The 2019 City Budget was officially approved on Tuesday at the City Council meeting.

The combined operating and capital budgets for 2019 is $72.7 million.

The net expenditure increased by 1.74 per cent and the combined operating and capital budgets increased by $1.2 million compared to 2018.

Mayor George Pirie commented on Tuesday that getting the budget approved was the top priority for the council meeting, and it’s been a long time coming.

“The priority of tonight’s meeting was to get the budget passed.” he said, “We’ve been at it for quite some time. We have had a number of sessions with council. And it’s April the 9th. We’ve got a deadline of April 23rd, I think. So we’ve had a number of information sessions and education sessions for the council.”

The council has had the budget information for quite some time, with the last formal budget meeting taking place on March 18th.

“Today, it’s just time to get it passed,” said Pirie.

The Mayor is pleased with the new city budget and the staff that put it together.

“I’m proud. I’m very happy, more than happy. Pleased, I guess, for the leadership that Dave (Landers) has set. And for the example the department heads have shown with their individual staff,” he said.

Some highlights from the new city budget includes an 11.7 per cent ($57,800) increase for council honorariums to ensure council’s take-home pay remained the same and some changes with the Canada Revenue Agency.

Other highlights include funding for new positions within the city. These positions include a new communications director at city hall, and a regulations officer for enforcement services, which would be a shared hire with the Mattagami Region Conservation Authority.

The public works department will also have a new utility technician, there will be a new parks and recreation manager, a full-time dispatcher for Timmins Transit, as well as a full-time driver. Funding was also made available for a recreational therapist for the Golden Manor, which will also be funded by the Northeast Local Health Integration Network. There is also a request for a summer student for the planning department.

Some big purchases will be taking up some of the city budget in the coming year. These capital purchases include $250,000 for repairs on the McIntyre Headframe, $500,000 for the Archie Dillon Sportsplex roof membrane, $350,000 for landfill gas system installation, $650,000 for a pumper truck for the fire department, and $487,000 for bridge repairs.

Mayor Pirie says, while there are challenges ahead, he is happy with the improvements these changes for the city will bring.

“It’s uncertain times in the city of Timmins,” he said, “and we don’t know exactly where we’ll be with the number of our bigger players in the region. We’ve talked about that on an ongoing basis, where that might lead us from an overall tax revenue point of view. So consequently, starting off this year with this process and looking at continuous improvement, I’m very happy with the results that have been shown to us through the leadership of the administration.”

 

Not everything proposed for the new budget made the cut. Councilor Joe Campbell tried to have $100,000 added at the last minute for the Victor M. Power airport to have an accessible washroom installed. The motion was not passed, but Pirie says he still hopes people are happy with what is included.

“Hopefully they’re happy with the budget. Hopefully they’re happy with everything in the budget. There are some things, obviously, that you heard today that were offered up and won’t be in the budget. That’s not to say that they won’t happen, but we need to see some final engineering on that before simply adding those amounts at the end of the budget right now.”

 

 

–With files from Timmins Today

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