About Us
Who We Are and What We Do
You can’t improve what you don’t measure.
Municipal Benchmarking Network of Canada (MBNCanada) is a network of Canadian municipalities. Our benchmarking program is recognized as a leading-edge municipal performance measurement program.
Measure and report
The purpose of the program is to foster a culture of service excellence in municipal government by creating new ways to measure, share and compare performance data and operational practices.
Through collaboration with our participating municipalities, we identify and collect consistent and comparable data on municipal service areas. MBNCanada’s data portal is built using Microsoft tools. Data collection, sharing and reporting is facilitated through a secure Extranet User Manager (EUM) using Microsoft Excel and Power BI. Access is security trimmed for each participating municipality. Collaboration is supported through MS Teams meetings and service area portal groups where municipal experts can interact with their peers.
Share ideas
Municipalities can use the network to discuss results and share their practices and strategies. It often starts with a question—Why did we get these results? How can we improve? What does your program look like? —and ends with collaboration on creative solutions to improve performance.
Use the data
Participating municipalities have used data to support Council decisions, set policy, inform reviews, evaluate programs, support budget recommendations, identify trends, and inform operational planning. Some municipalities make their data accessible to everyone through open data policies and programs.
“MBNCanada offers historical, structured data and definitions,
plus a formalized process to submit, gather and store data.
That’s its value. If you don’t measure, you can’t improve.”
Municipal Lead, York Region
Who we are
MBNCanada’s Board consists of the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) or City Manager from participating municipalities. Municipal Leads, Service Area Experts and Financial Advisory Representatives are staff from participating municipalities who support measure development and program implementation. They also collaborate through our benchmarking teams to identify trends, participate in knowledge exchange and shared learnings and to support performance reporting.
What we measure
MBNCanada includes financial and performance data in 36 municipal service areas to assist its members in decision-making and performance management. This is achieved through the following:
- A common framework for assessing municipal performance.
- Standardized measures and technical definitions.
- Protocols for collecting, sharing and reporting data.
- A shared understanding about the factors that can influence one’s results.
- Peer-review data processes and shared learnings.
Why we measure
Municipal users tell us that participating in MBNCanada helps them understand what’s happening now, predict what’s around the corner, strengthen accountability, improve transparency, objectively evaluate service efficiency and effectiveness, provide credible fact-based data to support informed decision-making by Council and staff, and see how they compare to other communities.
How to Participate
For information on participation in the MBNCanada program, please see our Frequently Asked Questions.
Learn more
Consultants, academics, policy makers and municipalities from across Canada and the world contact MBNCanada for information on our model, benchmarking and more. If you’re interested in learning more about our program, contact the program office.
Our mission
To enhance municipal service delivery through collaboration, networking and the implementation of performance measurement, benchmarking and other municipal continuous improvement programs and initiatives.
Our vision
MBNCanada is a leader in performance measurement that supports excellence in municipal service delivery.
Our values
| Value: | we demonstrate stewardship of public resources by illustrating value for money through benchmarking to build public trust and confidence in municipal government. |
| Integrity: | we ensure data and analysis efforts reflect requisite and appropriate quality standards. |
| Trust: | we believe that government provides vital public services that citizens want, need and expect to be delivered effectively and efficiently. |
| Accountability: | we facilitate evidence-informed decision making and public reporting on municipal service delivery performance. |
| Learning: | we foster collaboration and knowledge exchange to support municipal learning and innovation |
A little history
In 1998, five CAOs and City Managers came together with a common interest in municipal performance measurement. They researched more than 50 benchmarking initiatives from around the world, decided on a model, wrote a project charter, established a project office—and the Ontario Municipal CAO’s Benchmarking Initiative (or OMBI, as it was affectionately known) was born.
During the first few years, they developed a 7-step benchmarking model, data sharing protocol, indirect costing methodology, data warehouse, and published reports on a limited number of service areas without identifying the municipality. OMBI’s 2006 report was a big milestone: it identified the data from each of the 15 participating municipalities for the first time. From that point forward, public reports were issued annually for 37 service areas.
By the end of 2015, OMBI had undergone some significant changes. In 2013, it became a permanent program with its own board of directors. Between 2009 and 2015, it welcomed four partners from outside Ontario. It was time for a new name to reflect this new status—and Municipal Benchmarking Network Canada was unveiled at the Spring Forum in April 2016.
In 1998, five CAOs and
City Managers came
together with a common
interest in municipal
performance
measurement.
Performance Measurement Report
MBNCanada collects comparable data across 36 municipal service areas. Over the past year, MBNCanada has enhanced its data collection and reporting through the development of a secure online EUM data portal. This portal provides participating municipalities with full access to all data, allowing them to export results to use in municipal budgeting, planning and reporting.
Each year, the Board of Directors produces a public report that highlights key results from the ~700 performance measures collected. The 2022 MBNCanada Performance Report provides a sampling of the data available through participation in the MBNCanada program.
You can download a copy of this report by clicking on the link below. For more information on our benchmarking program and performance measures, please contact patti.tomalin@mbncanada.ca.
2022
Performance
Measurement
Report
“I love those moments when an expert panel is really engaged and is taking the discussion beyond the data. It’s so interesting to see that Montréal is doing one thing, Hamilton is doing something different, but we’re all in this together.”
Municipal Lead, City of Toronto