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Councillors face tough decisions as city wrestles with 2017 budget

Proposals include $2M for the Place des Arts, $3.6M in a special tax hike for capital programs
budget
Meeting on Tuesday, city councillors passed the $530 million base city budget, but there are still lots of difficult decisions ahead before the 2017 document is final. File photo

Meeting on Tuesday, city councillors passed the $530-million base city budget, but there are still lots of difficult decisions ahead before the 2017 document is final.

After five hours, members of the finance and administration committee made it through just 12 of 23 proposals for service level changes for next year.

The business cases, as they're known, range from $2 million in new spending to items that would be covered through reserve funds. One that was rejected Tuesday was a plan to hike fees at the Howard Armstrong Recreation Centre in Hanmer.

The proposal would have separated membership fees from swim fees, which would raise an estimated $22,500. Ward 5 Coun. Bob Kirwan said the increase would hurt families, particularly larger families who would have to pay more for each child.

“This is really unfair,” Kirwan said. “It's going to mean parents will have to decide which sessions they want to register for. We're undermining this whole approach to have healthy programs for kids.”

And Ward 6 Coun. René Lapierre, whose ward includes the centre, said it's the most used recreation centre in the city, in part because of the combined memberships.

“It's not costing us an extravagant amount of money ... to keep our resident healthy,” Lapierre said. “We're encouraging our residents to go there and be healthy (so) I don't see why a change would be required.”

Ward 11 Coun. Lynne Reynolds said costs at recreation centres should be harmonized.

“The fees should be the same across the city,” Reynolds said.

“I think we need to consider both sides,” agreed Mayor Brian Bigger, who suggested they should get a report on fees across the city and consider including swimming in all family passes, not just at Howard Armstrong.

In the end, the fee increase was defeated 12-1, with staff directed to prepare a report on harmonizing fees.

One proposal that was approved was an increase in the cost of the city's summer programs, delivered at 25 playgrounds across Greater Sudbury. Raising the fee by $50 for the eight-week program – of $6.25 per week – would raise $35,900, offsetting the loss in provincial grants and bringing the cost recovery of the program to 86 per cent, a target set three years ago.

Kirwan again was the councillor who pulled the item, arguing any increase would hurt low-income families.

“For the sake of $35K we're not getting from the government anymore, we should leave the rates where they are,” he said. “There are so many families that rely on this. It would harm the children.”

But Ward 8 Coun. Al Sizer said people that it's time to change the way the city delivers these sorts of programs.

“There are a lot of people in this city that can afford these increases,” Sizer said, adding there are more that can afford it than can't.

The city needs to look at ways to help poorer families, while ensuring those that can afford to pay a little more do so.

“We have to look at some sort of a means test,” he said. “It bothers me we can't help those who can't afford it, and those that can get the same break.”

“This is not an exorbitant increase,” for most families, agreed Ward 12 Coun. Joscelyne Landry-Altmann.

It's important to maintain the programs everywhere in the city, she said, and for neighbourhoods where the “economic reality” is more difficult should have access to special programs.

Ward 10 Coun. Fern Cormier agreed.

“I think it's vital that we start looking at means testing,” Cormier said. “I think it could work very well for this, as well as across the board for all our services.”

Councillors approved the fee increase, as well as a report on a program to help low-income Sudburians, which should be ready in a couple of months.

A plan to buy four more new snowplows at a cost of $1 million was deferred until a staff report is prepared to compare the cost of leasing the new vehicles versus buying them is prepared. Greater Sudbury is already buying four new plows this year, so the proposal was to increase the number of new plows in 2017 to eight.

Ron Henderson, the director of citizen services, said the city currently has 40 snowplows, 16 of them are more than seven years old.

"We know from experience that, once a plow gets to that age, our mechanics have a difficult time keeping them on the road. It's very expensive to keep them on the road," Henderson said. "It's not going to solve the problem entirely, but it's a step in the right direction."

"The last thing we want to have is plows broken down on the side of the road," said Ward 1 Coun. Mark Signoretti.

But, he said, it may save money to lease the vehicles and he wanted to delay the decision until the report is ready. Henderson said that, since it takes a long time to order and fit the plows, the new vehicles wouldn't be ready until the winter of 2018. So the delay won't affect when the plows go into operation.

Some wanted to wait until they get a report on whether there's benefit to leasing them.

Councillors meet again Dec. 14 in another attempt to finalize the 2017 budget. 

Items still to be decided include:

  • $350,000 for the city's community improvement plan, which offers incentives to upgrade buildings;
  • $150,00 to recruit physicians to the area;
  • $275,000 for strategic planning studies;
  • $100,000 to offer free transit for seniors on Mondays; and,
  • $2 million for the Place des Arts, one of the big projects councillors supported in a meeting late in 2015.

In addition to those proposals, councillors will decide whether to impose a 1.5 per cent additional tax hike, which would raise $3.6 million a year that could be spent on projects directly, or be used to leverage $50 million in debt financing.


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Darren MacDonald

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