The City Council of North Bay has agreed to form a long awaited sub-committee to scrutinize the city’s services and operations in the form of a review.

The idea of reviewing the city’s services efficiency, value and optimization has been mooted for some time, but until now has never been put into action. The special Operational Review Committee was approved unanimously a motion placed by councilors George Maroosis and Mac Bain during a council meeting on Monday.

The aim of the review committee is to gather information on all services in the North Bay area and assessing them based on how efficient they are and if improvements can be made to save money or streamline services to deliver a better experience. There will also be a remit to offer ways to improve services and get better value for money for the city government.

“This is not a slash and burn committee to go in and find savings regardless of services,” said Maroosis. “We’re looking at efficiencies, and I expect in some cases we may very well add resources once we determine what’s important, and in other cases we’ll say ‘why are we doing that?’

“I think that at the end of this process, if nothing happens, we’ll at least, each and every one of us, know the operations of the city a lot better and be able to make sound decisions,” he added.

Maroosis will chair the committee that will also be comprised of McDonald and councilors Jeff Serran, Mike Anthony, Mark King and Bain, while staff from the city will also sit in to offer expertise. The council will also tab the expertise of front line workers to better understand how service operate in North Bay.