Only about 30 citizens showed up for the municipal budget open house held Jan. 25 at the Active Lifestyles Centre in Chatham.
But two of those asked pointed and passionate questions about municipal spending.
One of those was Belinda Keith, a local paramedic. Keith asked why an additional land ambulance wasn’t even in administration’s recommendations for the 2018 budget.
“Adding that vehicle is so important to our community,” she said. “It doesn’t change how I do my job, but that unit changes the patient’s outcome. The investment comes in the lives we save.”
Keith said the additional unit is needed, as over the past 12 years, there has been no increase in the level of service provided by local paramedics, yet calls have risen by 11 per cent.
The costs associated with adding an additional ambulance and staffing it is roughly $1.4 million.
Keith said to the public, that would translate to roughly an extra $10 or so a year to each citizen.
“That’s an extra $10 per person per year to make sure an ambulance shows up,” she said. “The hardest part of my job is to deal with angry people who are asking us why we took so long to get there.”
Bob Crawford, chief of fire and emergency services for the municipality, said he sees the issue as a “looming problem,” but added the $1.4 million cost represents a one per cent tax increase on its own.
“We’re examining all possible ways to see if there are other ways to reduce the workload,” he said. “We’re trying to find a more effective and efficient way to do things.”
Keith believes waiting to act is only making things worse.
“We have to do something before we start drowning here. We’re treading water as it is,” she said.
Derek Robertson, chair of the budget committee of municipal council, said council is focused on the issue.
“We have a keen eye on the very services you are talking about,” he said.
Robertson added administration is not to blame as the reason another ambulance isn’t in the list of recommendations it brought forward, as council set the direction and indicated to administration the threshold to set for spending, as well as areas of highest need.
Administration and members of council present at the meeting also heard from local resident John Cryderman, who said he believes there is too much in discretionary dollars floating around in the annual municipal budget, alluding to inefficiency and overspending.
He said in going over the budget – and he purchased a budget binder from the municipality – he found nearly $17 million in spending listed only as “other,” as well as an additional $9 million that has an internal designation.
Cryderman added it’s hard for the average citizen to understand where the tax dollars are going.
“These budget meetings are about as exciting as watching paint dry,” he said. “It doesn’t give people a chance to understand and have input. We need a clear and complete profit and loss statement.”
Mike Turner, chief financial officer for the municipality said the vast majority of the dollars Cryderman questioned go to various municipal reserve funds or as allocations to other departments within the municipality.
“They aren’t expenses, so they are tagged with ‘other,’” he said.
Turner added council is apprised of all spending, and that information is available to the public.
Cryderman said it remains confusing to the public. He’d like to see three levels of budget information, the first being an overview, the second detailing spending in all 21 divisions and six departments of the municipality, and the third being a line-by-line breakdown of spending.
Turner said the first two are available on the chatham-kent.ca website.
Municipal budget deliberations are set to start Jan. 30.
