Wasaga Beach’s budget for library and arena staff could jump by 45 per cent when the new facility opens in the next two years.

Those are the recommendations of Ashley Clerici and Jen Hayes of MNP Consulting, who also offered a series of recommendations on how the municipality could provide a consistent level of customer service across the organization — especially once the new public library and twin-pad arena opens.

The two women presented their recommendations to council’s Oct. 8 meeting of the co-ordinated committee. Their work was funded by a $60,000 grant from the province.

Hayes said both the recreation department and the library have staffing gaps in both capacity and capability that will need to be filled in advance of the opening of the new facility.

Construction is expected to begin in 2021.

“It’s not unusual to have these gaps in capacity and capabilities. With the growing facility, and the growing department, there’s opportunity to require some new positions,” Hayes said.

Both the arena and library will require programming staff, she said, while the arena would require an operations manager and increased maintenance staff.

On the recreation side, program registration should also move to an online system “to make it easier for residents,” and reduce the administrative burden of what is currently handled manually.

Based on the recommendations of the consultants, staffing at the arena would increase by one full-time position, six part-time positions, and an additional contract position, and staffing costs would jump from $422,000 to more than $721,000 in the first year.

For the library, the four existing casual call-in positions would be rolled into full- and part-time positions, with three more full-time, and five more part-time jobs; the numbers do not reflect the library’s chief executive officer position, Hayes said.

The current staffing budget at the library is $694,000, and it would increase to just over $905,000 in the first year of operating the new facility, based on the recommendation of the consultants.

“There’s added services, there’s added space, so the staffing is reflective of longer hours (of operation),” Hayes said.

Clerici said the municipality’s staff is very customer-service oriented, though they “all go about (it) in a different way.” That leads to inconsistency in how service is delivered across the organization, she said.

Mayor Nina Bifolchi said the recommendations were not a surprise, and cautioned residents not to jump to the conclusion the town would be adding a lot of staff, and start calculating how much that would cost.

“Until this goes back to staff and there’s a thorough review and our needs are looked at … the public shouldn’t just assume that all these new people are being hired,” she said. “Some of these things need to be reviewed by our leadership team … we need to make sure every department has input into the plan.”

“It’s important that the public understand that staffing and dollar amounts put to this report regarding the two new facilities, but I don’t want the public to misunderstand the information and start calculating how much this is going to cost each resident.”

The committee recommended staff review the study, and bring back a report to councillors at a later date.