With a 2022 budget punching in at $661 million, mayoral candidate Miranda Rocca-Circelli is questioning whether the City of Greater Sudbury has been fiscally responsible.
The previous year’s budget saw the city spend $641 million.
“With such high spending, it would be reasonable to expect that the condition of the city’s assets, such as infrastructure, should be improving year to year,” she said in a media release.
“Unfortunately, the city’s assets continue to deteriorate and the infrastructure deficit continues to grow.”
The City of Greater Sudbury currently requires an additional $100 million per year to maintain assets in their current condition, according to a city report issued last year. This would require a tax increase of approximately 33 per cent if placed solely on the property tax levy.
Although various numbers have been ascribed to it over the years and its fluid nature calls the figure to question, the city currently estimates its infrastructure deficit to be approximately $1 billion.
“If we are ever to get our infrastructure renewal on track, we will need to get our spending under control, and refocused on the needs and not wants to best serve our community,” she said.
“To that end, I am proposing a spending freeze on all non-essential or non-mandated programs and projects. Municipal taxpayers should be funding only mandated and essential services until we can identify cost savings.”
As mayor, Rocca-Circelli would push for the city to adopt zero-based budgeting, which would require departments to justify every budgetary item from the ground up.
“Programs and services that are not provincially or federally mandated should not be funded by private property tax revenues,” she said, pointing to Pioneer Manor as an example.
Since it’s the province that controls admittance on a come/need basis, she said it’s unfair Greater Sudbury residents should pay for the facility when those from outside the city might take priority.
“Why not enter into discussions with the province to acquire Pioneer Manor and place the financial burden where it belongs with the province instead of the city?” she said, urging the city to spread its cost among all Ontarians rather than just Greater Sudburians.
Although not mentioned in her media release, city council has also pushed forward with the supervised consumption site at Energy Court off Lorne Street and a 40-unit transitional housing complex on Lorne Street to help shift the chronically homeless into permanent community housing.
Both facilities’ operations are under the province’s jurisdiction, but city council pushed forward with them anyway due to what they considered Greater Sudbury’s urgent need for them in light of the homelessness and opioid crises.
Mayor Brian Bigger has been advocating for the province to fund these facilities’ operations, including at a recent Association of Municipalities Ontario conference.
Both facilities are expected to come up during 2023 budget deliberations.
Despite Rocca-Circelli’s push for the City of Greater Sudbury to get its spending under control, the current city council has already provided administration with similar direction.
In June, city council told administration to do what they can to shave $16.3 million from the 2023 budget in order to achieve a 3.7 per cent tax increase in 2023.
For the mayor’s seat, Rocca-Circelli is running against Bigger, Evelyn Dutrisac, Don Gravelle, Bob Johnston, Devin Labranche, Paul Lefebvre, and Mila Wong. Convicted purveyor of hate speech and perennial fringe candidate David Popescu is also running.
