Ontario Municipal Benchmarking Initiative (OMBI)
The Ontario Municipal Benchmarking Initiative (OMBI) is a co-operative of 15 Ontario municipalities committed to continuously improving the way services are delivered to citizens. Led by the Chief Administrative Officers (CAOs) and City Managers in each participating municipality, it fosters a culture of service excellence in municipal government.
OMBI helps the City of Ottawa and other participating municipalities increase their efficiency and effectiveness by:
- establishing meaningful performance measures for a wide range of municipal program delivery and support areas and making sure they are measured in a consistent way by all municipalities so they can be compared
- capturing and reporting that performance information
- analyzing the results and comparing them to one another to create group benchmarks
- working together to identify and exchange best practices
Our participation in OMBI is Ottawa’s main benchmarking initiative. It is an important part of the City’s performance measurement and reporting framework, which helps the City be more accountable to citizens. OMBI helps us understand where we are doing well and in doing so, helps us demonstrate value for the tax dollars the City receives from citizens. OMBI also helps us identify areas where improvements should be considered. Much of OMBI’s value comes from the analysis of the performance information to determine why the results are what they are.
This year, the OMBI organizing group has published its fourth joint public report on behalf of all 15 participating Ontario municipalities. This report presents performance information for 26 services delivered by OMBI municipalities. It provides data for 2006, 2007 and 2008, and describes some factors that influence the delivery of these services. For more information about OMBI and to read this year’s OMBI joint report, visit ombi.ca
