Faced with a proposed four-year budget increase of a cumulative 31 per cent, Chatham-Kent councillors attacked the budget with their carving knives Tuesday evening.
South Kent Coun. Anthony Ceccacci began the trimming, which turned out to be the only cutting the committee had the stomach for on the night. He believed the cushion put in place by administration to cover potential hikes to construction costs was too high. It was recommended at 2.3 per cent above the Consumer Price Index, he said.
The councillor put forward a motion to drop that cushion to one per cent above CPI.
Gord Quinton, municipal chief financial officer, said that would work out to about $953,000 less in the lifecycle budget.
“That could be less kilometres of roads resurfaced,” he said.
Ceccacci had strong support, as the motion passed.
Chatham Coun. Michael Bondy supported Ceccacci. In fact, he believed the starting point for budget deliberations was not reasonable.
“The proposed draft budget is completely unacceptable,” he said. “If you want to talk about unhoused people (there were three deputations addressing the homeless shelter on the night), we’re going to have a lot more of them because we’re going to tax people out of their house with these kinds of numbers.”
Brock McGregor, chair of the budget committee, stressed that even though the motion passed, there is still more money being allocated to infrastructure spending.
Two motions put forward by South Kent Coun. Ryan Doyle wound up on the cutting room floor, as his proposals to trim inflationary adjustment funding for asset management and to slice one third off the levy for the asset management plan were both defeated.
South Kent Coun. Trevor Thompson took the bold step to move to cut $250,000 out of the proposed police budget for each of the next four years, with the intent to defer the funding to 2028.
After extensive debate, and a comment from chief of police Gary Conn that it was possible he could take the matter to the Ontario Civilian Police Commission (OCPC) if he could not find the savings, the budget committee of council voted against Thompson’s motion by a mark of 9-7.
Thompson took his stand, he said, because it was important to seek savings from every municipal department.
“As we wrestle with the tax increase, we do need to spread that pain and cost around to as many different departments as we can,” he said.
He had support from a retired police officer who also sits at the council table – Amy Finn, who served with the Chatham and then Chatham-Kent Police Service for 30 years.
“Every year for the last five years, we’ve asked many departments to rethink some of their costs. If it can be found, I’d like to see it to be found,” she said of cost savings with the police service.
However, Conn, supported by Chatham Coun. Marjorie Crew, who sits on the police services board, said that board asked Conn to seek cost savings on five different occasions before settling on what was proposed to the budget committee.
In his report to the committee, Conn showed that the CKPS has per capita policing costs and the number of officers per 100,000 population below provincial averages.
The committee approved an increase in the police budget of 6.29 per cent next year, which translates to a 1.14 per cent tax increase and is a $2.15 million increase to the cop budget. If the committee does not revisit the police budget over the next three years of this multi-year process, the police budget will increase by more than $8 million by 2027.
In the end, after more than 280 minutes of deliberations, the committee called it quits…until Wednesday night at 6 p.m.
Notes from Day 1
• Gord Quinton, the municipality’s chief financial officer, opened the meeting declaring the province’s property tax system is “broken.
“Property owners are paying far more than what property taxes were ever meant to pay for,” he said. “This problem has been brewing for a long time.”
Quinton said in 2018, senior levels of government – the province and the federal government – provided 38 per cent of the funding the municipality spent. But by 2027, he said that percentage will have dropped to 32 per cent.
“That represents $29 million more on the backs of taxpayers here,” Quinton said. “The province really needs to come to the table here.”
There are signs the province could be open to helping out in some areas. Quinton said the Ford government recently uploaded the Gardiner Expressway and the Don Valley Parkway responsibility, taking it back from the City of Toronto.
“I think the urgency is now to call on the province to help us out,” he said.
He suggested council throws its support by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario’s call to action to the province.
• Eight people signed up to address the budget committee at the start of the meeting. The deputations included Carson Warrener, a local realtor and developer who ran unsuccessfully for a seat on council in 2021.
“This budget is not in the best interests of C-K,” he said. “It is abundantly clear that many councillors only seek adoration from administration. This budget is irresponsible, grandiose and out of touch. Council needs to look at what services are actually needed.”
Local agri-businessman Jean Marie Laprise also addressed the committee. He said the increase is not “reasonable.”
“A budget is a wish list. Sooner or later, you’ve got to live within your means,” he said. “This increase (over the four years) is about 26-per-cent above inflation. That’s not reasonable.”
Laprise said homeowners are unable to renew their mortgages as it is, and businesses are struggling.
“I can assure you they’re not in the mood for a 35-per-cent tax increase.”
