Michael Fenn
Biographical note for Michael Fenn
Over the course of an extensive career as a Canadian public service executive, Michael Fenn has been a Province of Ontario Deputy Minister under three Premiers, municipal chief administrator in the Ontario cities of Hamilton and Burlington, and the founding CEO of both Toronto/Hamilton region transportation authority Metrolinx and Toronto-area regional health authority Mississauga Halton LHIN (serving over a million residents). As deputy minister, Michael was responsible for municipal affairs, public safety, rural development, and housing. He has participated in development missions to South Africa, Cuba and the Philippines.
Michael is a management consultant and a Board Director with the US$100+ billion OMERS AC pension fund, investing globally in assets including infrastructure and real estate. He has served on the boards of McMaster University, the Toronto District School Board's realty and development enterprise, the Toronto Lands Corporation and currently, Good Shepherd Non-profit Homes Board. He is a certified board director (C.Dir.). In 2018, he was appointed Visiting Fellow (Infrastructure) at Western University's Ivey School of Business.
In 2019, with Ken Seiling, he was appointed as Special Advisor to the Government of Ontario on reform of Regional Government. For a decade ending in 2020, he has served as Chair of the Expert Panel on policing and then Facilitator, jointly appointed by the Grand Chief of the Mushkegowuk Tribal Council for the Cree First Nations in Northeastern Ontario and by the Ontario Solicitor General.
His major research publications have addressed: AI and municipal government; the six main risks to success in delivering infrastructure; megatrends and the future of infrastructure; creative approaches to infrastructure finance; municipal asset management; the role of the Chief Administrator (CAO) in Ontario municipalities; municipal government “at an inflection point”; and, a review and action agenda for water, wastewater and stormwater services and infrastructure in Ontario. He led the Association of Municipalities of Ontario’s “business burden reduction” program of pilot projects and authored its report.
Michael’s career achievements have been acknowledged by a number of professional awards, including the Lieutenant Governor’s Medal of Distinction in Public Administration for Ontario, and the highest award for career achievement from Ontario’s two largest municipal administrators’ associations. In 2010, he was one of two Ontarians added to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario’s Honour Roll. In 2015, Michael’s municipal management career was profiled with a chapter in the book: Leaders in the Shadows: The Leadership Qualities of Municipal Chief Administrative Officers, by Professor David Siegel. He is co-editor of the 2023 book, "The Role of Canadian City Managers" from Univ. of Toronto Press.
December 4, 2023
Address: Fenn Advisory Services Inc.
5-2141 Caroline Street
Burlington ON Canada
L7R 1L7
Over the course of an extensive career as a Canadian public service executive, Michael Fenn has been a Province of Ontario Deputy Minister under three Premiers, municipal chief administrator in the Ontario cities of Hamilton and Burlington, and the founding CEO of both Toronto/Hamilton region transportation authority Metrolinx and Toronto-area regional health authority Mississauga Halton LHIN (serving over a million residents). As deputy minister, Michael was responsible for municipal affairs, public safety, rural development, and housing. He has participated in development missions to South Africa, Cuba and the Philippines.
Michael is a management consultant and a Board Director with the US$100+ billion OMERS AC pension fund, investing globally in assets including infrastructure and real estate. He has served on the boards of McMaster University, the Toronto District School Board's realty and development enterprise, the Toronto Lands Corporation and currently, Good Shepherd Non-profit Homes Board. He is a certified board director (C.Dir.). In 2018, he was appointed Visiting Fellow (Infrastructure) at Western University's Ivey School of Business.
In 2019, with Ken Seiling, he was appointed as Special Advisor to the Government of Ontario on reform of Regional Government. For a decade ending in 2020, he has served as Chair of the Expert Panel on policing and then Facilitator, jointly appointed by the Grand Chief of the Mushkegowuk Tribal Council for the Cree First Nations in Northeastern Ontario and by the Ontario Solicitor General.
His major research publications have addressed: AI and municipal government; the six main risks to success in delivering infrastructure; megatrends and the future of infrastructure; creative approaches to infrastructure finance; municipal asset management; the role of the Chief Administrator (CAO) in Ontario municipalities; municipal government “at an inflection point”; and, a review and action agenda for water, wastewater and stormwater services and infrastructure in Ontario. He led the Association of Municipalities of Ontario’s “business burden reduction” program of pilot projects and authored its report.
Michael’s career achievements have been acknowledged by a number of professional awards, including the Lieutenant Governor’s Medal of Distinction in Public Administration for Ontario, and the highest award for career achievement from Ontario’s two largest municipal administrators’ associations. In 2010, he was one of two Ontarians added to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario’s Honour Roll. In 2015, Michael’s municipal management career was profiled with a chapter in the book: Leaders in the Shadows: The Leadership Qualities of Municipal Chief Administrative Officers, by Professor David Siegel. He is co-editor of the 2023 book, "The Role of Canadian City Managers" from Univ. of Toronto Press.
December 4, 2023
Address: Fenn Advisory Services Inc.
5-2141 Caroline Street
Burlington ON Canada
L7R 1L7
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Papers by Michael Fenn
Un investissement de cette ampleur dépasse la capacité financière du secteur municipal, qui est propriétaire de la majorité des infrastructures publiques et les exploite. Un investissement considérable à long terme de la part du secteur public et du secteur privé sera nécessaire. C’est une entreprise ardue mais nécessaire, et, comme cela arrive lors des longs trajets pendant l’hiver canadien, elle a peut-être besoin d’être « boostée ».
Compte tenu de la taille, de l’étendue et du coût des infrastructures soutenant le logement nécessaires pour doubler le volume des mises en chantier au Canada, les municipalités seront confrontées à des demandes de financement d’infrastructures et de financement sans précédent. Les solutions impliqueront d’entamer une nouvelle conversation avec les
municipalités canadiennes sur les risques et les opportunités en jeu.
La présente étude propose quatre mesures qui devraient améliorer les chances du Canada de répondre à ses besoins en matière d’infrastructures soutenant le logement :
Passer d’un mode de paiement en amont à un paiement garanti pour l’infrastructure tout au long de sa durée de vie utile
Veiller à ce que tous les bénéficiaires contribuent au coût de l’infrastructure dans la durée
Réduire les risques et limites financières des infrastructures des municipalités en utilisant des modèles financiers innovants et des capitaux privés
Adapter les modèles de financement des infrastructures aux risques financiers et aux réalités des municipalités canadiennes petites, rurales ou éloignées du Canada
This year, we interviewed 28 CAOs from municipalities big and small, from upper, lower and single tier jurisdictions, and from every corner of the province. We conducted these interviews in the early summer, at a time when many municipalities were dealing with flooding, or forest fires, or poor air-quality resulting from fires burning hundreds of kilometres away.
Ontario CAOs are grappling with a broad spectrum of issues, from evergreen concerns around financial sustainability and human resources to increasing growth pressures and systemic social challenges including poverty, homelessness, and mental health, and addictions.
This year’s CAOs weigh in on it all, giving us insight into what the municipal sector’s leading public servants are thinking at this turning point in Ontario’s history.
The "Role of Canadian City Managers" is a useful resource for scholars and students of local government and public administration, as well as public servants who work with or aspire to leadership roles within local government.
This paper explores the way that a financing mechanism in widespread use across the United States could be employed to bring down the borrowing and refinancing costs facing Canadian municipalities. Tax-exempt municipal bonds – what the bond market calls ‘munis’ – allow American cities and their agencies to reduce their cost-of-capital, while encouraging investment in local and regional infrastructure projects. As inflation and supply-chain issues drive up the cost of construction projects, are ‘munis’ an 'idea whose time has come' for Canada?
We interviewed CAOs from municipalities of all sizes across Ontario, from upper-tier, lower-tier and single-tier municipalities. We conducted the interviews for this survey in late 2021 and early 2022. It was a time when summer’s public optimism that the pandemic might have run its course collided with the renewal of lockdowns and the Omicron variant.
This report is a snapshot of what the leaders of Ontario’s municipal sector are thinking at a critical time in Ontario’s history.