Review,
forestry is shared between Planning, Engineering and
Operations which results no direction. In order to
meet the requirements of the changes to the
Municipal Act, the municipality must adopt a policy to
protect/enhance the tree canopy. If this strategy is
intended to meet this requirement, it should formalize
the policy and commitment.
2. Tree Inventory and Assessment
A tree inventory is the physical count of the trees,
their species, size, age and condition. Part of being
able to manage the tree canopy, plan the forestry
work over time, is to understand the population of
possible tree issues and develop a preventative
maintenance program. Tree asset management is no
different any other asset. The Municipality must
collect the assets, assess their condition and
determine the level of service that the asset is
intended to provide.
The asset management plan should include a
financing strategy for lifecycle management activities,
such as pruning and replacement. The only difference
between tree assets and infrastructure assets is that
the O.Reg 588/17 is that trees are living. No specific
requirement in the regulation points to natural assets
but there are good reasons for doing so.
The Municipal Natural Assets Initiative provides
compelling reasons to manage the natural assets as
follows:
• Natural assets such as aquifers, forests, streams,
riparian areas and foreshores can provide
municipalities with vital services equivalent to
those from many engineered assets.
• Emerging evidence shows that identifying,
measuring and managing natural assets as part
of an overall asset management strategy can
save capital and operating costs and reduce
risk.
• Local governments are finding that natural
assets are resilient and adaptable to climate
change. With effective monitoring,
maintenance and rehabilitation now, natural
assets can provide service and add value for
decades in ways that many engineered assets
cannot match.
Page 40
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Figure 10: 2012 Tree Inventory - Source: Urban Forest
Strategy
Clarington Tree Inventory 2012
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10%
a 0%
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a Tree Species
In some communities, development cost
charges may be able to support the
rehabilitation of natural assets.
• There are external funding sources to support the
maintenance/rehabilitation of municipal
natural assets.
• Some natural assets serve multiple purposes. For
example, parks may reduce flooding risks as
well as provide recreational benefits and can be
managed to maximize several objectives. "
15 https: //mnai.ca /about/
Staff indicated that it does not have an accurate or
complete tree inventory. Ideally, the inventory would
be updated as work orders are completed utilizing
GPS. However, the process is not currently in place.
The most recent street tree inventory was completed
in 2012. Since then the inventory has grown from
approximately 18,000 trees to over 21,000 trees as a
result of new subdivision development. The inventory
has not been updated with these new trees and does
not include any trees outside the urban areas.
Maple is the predominant street tree (44%), with
Lindens (14%) being the next most common genus of
street tree Figure 10. In 2012 Ash represented 13.5%
of Clarington street trees but the effects of Emerald
Ash Borer have drastically reduced their numbers and
ash are no longer planted on Clarington streets.
Page 41
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Figure 11: 2012 Tree Inventory Based Upon Size -
Source: Urban Forest Strategy
Species Size Class of Street Trees
8.7%
Small
70.8
La r€
20.5%
Medium
Forestry Staff have been updating the inventory in a
spreadsheet for the tree replacements as a result of
the Emerald Ash Borer but there is no comprehensive
inventory that can assist in overall tree management
plan.
A tree inventory is not only about the number and
types of trees but the size and condition information
are important indicators of age and expected
remaining life. In order to implement good
arboriculture practices, the Municipality first need to
know the population, type and condition of the trees
This inventory could be updated through the use of
students or interns.
3. Tree Replanting Programs
Tree replanting is related to inventory in that
Clarington attempts to replace or increase the tree
canopy through a variety of programs. These include:
• Annual street tree replacement program to
remove and replace dead street trees in
assumed subdivisions.
• Emerald Ash Borer have resulted in the removal
of over 2,300 street trees over the past 5 years
from municipal boulevards.
• Approximately 4,500 trees have been planted on
municipal properties as part of community
planting programs implemented with funding
from outside sources such as Highway of Hero's
Tribute Program, Evergreen, The Carbon
Farmer, OPG/Scouts Canada, and others.
• Trees for Rural Roads program has resulted in
the planting of 5,000 trees along rural roads.
In terms of the tree -replanting program, there have
been delays due to the Municipality's practice and
policy. Currently, when a tree has been scheduled for
removal, a paper form is left with the resident who
must contact the Operations Department to indicate
Page 42
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
which of the seven trees they would like planted on
their property. The form indicates that it could take
"up to 2 years before stumps are removed and trees
are replaced on our current annual budget
allocation"
While this seems to be a service that some residents
appreciate, record keeping is challenging and
residents are slow to respond, or not at all.
Operations staff must collect and monitor this
information as opposed to developing a plan for the
types of trees that will best suit the neighbourhood in
terms of variety and likely to survive based upon soil
conditions/location. The process adds complexity,
time and cost. It is also possible that, because of
volume, that the Municipality may not get the best
prices by having such large selection.
The other challenge is that, because it is a paper
process, it is unknown how many forms are given out
or lost. This means that Municipal staff may have to
follow up with the homeowner several times before a
choice is made. Most municipalities, including Oshawa
simply determines the tree to be planted based upon
their expert opinion on the best tree for the location.
Additionally, there does not seem to be a documented
process to ensure that the trees that are planted in all
of these programs are updated in the tree inventory.
4. Managing Forest Health and Pest Control
Forest health and pest control has been the primary
focus of Clarington's forestry services over the past 5
years. Unfortunately, most of North America has
been dealing with the effects of the Emerald Ash
Borer Beetle infestation. Over 8 billion ash trees have
been affected.
In 2013, Clarington identified that 2,466 trees were
infested, 242 of which were destroyed by the ice
storm that year. Since then, the tree removals have
been done through a combination of contracted and
in-house staff.
As identified in a report to Council in January 2019,
the program cost to date was as follows:
Wages
$1,037,135
Equipment
390,472
Contract services
1,367,011
Total
$2,794,619
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Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Additional one-time funding was approved in 2019 of
$267,860 to remove the remaining 1,363 infected
trees in the urban areas.16
In 2019, staff commenced collecting the inventory of
the number and size of ash trees that are located
within Municipal woodlands, parks or rural roadways.
The cost to remove these infected trees is still
unknown but likely larger than the amount already
spent. Needless to say, the EAB impact is not only
large in terms of cost, time and tree removal but
affects Clarington's goal to maintain its tree canopy.
The Municipality continues to replace these trees
through replanting efforts.
5. Tree Maintenance
Maintaining trees is very important for their
sustainability. Like any other asset, preventative
maintenance should be undertaken on trees so that
they will live their useful lives. Similar to humans,
trees need regular pruning which increase their
health, longevity and significantly reduce risk of
damage caused by tree structural failures.
'b OPD-001 -19 Update on the Replacement of Emerald Ash Borer (EAB)
Infected Trees, January 7, 2019
Systematic tree inspection program is recommended
by the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA)
standards as a best practice for all tree maintenance
programs. Identification of tree issues early with
follow-up maintenance can increase the lifespan of a
tree, significantly reduce risk of damage caused by
tree structural failures, and reduce the long-term
costs of management of tree inventories.
Unfortunately, Clarington's Forestry Services are
primarily reactive with respect to pruning. Ideally, a
cycle of inspections and pruning would be developed
and planned. Inspections are being done, specifically
for EAB and when a customer request presents the
need.
Clarington's Purchasing Department provided the
tenders issued and awarded from 2015 onward which
shows that the work for EAB removal and stump
grinding represented the majority of contracted work
and the average cost (excluding staff time) is $166 per
tree (Table 2). It is unknown how many trees are
pruned by staff and contracted pruning only impacted
648 trees or 3% of the known 21,000 tree inventory.
Page 44
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Figure 12: 2015-19 Tender Results - Percentage of Work
by Type
Percentage of Trees by Contract Type
2015-2019
Tree Supply/Delivery
R-/
Tree Removal/
General Maintenai
13%
Tree Pruning
15%
35%
mova
Best practice indicates trees should be pruned every 7
years17 representing $609,000 (21,000 x $29). As
reiterated in the Urban Forest Strategy, research
indicates that if the average lifespan of a street tree
can be increased by even 10 years, it would reduce
the annual tree planting program costs by
approximately 20%. Ongoing maintenance
significantly reduces the number of service requests
made each year. In addition, a more structurally
17 International Society of Arboriculture Ontario (ISAO) recommends
minimum and "Best Management Practices"
sound tree is less likely to be damaged in a storm, or
cause damage to Municipal and private property
(decreasing Municipal liability).
Table 2:2015-2019 Tender Results
Tender by Type of
Number
Total
Cost per
Work
of Trees
Cost
Tree
EAB
1,284
$207,055
$161
Stump
1,561
$197,806
$127
Grinding/Removal
Tree Pruning
648
$18,719
$29
Tree Removal/
602
$165,761
$275
General
Maintenance
Tree
370
$153,563
$415
Supply/Delivery
Grand Total
4,465
$742,904
$166
Consequently, the Municipality should be allocating
$87,000 per year for pruning once it has created a
regular pruning schedule. However, there is likely a
significant backlog of pruning that has not been
undertaken that must first be dealt with.
Page 45
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
6. Customer Service
Responding and addressing customer requests and
complaints is currently the key focus for the Forestry
staff. The process involves calls by customers on a
variety of issues including notification of fallen trees,
pruning requests or outstanding replanting. Staff
enter the information into the CityWide Service
Request module which generates a work order for
staff. These work orders get forwarded to the Lead
Hand via email. Updates are provided upon return
calls or contact with the customer. Online service
requests or updates are not available as seen in many
municipalities.
From these requests, a work order is generated and
staff are assigned to complete the work. This
currently is sent to the Lead Hand.
According to the Urban Forest Strategy, 2015-2017
work order numbers were as follows:
• 2015-935 work orders
• 2016-1047 work orders
• 2017-1175 work orders
In late June 2017, the Operations Department
implemented CityWide Service Requests which is used
to log customer requests and complaints. Figure 13
illustrates that since implementation to September 19,
2019 that Forestry Services has received 4,090
requests. In 2017, assuming 1,175 total work orders,
the average number of work orders per month is 140
or 1684 per year. However, it should be noted that
the trend is increasing (185 per month in 2019).
It is important to note that, of the 4,090 work orders
received, 53% are outstanding and of these 62% have
not been started. This represents a significant
workload and also indicates levels of satisfaction with
the service. 207 work orders have had customers
called in with second and third requests over this
period. In fact, the workload is not completely
accurate as staff indicated that outstanding work
orders from their prior system, WorkTech were not
transferred to the new system therefore, it is not clear
how many are outstanding. That is, the status of the
2,474 work orders from 2015 to June 2017 is not
known and currently not tracked in CityWide.
Page 46
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Number of Work Orders Status 0
Year J Completed In Progress Not Started Scheduled Second Request Third Request
1 2017 527 96 13 13 10 11
O+ 2018 868 221 582 36 45 25
❑+ 2019 528 108 751 140 41 13
Grand Total 1,923 425 1,346 189 96 49
Figure 13: Forestry Work Orders by Status June 28, 2017-September 19, 2019 - Source Citywide
ite Grand Total
13 683
25 1,802
24 1,605
62 4,090
Figure 14: 2017-2019 Work Orders by Month and Status
Number of Work Orders
3 5o
300
250
Status
200 ■ Update
■ Third Request
150 ■ Second Request
■ — ■ Scheduled
100 � �
■ Not Started
50 ■ In Progress
' ' ' ■ ' ■Completed
Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep
Qtr2 Qtr3 Qtr4 Qtr1 Qtr2 Qtr3 Qtr4 Qtr1 Qtr2 Qtr3
2017 2018 2019
Years - Quarters - Created Date
Page 47
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Of particular interest is the time of year in which the
requests are received. As illustrated in Figure 14, the
number of work orders received in winter months is
increasing. This would indicate that the operating
model whereby forestry staff are assigned to winter
control will only exasperate the growing problem.
On average, it takes 101 days to complete a service
request as shown in Figure 15. The average age of the
outstanding work overs was 233 days (over 7
months). Therefore, the time to resolve complaints
appears to be increasing.
Status
Average of Days to
Complete, Update or
Aging
Completed
101
In Progress
229
Not Started
243
Scheduled
154
Second Request
271
Third Request
200
U pdate
251
Average
173
Figure 15: Average Aging - Work Orders Created June
2017- September 2019
We are of the opinion that these outstanding work
orders represent a liability to the Municipality, both in
terms of risk as well as cost. First and foremost, if the
Municipality is aware of a problem and does not
address it resulting in an accident or property
damage, it may be subject to challenges.
The outstanding work most certainly represents a
liability in terms of cost. Some of the work orders
may be completed with little effort but at minimum
each work order would require some attention. As
we do not have historical information representing
the cost for Municipal staff to complete each type of
work order, we can only make some assumptions.
Based upon the tender results, the minimum cost of a
work order is as follows: $29 (pruning), $415 for the
purchase of a tree. On average the outsourced cost
was $166 excluding any staff time.
Therefore, as shown in Figure 16, a very conservative
estimate of the cost of the work orders outstanding at
September 19, 2019 approximately $350,000 (or
approximately 4.5 full time equivalents (at $75,000
annual salary). This does not include the internal
costs of administration or the hidden cost of
dissatisfied customers as they wait for service.
Page 48
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Figure 16: Work Orders by Aging Bucket and Estimated Cost
Days/Aginl -
0-90
181-365
366-730
91-180
730+
Unknown
Total
Number of
Work orders
Total Sum of
Estimated
cost
Status -
Number of
Work orders
Sum of
Estimated
cost
Number of
Work orders
Sum of
Estimated
cost
Number of
Work orders
Sum of
Estimated
cost
Number of
Work orders
Sum of
Estimated
cost
Number of
Work orders
Sum of
Estimated
cost
Number of
Work orders
Completed
1,164
203
102
318
18
118
1,923
In Progress
112
$18,032
100
$16,100
92
$14,812
112
$18,032
9
$1,449
425
$68,425
Not Started
281
$45,241
632
$101,752
275
$44,275
148
$23,828
10
$1,610
1,346
$216,706
Scheduled
103
$16,583
13
$2,093
20
$3,220
45
$7,245
8
$1,288
189
$30,429
Second Request
28
$4,508
10
$1,610
31
$4,991
21
$3,381
6
$966
96
$15,456
Third Request
19
$3,059
4
$644
14
$2,254
12
$1,932
49
$7,889
Update
20
$3,220
7
$1,127
18
$2,898
14
$2,254
3
$483
62
$9,982
Grand Total
1,727
$90,643
969
$123,326
552
$72,450
670
$56,672
54
$5,796
118
4,090
$348,887
7. Tree Protection and Management
Planning Act and Official Plan
For projects proceeding under a Planning Act
application, there is a rigorous process for the
determination of natural heritage area protection and
tree preservation. A tree preservation plan is often a
requirement for a complete application and it is
prepared in accordance with the Environmental
Impact Studies.
Clarington's Official Plan provides good protection of
the natural heritage system and its ecological integrity
However, the Official Plan is not an enforcement tool
but it is the only scenario where the Municipality can
prevent the removal of trees on private property.
The Municipal Act
The Municipal Act grants the authority to upper and
lower tier municipalities to enact a by-law to prohibit
or regulate the destruction or injuring of trees and
requires the Municipality to have regard to good
forestry practices as defined in the Forestry Act.
An upper tier municipality's authority governs
woodlands as defined in the Forestry Act that are one
hectare or more in area.
New legislative requirements effective March 1, 2019,
require the Municipality to establish a policy on "the
manner in which the Municipality will protect and
enhance the tree canopy and natural vegetation in the
municipality".
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Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Durham Region Tree By-law
The Durham Region Trees By-law came into force on
June 27, 2012, replacing an earlier by-law. The
Regional Tree By -Law reflects the Region's
commitment to protect forested areas and the natural
environment.
The Regional Tree By-law applies to woodlands within
the Region that are 1 hectare (2.5 acres) in size and
greater. It does not apply to areas less than one
hectare. In 2019, the Region undertook consultations
with the view to update this by-law. Some proposed
changes include updated fees and additional clear -
cutting provisions.
The Region has two types of permits: Good Forestry
Management Practices Permit ($50) and a Clear -Cut
Permit ($100 plus public notice advertising costs).
Clarington Tree By-law
Clarington's Tree By-law 97-35 is twenty years old and
applies to woodlands having an area equal to 0.2
hectare or greater but less than 1 hectare south of
Taunton Road. The upper tier (Durham Region) Tree
By-law applies to areas in excess of 1 hectare.
Clarington's size restriction was set in 1997 when the
By-law was enacted. The By-law's purpose was to
protect woodlands not private trees.
Approximately 1,200 woodlots are covered by the
bylaw with a permit fee of $25.
Recent discussions regarding Clarington's Tree Bylaw
have surfaced regarding the regulation of private
trees. Many municipalities have private tree bylaws
which have seen only moderate success and its
success is predicated on the amount of knowledge
and support from citizens. The significant cost of
implementation surrounds education and
enforcement. Clarington Council has discussed private
tree bylaws on occasion, particularly when there is an
outcry from communities when an old, beautiful tree
is being removed on private property. This is a
challenge for the Municipality as there is no
mechanism to handle these complaints unless the
property is subject to a development application.
Consequently, it would seem that a private tree by-law
is not feasible from a resource standpoint, particularly
given the fact that Forestry Services cannot handle its
current workload. Public - private partnerships could
serve to increase the knowledge of the importance of
trees and look for additional stewardship projects to
protect the tree canopy.
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Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities
and Threats (SWOT)
SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and
Threats) analysis identifies strengths and weaknesses
within an organization, in this case the Forestry
Services within the Operations Department, and
outside opportunities and threats. The analysis pairs
external threats with internal weaknesses to highlight
the potential opportunities and the threats that could
impede on its success.
We undertook a SWOT session with Clarington staff
responsible for forestry including, the Director and
Manager of Operations and Manager of Internal
Audit. Our interviews with stakeholders served to
augment the SWOT results. Staff indicated that the
biggest weakness was the lack of work management
and the biggest threat was the ever-increasing
workload without sufficient resources. Contractor
management has only added to the workload due to
quality and timeliness concerns.
Improving Performance, Identifying Opportunities
The SWOT analysis provides the Municipality with
actions that should be considered to focus on the
Forestry Service and provide new opportunities that
could be explored. The analysis in this report pairs the
internal strengths with the external opportunities.
• Strengths: characteristics of the organization,
or project team that give it an advantage over
others.
• Weaknesses (or Limitations): are characteristics
that place the team at a disadvantage relative
to others
• Opportunities: external chances to improve
performance
• Threats: external elements in the environment
that could cause trouble for the municipality or
project
Forestry services have many strengths that will help
them succeed. In particular, the recent addition of a
trained arborist, new leadership and organizational
structure. Council support and commitment for the
EAB program illustrates the desire to protect the tree
canopy.
Service Request/work order systems are being
implemented and will serve the staff and customers
when fully operational. However, a key weakness is
the lack of trained forestry resources to handle the
volume or manage the work. While Council support is
evident for EAB, there is a lack of understanding of all
of the issues. This may be primarily due to the fact
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Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
that the Municipality does not adequately track the
impact of the workload on resources. In particular,
time, materials and equipment are not tracked against
the work orders and processes are not in place to
make that happen.
Technology provide opportunities to improve business
processes but investment in training, mobile
applications is needed to leverage new functionality.
The movement of forestry staff to snow plowing
pushes workload accumulating over the winter
months. This may result in a loss of key personnel.
Contractors can provide opportunities for workload
management but also identified as a threat, given the
number of qualified vendors. Specific skillsets and
resources are required to manage contractor
performance and respond to customer concerns.
Local nurseries are unable to provide tree supplies.
Recent tenders resulted in significant change orders.
A lack of complete tree inventory also creates
challenges as there is no easy mechanism to capture
threats to the species. As the climate changes and
new invasive species are introduced into the area,
workload will continue to be threatened as well as the
environment.
Customer choice of tree when removals has occurred
is appreciated by some but adds to workload and time
to replace trees. Staff must track and follow up on
paper -based process of tree requests.
Partnerships and volunteers provide opportunities for
education and expanding and protecting the tree
canopy. However, every initiative requires resources
and a plan in order to bring these opportunities to life
and keep them active.
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Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
✓ Ongoing reporting on EAB
✓ Stewardship Annual Report
✓ Professional & Skilled Labour Force
✓ Budget commitment to EAB
✓ Ongoing support for employee training EAB
removals
✓ Employee responsiveness to
internal/external customers
✓ Tracking with City Wide Service Requests
✓ Supportive Council
✓ Emergency Storm Response (cleanup of
300+ downed trees last year)
✓ Decent Quality Equipment L
✓ New streamlined work order process
✓ Organizational Changes
✓ Trees for Rural Roads
✓ Partnerships �a
✓ Additional Staff training
✓ Public Education
✓ Reassign staff to reduce complaint
✓ Council support & budget
0
✓ Climate change action plan
✓ Risk assessment being prepared
✓ Forestry Strategy
Qom•
✓ Expand City-wide/Online Requests
00
✓ Contractor Improvements/Outsourcing
✓ Complete tree inventory
✓ Expand partnerships
✓ Organizational and Forestry Review
✓ Coordinate of Forestry Services
✓ Create year -around "Forestry Services"
x Increasing customer demands and expectation
x Workload & Timeline restrictions
x EAB means everything else suffers
x Reactive Organization
x Lack of political/community awareness
x Managing contracts
x Size and diversity of municipality
x Aging infrastructure
x Lack of employee skills & external contractors
x Seasonal staff split (winter control)
x Budget overages
x Pruning requests/block
pruning/emergencies/flooding EAB
x Major Issues - Rural open space & Parks (ie:
removals/prunes)
• Contractor follow-up (monitoring their work)
x Public Communication
x Intake process time consuming
x Outdated tree inventory
x Lack of funding
x No controls on tree purchasing
Staffing growth not matching development
growth
x Lack of political commitment
Funding cuts/Conservation Authorities/Region
x New diseases as well as EAB
x More public demands/expectations
x Staff resources and budgets
x Two Organizational reviews
(Provincial/Municipal)
x Climate Change & Environmental Issues
x Staff limitations & skills
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Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Benchmarking — Why Compare to Other Communities?
For the purposes of the project, comparator communities
were selected as municipal comparators based on
population size and growth over the past five years.
As well, we looked at municipalities that have an
established Urban Forestry service to give Clarington
some ideas for the future as it grows. While we are not
suggesting that Clarington create a separate unit that is
seen in municipalities such as Toronto, Windsor, Oakville,
Aurora, we did gain some insight on opportunities from
these municipalities.
The primary purpose of benchmarking and
comparative analysis is to understand the
performance of comparator municipalities and to
identify opportunities to change how the
Municipality's organization is aligned to deliver
municipal services. We looked at communities
with Forestry operations similar and dissimilar to
provide information on service delivery models.
It is imperative to understand that comparators must be
taken as information and not an indicator of
effectiveness. Forestry services are unique to each
municipality in terms of the current state and location as
well as climate issues. Each model has its advantages and
disadvantages.
Key Observations & Best Practices
Common to the Benchmarked
Municipalities
Service Delivery
Urban forest management in Ontario is generally
conducted using the model of joint municipal and
contracted service provision. This model is applied in
cities such as Brantford, Windsor, Hamilton,
Burlington, Oakville, Mississauga, London, Toronto,
Pickering, Oshawa and Ajax. The key variable is the
relative distribution of specific operations between
contractors and staff. In most examples, municipal staff
and contractors share the tasks of routine
maintenance such as pruning and tree removals.
Planting is often conducted as part of capital projects,
with additional infill planting undertaken by the
municipality or contractors by tender or volunteer
program.
Below are several case studies which highlight
municipalities operating under both common service
delivery models.
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Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
City of Brantford - Contracted Service Delivery —
Moving to In House Delivery Model
Brantford was one of few municipalities which
contracted out the entirety of their urban forest
maintenance requirements for a period of time.
However, in 20 1918 , a study recommended bringing
this in house due to quality and customer service
concerns. The report indicated that "Currently tree
The total change to an in-house service resulted in an
additional 10 full time equivalents and $1.3 million.
This included the addition of 2 Arborists, 2 grounds
people in the "In-house Forestry Operations" plus 1
supervisor, 1 Lead Hand and 3 grounds people in the
"in-house Tree Planting Operations".
Town of Oakville, ON - Combined Service Delivery
planting operations are contracted annually via a
Oakville's urban forest is managed by the Town's Parks
tender process and awarded to the landscape
and Open Spaces Department, a division of the
contractor with the most competitive bid. Over the
Community Services Commission. The municipally -
last few years issues relating to quality control,
owned urban forest includes street trees, woodlots,
competency, adherence to specifications and timely
parks, natural ravines and valleys. The Forestry service
delivery have become problematic resulting in delays,
section is comprised of various activities that include
resident frustration and issues with tree health and
forestry administration, large tree care, municipal tree
loss"
protection, forest stewardship and health, and cost -
recovery activities that Forestry Services provides to
The City's staff was comprised of one urban forestry
external customers. Such services currently include
coordinator and one technician, who supervised the
utility line clearing for Oakville Hydro and street tree
maintenance or inspection of approximately 60,000
maintenance along Regional roads for Halton Region.
trees on a relatively short five-year pruning cycle, as
well as the annual establishment of approximately 900
trees.
18 In- House Forestry Operation establishment. At the June 2018 meeting Estimates process for consideration (CPREC 201 8-039).
of the Major Service Contract Task Force Study Group,
Staff were directed to refer an option for an In-house Forestry
Operational Division ±Tree Maintenance Services to the 2019
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Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
The Forestry services section is comprised of 30.4 full-
time equivalent staff, with a gross budget of $4.2
million for 2019.
The Urban Forest Strategic Management Plan is a 20-
year plan that sets out the steps necessary to achieve
short medium long-term goals for the urban forest
within the framework of the town's official plan. The
20-year period (2008-2027) is supported by a series of
four management plans of five-year duration. Annual
operating plans complement the five-year plan. The
principle of adaptive management permits flexible
tree operations by town staff that responds to changes
in the environment, the community and the direction
of town policy.
The Town of Oakville and its partners used cutting
edge technology to identify, catalogue and map public
(town -owned trees) in Oakville, including ash trees, to
create a tree inventory.
But the tree inventory is based on data collected in
2009 as well as projections created by mathematical
models, and therefore it may not be 100 per cent
accurate.
The public tree inventory is online with a red or yellow
circle around them. An 'Y' indicates the tree is dead or
dying and will be removed for public safety.
City of London, ON - Combined Service Delivery
London's forestry operations are managed by the
Transportation and Roadside Operation Group of the
Environmental and Engineering Services Department.
City Trees in the inventory is represented by green dots
on CityMap online.
The group manages over 170,000 street, park and
woodlot trees. The majority of pruning and removal
services are carried out by municipal staff, but
approximately 25% of services, including maintenance
and consulting, are carried out by contractors.
Forestry operations are carried out by a staff of 27.5,
with a budget of $4.5 million in 2019 + $2.2 million in
capital expenditures.
City of Mississauga, ON - Combined Service Delivery
Mississauga's urban forest is managed by the Parks
and Forestry Unit which consists of 35 full time
equivalents. In 2019, the City spend $7.8 million for
capital including $188,000 to update the tree
inventory. New tree planting amounted to $777,000.
The contracted services specifically for forestry was
not evident but total for parks only represented 10% of
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Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
the budget. Therefore, it would appear that the
majority of forestry services are completed in house
Forestry Fees and Charges include Street Tree Planting
and Forestry Inspection services among others.19
Staff carries out routine maintenance, as well as
emergency pruning and removals of City -owned trees
The City also relies on contractors to carry out
proactive maintenance including block pruning and
risk mitigation. Mississauga's annual combined urban
forestry budget is approximately $9 million.
A number of municipalities permit residents, at their
own expense, to hire contractors to conduct
maintenance on city -owned trees. In the City of
Toronto, for example, an "Agreement for Contractors
to Perform Arboricultural Services on Municipality
Owned Street Trees" enables a property owner to
contract standard tree maintenance work to a
municipality approved tree service company. This
option is made available in the event that the property
owner wishes to expedite a request for standard tree
maintenance and to avoid waiting for municipal
Forestry crews to conduct the required work. Similar
19
http://www7.mississauga.ca/documents/Parks/forestry/2019 Feesand
Charges web.pdf
programs exist in cities such as Winnipeg, MB and New
York, NY, among others. Typically, this is regulated
through a basic permitting process, and contractors
must meet specific criteria in order to obtain approval
to conduct works.
Ajax, Whitby, Oshawa and Pickering —These Durham
municipalities provide forestry services in a combined
service delivery model with ranges of 30-50%
contracted services. Urban forestry plans or strategies
have been undertaken and are being enhanced each
year. All municipalities have an EAB program and have
been undertaking tree inventories.
Pruning Practices
Many municipalities inspect and maintain street trees
in a scheduled, cyclical manner. This is termed "grid",
"block" or "cyclical" pruning. There are many
variations to a cyclical pruning approach; some
municipalities distribute annual pruning activities
across the whole land area, pruning a portion of every
neighbourhood each year (e.g., Vancouver), while
others maintain trees in one or two areas of their
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Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
jurisdiction in a given year and move elsewhere in the
next phase of the cycle.
Pruning schedules enable staff and contractors to
cover more of the land area and enables better
inspection of the urban forest as a whole. However,
that crew will return to the same general area every
year, whereas utilizing the latter approach, they would
not return again until a new cycle begins five years
later.
Generally, trees are visually inspected during the
course of cyclical pruning for signs of declining health
and risk. Some municipalities have effective means of
electronically tracking the results of such inspections,
while for others this remains a shortfall.
Tree Protection
Many municipalities have developed comprehensive
tree protection specifications for implementation
during construction near trees. Leading examples
include:
City of Burlington, ON -Spec No. SS12 - Tree
Protection and Preservation
City of Toronto, ON - Tree Protection Policy and
Specifications for Construction near Trees
Regional Municipality of York, ON - Street Tree
Preservation and Planting Design Guidelines
Town of Markham, ON - Trees for Tomorrow
Streetscape Manual
Town of Oakville, ON - Tree Protection and
Preservation Guidelines for Site Plan Applications
Town of Richmond Hill, ON - Tree Preservation
By -Law No. 41-07 Fact Sheet No. 5 - Guidelines for
Asset Inventory and Request Management
A few municipalities have integrated, or are beginning
to integrate, urban forest management into digitized,
enterprise -wide physical asset management systems.
As asset management for tangible capital assets
expand, this will become more common. Some
examples include the City of Burlington, Town of
Oakville, City of London who have also allowed access
by the public through GIS and Open Data. Maintaining
the inventory is one part but it can also assist with
pruning cycles, condition and risk assessments of
trees.
Some municipalities allow for online service requests,
but few are specific for forestry issues. Not all have
the ability to receive updates or track progress online.
Further, some such as Pickering, Mississauga and do
not isolate the type of request for forestry. In this
regard, Oshawa would be considered to be a leader as
it has its own area for tree requests by type and
customers can log in and track the progress as shown
in Figure 17.
Page 58
tService
Oshawa
Online
Service Requests: Trees
Common tree related requests are listed below.
Trees
Boulevard Tree - Inspection for Dead or Dying Tree
Boulevard Tree - Overhanging Sidewalk
Boulevard Tree - Planting Request
Boulevard Tree - Pruning Request
Boulevard Tree - Storm Damage
Park Tree - Inspection for Dead or Dying Tree
Park Tree - Pruning Request
Park Tree - Storm Damage
FIGURE 17: SERVICE OSHAWA ONLINE - TREES
^C City of Oshawa CONNECT OSHAWA
See more services
Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Key Findings and Opportunities for
Improvement
The review of Clarington's Forestry services,
benchmarking, analysis of workload and performance
as well as financial results indicates that there most of
the opportunities for improvement can be categorized
into the following key opportunities:
i. Work Order Processes
ii. Organization
iii. Customer Relationship Management
iv. Performance Measures
V. Equipment and Rates
vi. Bylaw Updates;
vii. Strategy and Partnerships
Figure 18: Key Improvement Opportunities
Brganization
Contractor
Management
Equipment
Rate Study
Work Order
Process
Review
Improvement
Opportunities
("A
\-7-11
o
U
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Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Forestry Services Work Management Practices are
Reactive
Process walkthroughs and data analysis revealed that
Forestry Services are primarily reactive and little time
is spent work planning.
An illustration of reactive response is illustrated by the
EAB infestation. If the Municipality was proactive with
a forest management program, it would have been
able to better respond when the EAB was discovered.
Clarington and most North American municipalities
were taken by surprise when this was discovered and
had to respond to eradicate the issue. Because
municipalities did not have a risk management plan in
place, it had to react and reallocate its already scarce
resources to this program.
A forest management plan which includes a program
to collect the tree inventory, undertake condition
assessments and inspections would have alerted the
municipality to the issue earlier and allow the
municipality to better plan. Clarington did, however,
proactively assess their urban trees as the infestation
moved east and was able to complete the tree
removals ahead of schedule in 2019.
Unfortunately, it illustrates that "emergencies" make
things happen. This is no different than any other
asset management approach. It is not until something
"bad" happens before action occurs. Often this results
in higher costs because all municipalities are
contracting the work out to a limited number of
vendors. Vendors are aware of this and it makes it
difficult to ensure quality and keep cost down.
Clarington's EAB program has the attention of Council.
The investment is significant: $3 million dollars over 5
years. This has impacted all other "less critical"
forestry requests which may impact the health of the
remaining trees and/or result in dissatisfied customers.
Of concern is the fact that the municipality has yet to
tackle the EAB issue in rural areas. If the infestation in
the urban areas is any indication, the workload and
financial impact for the rural areas is likely
exponentially higher. We understand that the
Municipality is just beginning to undertake the
inventory outside the urban areas.
Clarington's contracted services for forestry typically
are $300k (or 52%) of the forestry budget. The EAB
infestation and concerns with mounting workload has
pushed that number up to $730,000 (or 70% in 2019)
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Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
It is important to note that every year since 2014, the
forestry services has been over budget.20 It is unclear
the reasoning for the variances but does provide an
indication that the amount of work and raising prices.
However, the costs are not tracked effectively or in
total against the work orders. So, the true costs by
type of work is not known. Standard costs are
imperative to develop workplans and assign resources
over the long term.
As the focus on EAB has resulted in significant cost, it
also adds work for Clarington's limited staff to manage
contractors and quality. This has been a challenge and,
over time, the backlog of work grows.
As of September 2019, 50% of the forestry work orders
created for customer requests/complaints since 2017
were not completed. 2,167 work orders were
outstanding with an average aging of 254 days. At a
conservative estimate this represents about $350,000
or 4 full time equivalents. With every passing day,
these work orders become older and customers more
frustrated and dissatisfied with services. Of the
outstanding work orders, 7% are at the second or third
20 Operations Forest 2014-201 9 Report provided by Clarington's
financial system
request for service. There are currently no service
standards for forestry service response times.
We are also concerned with the potential liability that
this backlog may pose, particularly for situations
where trees/branches may cause damage. As new EAB
infestations are identified, numbers and issues may
increase if no plan is developed.
Some of the delays can be attributed to the
Municipality's practice surrounding tree replanting and
requests for the types of trees. This process is manual
whereby a paper request is left with the resident who
must contact the Operations Department to indicate
their choice of seven possible trees. While this seems
to be a customer service appreciated by some, record
keeping is challenging, residents are slow to respond,
or not at all. This is not only adding workload for staff,
it is delaying the replacement of the tree canopy. Most
municipalities, including Oshawa simply determines
the tree to be planted based upon professional
assessment of the soil and tree type that will best
survive as well as variety on the street.
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Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Work planning processes are not in place. When
onsite, we noted that every work order is forwarded
via email to the Lead Hand who must determine the
priorities. Because the municipality does not have
"crews" assigned to the Lead Hand, work is not
planned beyond one day and is based upon the crew
onsite that day. In other words, staff work is reactive
and the Lead Hands cannot out beyond the day as they
are unsure who will be at work. Further, even though
some staff have gained forestry skills, the lack of
continuity makes it very difficult for the Municipality to
train the staff in forestry which is a different skill set
from other Operation's roles.
Payroll and cost allocation are entered into
spreadsheets by the lead hand for all the parks staff on
their behalf. These are then re-entered by
administrative staff for payroll purposes which not
only represents duplication of effort, the chance of
error is high. Time and equipment are not entered
against work orders in CityWide, the asset, work
management and citizen request system used by
Operations. Therefore, there is no mechanism to
determine the cost for delivering the various services.
We also noted that there the equipment rates charged
to jobs are very outdated. Updated equipment rates
are critical for outsourcing vs. in house analysis.
We are of the opinion that a business process review
and redesign is needed whereby all the processes are
mapped and non -value-added activities are eliminated
so that the staff will have the capacity to meet the
workload requirements. While the implementation of
work orders was a good first step, the detailed
processes need to be assessed, documented to ensure
that all work order types and criticality is set up.
Training of staff in CityWide and a move to mobile
applications will allow for better work planning and
costing.
Recommendation 1: Undertake a business
process review of customer service
requests/work orders within Operations
with the view to collect time and
equipment costs at source. This will
require a complete transformation of the
business from the Lead Hand entering data
to staff responsibility through
mobile/internet access. This is what is
done in many other municipalities. An
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Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
estimated investment of $70,000 is
required to make this happen including
consulting services, implementation,
procedural development and training
delivery. Additional mobile devices may be
required but an assessment of current
hardware and new requirements should be
undertaken in concert with other corporate
projects.
Recommendation 2: As part of the process
transformation, create Citywide work order
series based upon type including, at
minimum contractor
inspections/complaints, tree replacements.
Error proofing mechanisms should be put
in place to ensure data is clean and
consistent. Look at limited tree
replacement choices.
Forestry Services requests are not customer focused
Service Requests are created by Operations staff when
customers call with a forestry issue. Customers do not
have the ability to submit or track service requests by
type online as seen in other municipalities, such as
Oshawa Online.
We also noted that there are no service standards in
terms of response time or expectations based upon
criticality of the issue. customers must call in to get
updates of the status of their request which adds time
and dissatisfaction. If an estimate of the time to
respond is established and tracked, customer
expectations can be managed. However, it means that
municipal staff must become more diligent in updating
progress on the request. This likely can only be
achieved with improved service and access to the
Service Request system.
Performance measures including contractor service
levels should be included in CityWide with additional
fields as required.
Recommendation 3: Clarington Forestry
Services should develop performance
standards in measurements, collection and
reporting including work order response
rates and contractor performance. Service
levels should be developed, tracked and
advertised.
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Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Recommendation 4: The Municipality of
Clarington should create an online request
system, integrated with CityWide (or the
corporate service request system) to allow
customers to submit and track forestry
requests in real time.
Clarington Forestry Services needs trained dedicated
resources
In the recently released Clarington Organizational
Structure Review, the consultants recommended that
Clarington look at the "Possible Outsourcing of
Forestry" and that "there is currently some Forestry
expertise within the Engineering department,
however, this function should fall under Operations
and may be required to scale to meet experience and
service level expectations. In order to scale Forestry
operations efficiently while maintaining service levels
across other areas, outsourcing should be a
consideration."
It is true that forestry "services" are delivered in a
"piece meal" fashion between Planning, Engineering
and Operations with no clear accountability or
responsibilities. Even within Operations, there are no
specific staff responsible for forestry operations, with
the exception of one lead hand/arborist. Forestry
work is undertaken by the same staff that are assigned
to winter control and parks maintenance. No "crews"
are in place in order to develop and deliver on the
Urban forest strategy or forestry operations.
Consequently, the work is reactive and continues to
build.
While we agree that outsourcing forestry is an option,
we are of the opinion that the entire service cannot be
outsourced at this time. Other municipalities have had
limited success in complete outsourcing (eg. Brantford)
primarily due to quality and response concerns.
Forestry is so intertwined with other plans, legislative
requirements and its impact on the health and beauty
of the municipality, that contracted services can best
be utilized for project work that can be monitored
through effective contract management.
Forestry is a specialized area that requires expertise to
identify what needs to be done and when the best
time to do that work. It is true this type of assessment
could also be outsourced but it is unclear that it would
be more affordable or effective. Given the limited
number of contractors in this area, other operational
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Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
services, such as winter control, may offer better
opportunities for outsourcing.
We believe that, given the current backlog of work
that Clarington needs to dedicate the Lead
Hand/Arborist to forestry services. In order to solidify
this role, we believe that the position should be
changed to a Forestry Coordinator who will be
responsible only for forestry services. This position
should manage workload and contractor performance.
At least one dedicated staff member who is sufficiently
trained, preferable a Certified Arborist who will
perform forestry services.
In order to reduce the amount of work over the long
term, contractors could be utilized on a vendor of
record basis. As mentioned, some municipalities have
a list of "approved" vendors to deal with certain types
of work (eg. pruning). We believe that this may be an
option but it must include requirements that the
customer enters the service request on the online
customer portal, and an assignment process to the
approved vendors. The contractor would then update
the work order and the tree inventory as part of the
process. Satisfaction surveys should be added to the
customer portal so that the municipality can monitor
the quality and responsiveness.
Recommendation 5: Transform the position
of Lead Hand to Forestry Coordinator who
will be responsible for managing forestry
work with internal staff and contractors.
This position should also be responsible to
develop private -public or volunteer
partnerships for tree assessments and
inventory.
Recommendation 6: Assign one position,
at minimum, to the Forestry Coordinator,
as a permanent forestry position to assist
in eliminating the backlog of service
requests and support the Urban forest
strategy. Additional training in forestry
practices should be provided to more staff
with the skills to support the Lead
Hand/Forestry Coordinator.
Recommendation 7: Contractor
requirements should include tracking and
updates to work orders and tree inventory.
Satisfaction surveys should be added to the
customer portal so that the municipality
can monitor the quality and
responsiveness.
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Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Recommendation 8: Following the
implementation a full work order
management system with time and
equipment tracking and vendor
performance, revisit the degree of
outsourcing in forestry.
Tree Inventory and Planting present more
opportunities for outsourcing
Outsourcing has been successful in increasing the tree
canopy and gathering the tree inventory through the
use of volunteers, private -public partnerships, not for
profits and contractors. While these must be
developed, we see them as an opportunity. An
example includes the Forest Health Ambassador
Programs and PLANT in Oakville, where volunteers are
trained to undertaken assessments, encourage
planting21, tree inventory volunteers in Wisconsin and
Florida which increases the knowledge of the tree
canopy and the health. Tree Canada and the Partners
in Planting programs are also great ways to access
additional funding for community -based tree
21 https://www.oakville.ca/residents/forest-health-ambassadors.html
initiatives in urban areas. This will augment the Trees
for Rural Roads Program. These types of programs
could be led by other partners such as the
Conservation Authorities, the Region or private sector
and would assist the municipality achieve some of its
goals.
Clarington has made great strides with the Urban
forest strategy. Given the wide-ranging benefits of
the urban tree canopy, it is important that begin to
recognize that trees in parks, boulevards and in all -
natural areas are critical components of our
infrastructure that need to be managed
appropriately and responsibly.
An up-to-date inventory of the urban tree canopy
will help the municipality make informed decisions
with respect to tree maintenance, forestry
planning and management programs. Without
that, outsourcing maintenance is not possible.
Inventory data can help to identify species
diversity and distribution, percentage of canopy
cover, size/class distribution, etc.
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Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
An understanding of the tree canopy will help
guide Clarington's planning and decision -making
process.
Data related to the urban tree canopy will also
allow Clarington to respond proactively to
infestations like E.A.B., prioritize areas for
replanting and focus maintenance activities.
Staff indicated that the tree inventory has not
been updated since completed in 2012. It has
relied upon labour intensive and time-consuming
methods of on the ground field work and data
management. And yet, much of the work is
performed by contractors. It would make sense to
have the contractors update the tree inventory as
the work is completed.
Clarington could consider making an application to
the Municipal Natural Assets Initiative Project 22 to
assist in the funding of the tree inventory
collection.
Many municipalities and Forest Managers are
utilizing technologies such as aerial imagery as a
method of gathering inventory data to help map,
22 https://mnai.ca/media/201 9/07/SP MNAI Report5 June20l 9.pdf
analyze and quantify the tree canopy. Jurisdictions,
such as the City of Vaughan and Peterborough,
have utilized aerial imagery technology to provide
detailed information about their tree canopy. The
information gathered helps to make informed
decisions regarding the management of the urban
forest. This method of data collection drastically
reduces the amount of fieldwork needed to obtain
an accurate tree inventory which is often very time
consuming, labour intensive and results tend to be
less accurate.
The City of Vaughan is finalizing their street tree
inventory and is working towards mapping of trees
in natural areas. Based on Vaughan's assessment
of three types of data collection, they found that
the cost to undertake aerial imagery was $0.80 to
$1.50 per street tree compared to $2.75 to $5.00
per tree for on -ground fieldwork and greater than
$9.00 for LiDAR (light detection and ranging).
Aerial imagery has an estimated 85 to 95 percent
accuracy, which is considered acceptable.
We are of the opinion that Clarington needs to
invest in developing the tree inventory and explore
funding opportunities.
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Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Recommendation 9: Develop a plan to
collect tree inventory including application
for funding.
Equipment Rates and work order processes do not
capture true costs
Equipment rates have not been updated in some time
and do not reflect true cost of the work. Currently,
equipment usage is entered in a spreadsheet by the
Lead Hands, not employees, which is charged to a
general ledger, but not the "job" or work order.
Therefore, costs are not attributable to the work and
the municipality does not know how much each job
costs. Consequently, the municipality is not able to
develop standard costs for evaluation of outsourcing
versus in house resources.
Recommendation 10: Undertake an
equipment rate study to update rates
immediately and on a regular cycle (eg.
every 3-4 years). Ensure that equipment
rates are charged to work orders as they
are utilized as part of Recommendation 1
Procurement and Contractor Management is time
consuming and challenging
The success of outsourcing or public -private
partnerships rests with the effectiveness of scope,
contract and performance management.
Consultations revealed that Forestry staff spend a
significant amount of time managing contractor quality
and response time issues. Unfortunately, this time
was not tracked nor were the specific issues so the
comments are anecdotal.
Prior to the review, Operations was undergoing some
organizational changes, including a "contracts
specialist" with Operations who would be responsible
for tendering and vendor management/evaluation.
The role was unclear in terms of forestry services but it
would make sense to develop contract management
skills in a few key personnel and ensure that they work
with procurement to create a roster of reliable forestry
service providers.
In order to do that, the municipality must have a clear
plan of its desired achievement, performance
indicators and reliable vendors to carry out the work.
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Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
To date, the municipality has been challenged with
contractor performance and spends considerable
amount of time managing the work of contractors.
Currently all contracts currently state that the
municipality will inspect the completed work to
confirm satisfactory performance prior to payment.
This, seems to be overly onerous and partially defeats
the purpose of contracting out the work. However, if
the performance evaluation information is gathered
and analyzed, it will provide the municipality and
purchasing with the appropriate information for
assessing vendor qualifications and eligibility. Without
clear evidence of vendor issues, it is very difficult, if
not impossible, to prevent vendors from bidding on
tenders.
Recommendation 11: As part of a
procurement review, Forestry staff should
work with Purchasing to develop a
contractor evaluation system/process. All
contracts should be tracked in a new work
order type in CityWide that includes
criteria for contractors. Consider moving
to a reporting requirement rather than
inspecting all work of contractors.
Performance standards should be put in
place and monitored.
Bylaws are outdated
Clarington's Tree Protection Bylaw 97-35 was passed in
1997 and has not been updated since then. Wording
and fees are outdated and should be updated as part
of a consultation process, perhaps in line with Durham
Region's changes.
In 2019, Durham Region launched a review of its bylaw
with the view to make the following changes, among
others:
• To be consistent with Provincial policies and to
conform to provincial plans and regulations, the
definition for "Sensitive Natural Areas";
• Distinguish between settlement areas and rural
areas for the purposes of Clear Cutting;
• Updated fees and fines for clear cutting
applications, but require more time to review
and process are proposed to increase: $500 for
a minor clear -cutting permit (i.e. to clear cut an
area between 0.25 and 2.5 acres); $1,000 for a
major clear cutting application (i.e. to clear cut
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Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
an area greater than 2.5 acres and where
Regional Council approval is required). 23
While there has been some pressure to look at a
Private Tree Bylaw as passed several municipalities (eg.
Toronto, Oakville, Niagara on the Lake), the success of
these has been mixed.24 In particular, the research
shows that the effectiveness is directly attributable to
knowledge and support of citizens. Therefore,
Clarington would have to invest in communication as
well as resources to make this happen.
It would seem that until Clarington has addressed the
Urban Forest Strategy outcome and get to a stable
operation, adding a private tree by-law is premature
and likely not sustainable. Further, since Clarington
does not currently record time and cost against work
orders and equipment charges, it would be prudent to
implement private tree bylaws or fees without
knowing the fee that would make it cost recoverable.
23 https://www.durham.ca/en/doing-
business/resources/Documents/Planningand Development /201 9-P-5-
Region-of -Durham- Draft -Wood land -Conservation-and-Manaclement- By-
law---Accessible.pdf
Recommendation 12: Update the Tree
Preservation Bylaw #97-35 including fees.
Tree Planting Programs are excellent and more
Volunteer programs are needed
Clarington has had much success with its tree planting
programs (eg. Trees for Rural Roads) and volunteer
support (eg Samuel Wilmot Nature Area, Valleys 2000).
But more can be done, particularly in assisting with
expanding and protecting the tree canopy as well as
tree inventory. An example includes the Town of
Oakville's who engages residents to help monitor
neighbourhood street trees for invasive insects,
disease and other issues related to forest health. The
Forest Health Ambassador program runs through the
summer months and Ambassadors can survey as many
or as few trees as they like at any time that is
convenient for them.
24 https://www.isa-arbor.com/Credentials/Types-of-Credentials/ISA-
Certified-Arborist-Municipal-Specialist/Tree-Ordinance-Guidelines
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Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Other tree planting programs offer funding and
support that can expand the tree canopy. "
The Municipal Nature Assets Initiative provides
scientific, economic and municipal expertise to
support and guide local governments in identifying,
valuing and accounting for natural assets in their
financial planning and asset management programs
and developing leading -edge, sustainable and climate
resilient infrastructure.
Urban Forest Strategy needs to be coupled with a
workplan to succeed.
The Urban Forest Strategy was developed by
Clarington staff in Engineering, Planning and
Operations and accepted by Council in principle. The
document articulated the current state of Clarington's
urban forests and priorities. However, it was not
supported by a workplan or specific resources. One
key recommendation was the development of a Forest
Management Plan but it was not brought forward to
Council after the election. This Strategy should be
reviewed with the view to determine which priorities
are to be acted upon and identify the responsibilities,
accountabilities and funding.
25 https://treecanada.ca/plant-with-us/apply-for-a-grant/
Following the determination of priorities, Clarington
should explore how its partnerships and other inter-
agency working groups can contribute to the tree
canopy and other tree maintenance/health programs
Recommendation 13: Clarington should
determine the commitment to Urban forest
strategy and ensure a workplan, with
internal and external resources are
assigned. This should form a policy as
required by the Municipal Act.
Recommendation 14: Clarington Forestry
Services should work with the inter -agency
working group such as Durham Region,
Clarington's Climate Change Coordinator,
Conservation Authorities and Community
Groups to build additional volunteer
opportunities (eg. Forest Ambassador
Program) and/or pursue grants (eg. Trees
Canada).
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Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Conclusion
In conclusion, Clarington Forestry Services is in a state of chaos. Its workload is unmanaged and represents risk for the
organization. The EAB program has been the entire focus over the last five years and has consumed most of the resources.
Customers are often required to follow-up and "complain" regarding quality of work and response time. Processes are not in
place to handle this workload and the current operation is simply not sustainable. As the municipality grows, it will just become
more challenging. Outsourcing can help but only with additional resources to manage the relationships and performance.
Recent changes may provide an opportunity to change processes and management practices. We hope that will happen and that
our recommendations are helpful to make that change. The fact that the staff developed an Urban Forest Strategy in house is
admirable but nothing will happen without a workplan with dedicated resources.
Acknowledgement
We wish to express appreciation to the staff, management, the Steering Committee, stakeholders for their participation,
cooperation and assistance throughout the project.
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Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Appendix A: Stakeholder Interviews
Name
Organization
Clarington
Clarington
Clarington
Clarington
Clarington
Clarington
Role
Fred Horvath
Director, Operations
Stephen Brake
Manager, Operations
Ken Mercer
Supervisor, Parks & Cemeteries
Andrew Jackman
Lead Hand, Operations (Arborist)
Catherine Carr
Manager, Internal Audit
Ron Hooper
Councillor - Forestry Liaison
Corinna Traill
Clarington
Councillor
Adrian Foster
Clarington
Mayor
CAO - Andy Allison
Clarington
CAO
Clerk - Anne Greentree
Clarington
Clerk
Faye Langmaid
Clarington
A/Director Planning
Trevor Pinn
Clarington
Treasurer
Peter Windolf
Clarington
Parks Development
Doron Hoge
Clarington
Climate Change Resp Coord
Basia Radomski
Clarington
Communications
David Ferguson
Clarington
Purchasing Manager
Becky Rogers
Clarington
Senior Buyer
Christina Bruno
Clarington
Clerk 2 - Citywide
Clint Peters
Clarington
Supervisor
Teresa Mason
Clarington
Municipal Bylaw Officer
Pam Lancaster
Ganaraska Region Conservation Authority
Stewardship Technician
Patricia Lowe
Central Lake Ontario Conservation Authority
Director, Community Engagement
Bill Humber
Old Bowmanville Neighbourhood Association & Valleys 2000
president / past president
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Clarington Forestry Service Delivery Review
Summary of Interviews with Stakeholders and Council
Key comments of interviewees included:
• Most felt that Clarington Forestry services are required and important.
• Council was of the opinion that more work could be outsourced while staff and management were concerned about
contractor availability.
• Managing contractor performance is very challenging.
• Work is reactive. No time to plan.
• Lack of trained staff in Forestry services.
• Some were unaware of the role of forestry in the Municipality.
• Need better communication between the stakeholders and Council
• Integration between the various Forestry organizations and Municipal departments is needed.
• Competing demands make it difficult for Clarington Forestry to move forward.
• Workload is increasing and overwhelming.
• New work order system will be very helpful.
• There is a need for increased resources and work planning. Seasonal nature of the service means the only skilled staff are
pulled off for winter controls.
• Prior supervisor in Forestry did not communicate the workload issues.
• Many positive programs such as Trees for Rural Roads.
• Urban forest strategy was developed in house but no resources.
• Private tree bylaw issues continue to be raised — no protection without a development application.
• Bylaw are not extended to private lands.
• EAB program is taking all the resources.
• Tree replacement program is challenging both in terms of time and supply.
• Concerns expressed over the tree canopy protection with growth and climate change, invasive species.
• Forestry pruning cycles are not in place.
• Tree inventory is incomplete
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