Aug 27, 2026 · 38 min · 10 segments
Kyle Pratt has served as president of Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario (AMCTO) since June 2026 and was vice-president of AMCTO from 2025-2026. He is also Chief…
John ElvidgeGuest
Patricia KosseimHost
Kyle PrattGuest
I can certainly tell you that the challenges small municipalities are having in Ontario are very similar to the challenges of small public bodies across the country.

In fact, my federal, provincial, and territorial colleagues and I discuss this quite often, and it's a challenge I think collectively we need to try to address given the realities that you face on the ground.

You know, he's absolutely right about everything from the large municipalities down to smaller municipalities, 444, I think it is, Kyle, across the province.

It's always a challenge in any provincial regulatory regime, that difference in capacity between big and small.

We're very aware of it in Toronto, and one of the things we try to do is contribute to our association together with some of the other large municipalities in the province to try to, uh, provide, uh, some knowledge transfer and technical transfer.

It is a real, uh, it's a real issue, and I'm fortunate to head an organization that has those resources.

It really starts with the nature of records and how the nature of records have changed.

The issues we have in access in terms of response rates and, uh, capacity really come from an explosion in the complexity of records.

And, uh, how we're managing those, and the conventional approach that's reflected in our information management schools or in our information management associations, information management practices.

I'd probably go out on a limb and say we need to start there in a way to take a look at what are public expectations about the way records are managed and how are, what resources are being allocated to the management of records.

You know, we always say here to city departments that access is easy if you've mastered the record side of things, right? If you have a good, uh, repository, the production of responsive records on the timelines, new and old, are so much easier.

But in how many Western organizations can say they manage records, uh, or any of us as executives even, that we manage records with precision? Maybe in a way we did when it was just a typewritten document, you gave it to a file clerk, and it was put in a trusted repository.

Some things are buzzing while we've been talking, and it is, uh, a little bit like we're drowning in these different forms of records.

I don't think I'm answering your question directly, but it is, to me, the future is dependent on us agreeing in the public sector, what's the right way to manage records? How do we manage the information in such a way that then access can be given to those records? Maybe there are new approaches and new thoughts on that, and that's something in the next wave we probably really need to turn our attention to while we're trying to keep our heads above water with, uh, these large percentage increases in record requests year over year.

Maybe it's the next wave of legislative amendments that will bring forth solutions.

Maybe well before then, we will have found administrative solutions, technological solutions.

I can certainly tell you that the challenges small municipalities are having in Ontario are very similar to the challenges of small public bodies across the country.

In fact, my federal, provincial, and territorial colleagues and I discuss this quite often, and it's a challenge I think collectively we need to try to address given the realities that you face on the ground.

You know, he's absolutely right about everything from the large municipalities down to smaller municipalities, 444, I think it is, Kyle, across the province.

It's always a challenge in any provincial regulatory regime, that difference in capacity between big and small.

We're very aware of it in Toronto, and one of the things we try to do is contribute to our association together with some of the other large municipalities in the province to try to, uh, provide, uh, some knowledge transfer and technical transfer.

It is a real, uh, it's a real issue, and I'm fortunate to head an organization that has those resources.

It really starts with the nature of records and how the nature of records have changed.

The issues we have in access in terms of response rates and, uh, capacity really come from an explosion in the complexity of records.

And, uh, how we're managing those, and the conventional approach that's reflected in our information management schools or in our information management associations, information management practices.

I'd probably go out on a limb and say we need to start there in a way to take a look at what are public expectations about the way records are managed and how are, what resources are being allocated to the management of records.

You know, we always say here to city departments that access is easy if you've mastered the record side of things, right? If you have a good, uh, repository, the production of responsive records on the timelines, new and old, are so much easier.

But in how many Western organizations can say they manage records, uh, or any of us as executives even, that we manage records with precision? Maybe in a way we did when it was just a typewritten document, you gave it to a file clerk, and it was put in a trusted repository.

Some things are buzzing while we've been talking, and it is, uh, a little bit like we're drowning in these different forms of records.

I don't think I'm answering your question directly, but it is, to me, the future is dependent on us agreeing in the public sector, what's the right way to manage records? How do we manage the information in such a way that then access can be given to those records? Maybe there are new approaches and new thoughts on that, and that's something in the next wave we probably really need to turn our attention to while we're trying to keep our heads above water with, uh, these large percentage increases in record requests year over year.

Maybe it's the next wave of legislative amendments that will bring forth solutions.

Maybe well before then, we will have found administrative solutions, technological solutions.
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