Established in 2021 by Jim Harnum, Municipal VU Consulting Inc. (MVU) is a privately owned management consulting and engineering firm focused exclusively on the municipal sector. Based in Oakville, Ontario, we offer a different kind of consultancy, one that begins by deeply understanding our clients’ operational realities, assets, governance structures, challenges, and political environments before offering advice. This ensures our recommendations are not only technically sound, but also contextually grounded, operationally feasible, and politically implementable.

MVU was founded to fill a clear gap in the market: the need for consulting advice that reflects how municipalities actually function. We are not your typical consultants. Our firm is led by former municipal leaders, engineers, and management professionals who have lived the complexities of delivering services, managing infrastructure, navigating budgets, and working with Councils. We’ve been in your seat, and it shows in the work we do.

We are purposely scaled. As a smaller but growing and highly focused firm, our core strategy is to assemble agile, tailored teams for each client, which sometimes will include trusted advisors and subject matter experts.

We bring strategic insight but always with a practical lens:

• Former municipal leaders: Our team includes former commissioners, directors, and senior managers across Public Works, Finance, IT, Fleet, Facilities, and Engineering. We understand how decisions are made, how services are delivered, and what it takes to implement change.
• Lean and on-point: We don’t bring prepackaged solutions. We scale teams based on need, working only with experts who are trusted, aligned, and proven. You’ll never get more consultants than you need.
• Flexible tools and methods: Whether using our own frameworks or adapting to your systems and ways of working, we meet clients where they are and build from there.
• Collaborative and grounded: Our strength lies in working collaboratively with each other and our clients. We combine perspectives, challenge assumptions, and work shoulder-to-shoulder to co-create deliverables that are insightful, relevant, and ready to be acted upon.

We focus on what we do best: helping municipalities plan smarter, govern better, and operate more effectively. Our consulting work spans management and engineering services with an emphasis on strategy, people, assets, and business processes. Recent projects include strategic and business planning, operational reviews and modernization, alternative service delivery model evaluation, organizational design, asset and infrastructure management, financial and rate strategy, digital automation and transformation, talent and change management, and climate action and resilience planning

Whether we are advising on governance, leading process transformation, or supporting infrastructure planning, our commitment is to deliver advice that gets used, not shelved. We’re proud to serve municipalities across Ontario and are trusted by clients who value practical, thoughtful, and forward-looking solutions.