OCWA Shared Services Model = Value for communities

Many municipalities across Ontario have been struggling for years to find the money to pay for needed water and wastewater infrastructure repair and replacement. At the same time, there are increasing demands to reduce energy use and build resiliency to climate change, as well as satisfy stringent regulations.

OCWA is aware of these challenges and has been working with its municipal partners to cope with the resulting pressures.  Part of the solution could be a shift to shared services, something you’ve heard about and may even do in-house with some of your operations – or perhaps with neighbouring police, fire or by-law enforcement services.

OCWA has an already well-developed and efficient shared services water utility model with the economies of scale to bring value through our local delivery teams. 

We share through our delivery structure and economies of scale in the areas of:

• People – we use a hub and spoke approach to share people, skills and expertise
• Knowledge – we operate over 800 facilities across Ontario and can utilize best practices established through managing a variety of facilities across the province
• Procurement – size leads to stronger purchasing and reduced costs
• Technology – we have broad expertise behind our local operations teams to bring the latest innovative technological solutions to clients, including our OCWAnet systems

Our clients are pleased with the many benefits of the model.

“OCWA’s shared services model has allowed the town to better allocate our funds and identify opportunities to increase efficiencies in our water system,” says Mayor Bob Sweet of Petawawa. “This model provides great value to communities across Ontario.”

John Kingsbury, OCWA’s Director of Business Development, says that from OCWA’s perspective:  “As a partner, we have found synergy with municipalities across the province by sharing water and wastewater services, bringing the best of private sector efficiency with public sector accountability and values.”

OCWA is constantly looking at ways to refine its successful shared services model to increase efficiencies and deliver more value to clients.  We recently completed a reorganization that resulted in a reallocation of resources to local geographies where they can provide more direct support to our municipal partners.

Our new Regional Hub structure supports our goal to become the preferred “Total Solutions Provider” for Ontario communities by strengthening our client focus and working together as a team to deliver services that are truly valued by our clients. OCWA already works with system owners across the province repairing, replacing and updating major facility equipment. We have extended these services to include the delivery of comprehensive process, asset and energy management assessments and water and wastewater system capital projects. Our unique mix of operational, engineering and construction knowledge ensures on-time and on-budget capital delivery.

If you would like to talk to us about how OCWA can be the Total Solutions Provider for your municipal water and wastewater systems, please contact John Kingsbury at jkingsbury@ocwa.com.