They continue to carry a greater risk.
They deserve not only our respect but also better remuneration.
This brings me to the other impacts of the pandemic.
It poses a significant challenge to council's ability to plan for the future.
We are currently starting our Long Term Plan 2021-41 with councillors working through two initial workshops so far.
The Auditor-General is taking a direct interest in how local authorities are developing their LTPs with regular guidance bulletins.
The latest bulletin touches on the quality of assumptions that underpin our LTP.
"It's not possible to predict the future, but your underlying assumptions provide your council with reference points that help direct your community and organisation into the future," noted the AG adding that these assumptions must be shaped by evidence based on the best available information at the time of preparation.
The future is uncertain and "transparency about the potential impact of that uncertainty is important" said the AG before setting out three key assumptions we should focus on.
Firstly, the Covid 19 downturn and recovery assumptions which will affect other assumptions like population increase, service demand and funding sources. It may need us to review the assumptions we had made previously like those underpinning our 2020-21 Annual Plan.
Secondly, our LTP needs to reflect the effects we expect from climate change and its impacts on council operations, service levels and our planned responses.
Thirdly, the impact of the government's reform of our three waters, "It is uncertain how, and to what extent, this proposed reform will take effect," the AG notes.
Given the timeline for this process, no one is expecting this to be resolved by our June 30, 2021, deadline to deliver the LTP.
Which means our LTP will have to assume that we will continue to supply water and wastewater services over our 2021-2041 LTP and review the LTP when the reform is completed.
In trying to rationalise our assumptions, it would be prudent to consider the impact of Saturday's election results.
The Prime Minister has said that given the majority, we can expect the government to accelerate the pace of changes it's been making. Centralisation of delivery is already happening as in the case of the reforms to the delivery of education by polytechs.
Consider also the Heather Simpson Report on health services which recommends the reduction of the number of health boards. In the three waters reform the government's intention is to centralise service delivery.
The RMA reform is looking at not only regional spatial planning but the reform panel has openly stated a need to reduce the number of local authorities.
Add that to the Minister of Local Government's statement that given the reforms the sector needs to reimagine the future shape of local government.
