2017 budget passes with 2nd lowest increase in 15 years

After seven months of deliberation, meetings, heated debates, number crunching and everything in between, Timmins city council has passed the 2017 budget.

By a slim 4-3 vote, it passed Monday night at a 2.41% increase—or just around $1.67-million dollars.

That makes it the second lowest increase in the last 15 years.

(See chart below.)

Timmins Mayor Steve Black expressed optimism that despite some councillors not being happy with an increase, having this low of an increase is a testament to the work put into the budget.

He says councillors had their opportunity last Thursday to look at any item on the budget and table their own ideas too.

“We had three additions tabled to the budget, which were all added and we had one cut that was rejected,” the Mayor added, “So I think we’re at a point in time where there’s nothing being tabled constructively to actually look at and review cutting, that we should approve the budget and allow staff to move on with the functions of a day-to-day municipality, knowing that the budget is in place and they have some dollars to work with.”

However, the increase stat above is nothing more than a “catchy headline,” according to Councillor Rick Dubeau in a post-council chat with Rogers Media.

(Catchy headline? Yes, we’re using it.)

Dubeau explains the 2.41% doesn’t factor in the MPAC assessment for homes among other things. And for some, their increase could go up as high as 4.6% and beyond.

He also notes the value of homes are going down and that in itself is a concern in the community.

“I’m paying less, I know a lot of my friends are. If you go over $190,000, those homes have gone down in value,” he said.

“Being optimistic with a 2.41 (per cent increase) when the average person’s cost of living (increase) is 1.45% and a lot of people are on a fixed income, and we raised our water and sewer (rate) by five per cent, optimistic is a nice word.”

Flat out, Dubeau says council “failed” in their search for savings.

He says there’s many big ticket items that didn’t need to stay in the 2017 budget, like the Hollinger grandstands, which he describes as more of a “nice to have.”

“The study on the Golden Manor, which is something that we have to have done, maybe, by 2024, maybe…and we got a provincial election next year. We know that new governments come in and they have different priorities, this is going to change too,” Dubeau adds.

“There are a number of ‘C’ homes in the province of Ontario still haven’t been done, that must be done. We have a ‘B’ home, so the 2024 deadline is a very soft deadline. It’s a big maybe, so why are we spending $300,000 right now, which is almost half a percent of a tax increase for our citizens, when we don’t need to be doing it?”

He also took issue with the city’s reserve fund, a fund that is well below where Treasurer Jim Howie would want it.

“Our reserves are at $3.2-million. Our Treasurer recommends that our reserves should be at $21-million,” the Ward 5 councillor added.

The main sticking point to that is council’s decision to take $1-million dollars from the fund to go towards the Aquatic Centre.

But the big thing on his mind was a motion to reduce department budgets by two per cent, something that didn’t come to fruition.

“(The rest of council) can say I’m being sanctimonious, I’m being consistent,” Dubeau says, “ I’ve been consistent since the fall, I asked for a minus two, it was ignored.”

“And it’s not up to me to find all the savings from every department. How am I supposed to find savings from any particular department, that’s impossible.”

“That’s the department heads’ area of expertise, they can identify, they can prioritize what is a must-have and we go down from there, then you give a list to council and then we pick what is least important to each of these organizations. And that was passed by a majority of council back in the fall, and no plan was put in place.”

He wasn’t the only one up in arms. In fact, it was widely expressed by councillors that nobody was happy having an increase whatsoever.

But as Councillor Joe Campbell put during the meeting, they’re too late in the stages to make drastic changes now.

So we will see what council has in store for the 2018 budget, which by the way, starts in about six months from now.

CLICK HERE to see the discussion at council, under Item 6A.

In the end, here’s how the votes broke down:

• For: Mayor Black, Councillors Bamford, Campbell and Farrell
• Against: Councillors Dubeau, Rinaldo and Wawrzaszek

Not present at council were Councillors Mike Doody and Andrew Marks.