After a week of chipping away at the 2023 draft budget, Collingwood town staff came back with a tax hike that amounts to a 3.86 per cent increase for the taxpayer.
However, during Monday’s (Jan. 16) special strategic initiatives standing committee meeting, council opted to continue cutting beyond the staff recommendations, bringing the increase down further to 2.73 per cent by pumping the brakes on some new staff positions.
For staff to get the budget down from a 4.92 per cent increase suggested in the third draft, they proposed two options for council’s consideration on Monday: to reduce the budget to a 3.86 per cent increase (cutting $625,000 in spending from the previous draft) or a 3.26 per cent increase (cutting $400,000 in spending).
The difference between the two options is the first allowed the town to set aside more money to mitigate the difficulties the town is experiencing with asset management, affordable housing and ongoing inflation.
“When I’m looking at the difference between Option A and Option B, we’re talking about a dollar a month. That’s less than a cup of coffee,” said Treasurer Monica Quinlan. “Nobody wants to pay taxes, but taxes are a way for us to do great things together.”
Based on staff's proposal of a 3.86 per cent tax increase for Collingwood residents in 2023, the taxes for a median assessed home ($327,000) would increase by about $90 for the year, which is about double from the $45 for the same priced home in 2022.
“These small changes help a long way in the future,” she said.
In order the achieve the overall reduction from the third draft of the budget, staff took $250,000 from the Grain Terminals Project reserve, proposed a reduction in the cost of a new urban forestry unit by delaying hiring which would save $84,000 and other smaller cuts to projects such as traffic studies for certain streets and deferral of the zoning bylaw update.
However, council didn’t stop there.
To kick off discussions on Monday, Mayor Yvonne Hamlin proposed eliminating a new staff position for a fleet and facilities coordinator at a cost of $115,000, and move it to the 2024 budget for consideration, which was passed unanimously.
“There are no new buildings and the position is currently covered,” said Hamlin. “In a year where we’re trying to keep our budget as low as possible, this is one position we could see if we could defer until next year.”
Coun. Kathy Jeffery also spoke in favour of the deferral.
“I think there’s value to what is being suggested overall by staff, but... council is being asked to fix an awful lot of things in one budget and I don’t think we can be all things to all people,” said Jeffery. “It’s a difficult budget at a difficult time.”
Also cut by council for 2023 was a line item to eliminate two summer students from the bylaw department and instead hire one full-time bylaw officer, with an additional cost of $55,000.
Clerk Sara Almas said the change was requested as the town has increased work demand on the bylaw department mainly due to changes in waterfront paid parking, and that staffing for the department has stayed mostly stagnant over the past 14 years, from 6.5 bylaw officers employed by the town in 2009, to six employed today.
“At this time, we are struggling to stay abreast of complaints,” said Almas. “I don’t think we can squeeze any more water from this sponge.”
Council voted 8-1 to eliminate the full-time bylaw position, and stick with the two summer student positions, with Hamlin opposed.
The first draft of Collingwood’s 2023 budget proposed back in November included just "unavoidable increases," which proposed a 1.78 per cent tax increase.
The first draft also included a list of value-added items (also called items for consideration), some proposed by staff, and some the result of council requests from the previous year. Staff informed council that approving the list in its entirety would bring the tax rate increase to 5.15 per cent or higher, depending on which priorities council decided were most important to add this coming year.
These items include $314,000 added to the asset management plan reserve, $305,000 toward an urban forestry unit and $91,000 toward a transit coordinator position.
During second-draft discussions on Dec. 5, council voted to eliminate items such as $65,000 for a fireworks drone show, $100,000 for a heritage review, $50,000 in continued support for the urban economy forum and $12,000 for new software for social media monitoring. At that time, however, they voted in favour of bumping the affordable housing reserve up from $125,000 to $350,000 in 2023.
Council's votes to include the value-added items brought the proposed tax rate up to 4.92 per cent.
On Jan. 9, council voted to send the entire budget back to staff to reduce the tax rate by at least one per cent, in part by allocating funds from the terminals revitalization reserve.
On Monday, Deputy Mayor Tim Fryer also put a motion on the floor to remove the full-time transit coordinator position at a cost of $91,000.
“Ridership is down significantly,” said Fryer. “It’s a very difficult portfolio.”
Currently, to manage transit in Collingwood, there is one staff person who devotes a portion of their time to the public works department, and a portion of their time to transit. If the position had been approved, the existing staff member would have moved back to public works full-time, and a new person hired to take on transit.
Fryer said the overall contract for transit between the town and Landmark has increased this year from $1.2 million to $1.9 million.
“At this point in time, I just can’t add further to that,” he said.
Coun. Rob Ring proposed that the existing staff member should take on the full transit load, and public works absorb the work back into their department.
Chief Administrative Officer Sonya Skinner cautioned against the overall reluctance to add new staff in 2023, and said the transit coordinator position was likely the most important in the 2023 budget, noting it would be necessary to ensure the move to on-demand transit be successful, the launch of which has been delayed.
“We have been growing very fast. We’re one of the fastest-growing municipalities in Canada. We’ve had a budget that was effectively negative over the past five years,” said Skinner. “The real question is, what does it cost to get the work done?”
“We have some concerns and we will have to do some reports back to you about the level of service,” she said. “I will need to come back to you to talk about what work we will not be able to get done.”
Council voted 6-3 in favour of eliminating the new transit position in the 2023 budget (Coun. Christopher Baines, Coun. Deb Doherty and Hamlin opposed).
“If we’re eliminating this position...we’re setting ourselves up for failure,” said Doherty.
Coun. Steve Perry put forward a motion to add a part-time position for a transit co-ordinator back into the budget at a cost of $45,000, which passed by a vote of 7-2 (Fryer and Ring opposed).
The 2023 draft budget accounts for $133.7 million in spending, with about a 50-50 split for capital versus operating costs.
As part of Monday’s discussion, council also voted 8-1 in favour (Fryer opposed) of having staff and consultant reports brought back to council on the formation of the urban forestry unit at a later time for approval, prior to the hiring of staff for the department.
A fifth draft of the 2023 budget will be brought forward at the Jan. 30 council meeting, and, if approved, will be ratified at that meeting.
You can review the 220-page fourth draft of the town's 2023 budget here.
