Amherstburg council is taking steps to find efficiencies in the town.
It's the second phase of a service delivery review to make the town run smoother and help it save money.
The Ministry of Municipal Affairs awarded the town a $200,000 grant to hire consultants for the project near the end of 2019.
Mayor Aldo DiCarlo says the town had nearly nothing put away for a rainy day back in 2014.
After building reserves up to more than $14-million dollars, the report shows things have started to level off.
"We had some pretty good years in 2016 to 2018 but then it seems we`ve started to drop off a bit," he says. "I think it's important that we remain focused on continuing to build our reserves."
The report shows the town needs to boost its population to stay affordable for taxpayers and utilize overbuilt infrastructure.
DiCarlo says there is one big example when it comes to utilities.
"The oversized water plant that we have that can service 55,000 residents and we're only using about 20,000 of it," says DiCarlo. "We still have probably half a plant that we use and we can do that either through the town, or as the report suggests, with joint agreements with our neighbours."
He says COVID-19 will affect the final phase of the review.
"That obviously will skew the numbers. So I guess it depends on how the consultants want to proceed," he says. "I think they should be able to continue at the pace they have. We do have to have the report back to the ministry by September."
The report also points to a need for increased staffing resources, modernization and a better relationship between council and administration.
DiCarlo says many of those issues are already being worked on, but he hopes the final report will speed things along.