The Assumption of Leadership Within Municipal Government is Hindering Regional Economic Development

by Lorri Matthewson

I took "leadership" as a course while studying for my MBA. I loved our professor, who opened the first class on the first day by asserting that leadership could not be taught. He believed that leadership traits were developed young and emerged on the playground. He may have had a point.

After years of experience working with Councils, I've come to understand that being on Council does not, by itself, equip a person to lead. Council is legislated to the eyeballs, and its first loyalty is always to its own community. It has to be. Yet traditional economic expectations are that municipal councils need to work together to build the region. I suggest that municipal councils with small populations are an important part of regional development, but shouldn't be expected to lead it. Let me explain.

Holding a position on council is tough everywhere but uniquely tough in small populations. It is a 24-hour-a-day proposition of near-constant surveillance and criticism, just to meet the mandate of the Municipalities Act. There is little financial compensation, and one unpopular, even necessary decision affects how your kids experience school, how you engage in the public and how the locals support your businesses. Council is a job for people who understand the legislation that governs them and who make and support policy, bylaws, resolutions, and motions that work within that legislation, and together make decisions that deliver the best possible outcomes for their communities. As a result, risk tolerance is naturally low.

In fact, natural-born leaders often have a difficult time on Council because they let their name stand, hoping to make a real difference, only to find out that between the legislated responsibilities, restricted budgets, funding requirements, conflict of interest, code of ethics rules, being outvoted and duty of loyalty, they simply don't have the autonomy to lead the way they personally see fit.

Councillors do better when they follow the rules because so many rules are designed to protect the community from an entrepreneur's crazy high risk tolerance and to protect themselves from liability. We, as service providers, have to respect the limits of that position and stop pressuring Councils to take leadership roles in regional economic development. Their mandates, resources, and legislation allow and support them to take an active role in local economic development, but they don't have the resources to become a regional lead.

On the rare occasion one municipality emerges as the economic development lead, the municipalities it leads eventually revolt because they compete and compare. It doesn't sustain. We've tried, we've seen it, and we do the same things over and over and over. It hasn't worked. We provide more information to get municipalities to agree to work together, while ignoring the fact that municipal councils have a designated role to act in the best interest of their own municipality. They agree that regional economic development is important; they mostly agree they have a part to play, but I haven't met one yet who agrees it is their job to lead the region.

So, Matthewson & Company decided to lead. We'll do that by finding other leaders and supporting them within their region to create a regional economic development plan. We created four main pillars to guide our work: housing, business, economic development, and tourism. We will build the bridges, support the work, and see what happens.

Hey, it might not work either, but what if it does?

So, we invite you to keep an eye out while we launch our two test regional support systems, one in the Turtle Mountains and one in Southeast Saskatchewan, where Matthewson & Co. is planning to fill the gap, funded entirely by those who want to benefit from such a thing. If you want to learn more, email me. LorriMatthewson@smallplacesrock.com