The Town of BWG began 2022 budget deliberations on Monday – but they were deliberations with a difference.
Councillors were in fact revisiting the 2022 operating and capital budgets approved back in 2019 as part of the town’s first multi-year budget – a process designed to support long-term planning.
Except that 2020 and 2021 were not normal tax years. Instead, noted CAO Geoff McKnight, the town “found ourselves halfway through 2020 in the midst of a global pandemic.”
Lockdowns, unemployment, economic disruptions – the municipality decided to hold the line on taxes, mitigating the impact of the pandemic on residents and businesses.
“That was accomplished,” said McKnight, by cutting expenditures, freezing hiring where possible, deferring projects, and offsetting lost revenues with COVID-related grants from the Province and federal government.
“I think we actually ended up with an actual decrease (in the property tax) for 2021,” he noted.
The forecast for 2022 is “much more optimistic.” With the lifting of COVID restrictions, reopening facilities and programs, and a “return to a relatively normal state of service delivery,” McKnight said, “We think we’ll return to a closer baseline, that was approved in 2019” – and a tax hike.
Both the original operating budget, adopted on Dec. 17, 2019, when the average Bradford home was assessed at $481,892, and the revised version now under review contains a hit for homeowners – proposing an overall increase of over four percent, and adding over $216 to the average property tax bill.
If things had gone as planned in 2019, the average homeowner would have paid $4,981.27 in taxes in 2021 - increasing to $5,197.90 in 2022, with a forecasted 5.02 percent hike in the total municipal-related levy, 3.12 percent hike in the police levy, 5.32 percent rise in county taxes, and 1.89 percent increase in education levy.
The overall total 4.35 percent hike would have added $216.62 to the property tax bill.
While the current value assessment of an average home in BWG increased to $516,919 in 2020, the town, county and province all held the line on taxes. The average BWG homeowner paid $4,750.23 in property taxes in 2020 – a figure that dropped to $4,745.61 in 2021.
Staff went back and reviewed the $5,197.90 property tax total proposed in 2019. Although the 2022 Municipal Operating budget has increased by $40,000 to $23.236 million, the total property tax on an average home has dropped to $4,962.12, thanks to growth – still adding $216.51 to the average tax bill, a 4.56 percent hike year over year.
That breaks down to $84.73 more for the municipal levy, an $11.30 increase in the Library budget, $63.22 in new Special Capital levies (previously frozen at 2020 levels) for Asset Replacement and a new Administration building, a $28.98 increase in the cost of policing (up 4.54 percent), and $28.28 hike in the County levy (a 2 percent increase).
Director of Finance Ian Goodfellow noted that senior staff have worked hard to ensure that the revised 2022 operating budget reflects the needs of the community while holding the line on increases.
“We are back in line with where we thought we would be two years ago,” he said.
Most of the increase in 2022 comes from new hires, increases to COLA (Cost of Living Allowance), unavoidable increases in contractual services and supplies, and a spike in insurance costs.
The draft 2022 operating budget also reinstates a number of expenditures cut or frozen in 2021, and it was in those areas and the proposed new hires, that Council began looking for additional savings on Monday.
Coun. Jonathan Scott led the charge, targeting departmental budgets for mileage, training, materials and supplies, subscriptions, and increased banking fees.
In particular, the $77,000 in banking fees budgeted for Community Services (including leisure services and programs) was questioned.
“Every transaction has a fee associated with it now,” explained Director of Community Services Terry Foran, especially since his department’s old online booking system is no longer supported, and the service has had to switch to a new provider. “Unfortunately, every transaction, every credit card does have a ‘touch’.”
“The fees are dictated to us,” said Goodfellow, noting that while there are no extra charges with a basic credit or debit card, in the case of premium cards, “the vendors pay for the rewards programs.”
Coun. Scott and Peter Dykie Jr. both urged the municipality to “look for savings – how we could do the same service for less money” and cut back on fees, in the future.
Proposed cuts were “parked” in a virtual parking lot, to be discussed later in the budget talks. The cuts included:
. $10,000 from Council’s Materials and Supplies budget.
. $500 from Mileage and Training, and $600 from Subscriptions, in the Budget of the CAO – although McKnight warned that as services return to normal, “there will be a need for those funds again.”
. $2,000 from the budget for bank fees in Corporate Services, with a suggestion the funds could be found elsewhere.
. $3,000 from IT’s budget for Training
. $2,000 from Materials and Supplies for Fire & Emergency Services.
. Adding $40,000 to ‘Other Revenues’ (e.g. sponsorships) for Special Events.
. Cutting Miscellaneous Expenses by $13,000, in the Leisure Services Facilities budget, bringing the budget line back with 2019 numbers.
. $4,000 from the budget for a chemical needed for the wastewater treatment, although the increase in cost “is a direct result of commodity supply. Every wastewater treatment plant that requires it is dealing with this cost, a 60 percent increase since 2018,” council was told. Coun. Contois suggested the “healthy reserves” for wastewater should be used to offset the increase.
Requests for new hires prompted extensive debate.
The BWG Library Board asked for a Manager of Cultural Services ($92,600 per annum salary and benefits) and Cultural Assistant ($26,000 salary and benefits), to develop the Cultural Centre aspect of the library, and work with town committees to raise the profile of culture, “getting to the roots of what the community itself needs and wants,” said Library CEO Matthew Corbett.
Coun. Gary Lamb supported both hires but suggested that the town could save $50,000 by not filling the positions until the second half of the year.
Deputy Mayor James Leduc opposed hiring a manager, proposing that the work could be done by a part-time employee – but Coun. Scott responded that a new program can’t be driven by a junior part-time person.
“I think the library and cultural centre has been operated as a library for the past ten years and has been volunteer-driven,” said Scott, arguing in favour of hiring a manager partway through the year, to develop the program and decide at a later date when an assistant is needed.
In the end, both positions were listed in the “parking lot”, with a suggestion that at least $55,000 be cut from the 2022 budget for the hires.
There was a similar debate around two new positions in Leisure services – a Recreation Programmer for adults/older adult programming; and an Inclusion Coordinator to ensure inclusion, equity and diversity in programming. Each programmer position would pay salary and benefits totalling $93,620.
Earlier in the debate, Coun. Gary Lamb had warned that the municipality already has had issues of inclusion and accessibility, that need to be addressed. “Not yet a crisis, but it could be,” Lamb said. “In light of what was said to us in the past and what we were told we have to do…. it’s really important to have those things.”
“I can’t believe we didn’t have one already,” said Coun. Scott of the coordinator position. “I think it’s a great use of money.”
Foran noted that last year, there were 400 individual requests to address physical, economic, or cultural barriers, largely in aquatic and fitness programming. The Inclusion Coordinator would assist supervisors in meeting those requests but also work as part of the corporate team to develop a culture of inclusion.
Several councillors suggested the need for a corporate-wide position, rather than a Leisure Services programmer. “I don’t think this position fills the need,” said Mayor Rob Keffer, questioning the hire at a time when facilities have been closed for 18 months.
Deputy Mayor Leduc agreed, arguing that there are “other strategies to deliver this inclusiveness,” rather than a new hire in Leisure Services.
The $93,620 for the Inclusion Coordinator was “parked” in the parking lot.
“I think we all support the position. It’s just a matter of how it’s done,” said Coun. Mark Contois.
A Senior Compliance Officer for Community Services, to coordinate new provincial requirements in water, wastewater and especially stormwater systems was also challenged.
Total salary and benefits would come to $107,349, of which a portion would be paid through water and wastewater rates, but $77,770 would be paid through property taxes.
“I would question whether we need a full-time compliance person,” said Mayor Keffer, noting that the department already has two compliance officers, for water and wastewater.
Foran pointed out that the senior position would provide oversight and coordination while dealing with the heavy workload of monitoring, auditing and writing stormwater reports.
“This whole system will be regulated as stringently as a water system,” Foran said, calling it a “full download” of responsibility from the province. “It’s going to take an exceptional amount of work. This is only Step One.”
Deputy Mayor Leduc suggested hiring a co-op student instead, to map out the stormwater systems.
Foran explained that the mapping has been done; what is needed is oversight and management. “It’s a very, very complex problem that we’re going to have to navigate through,” involving quality management, audits, monitoring and the generation of detailed reports, he warned.
“Compliance is a huge issue,” said Coun. Lamb. He noted that before Walkerton, “nobody knew where the buck stopped. Now it stops at the mayor’s desk. We as a Council are on the hook for whatever decisions we make for water and wastewater. We have a responsibility. Let’s ensure we have the best compliance we can get. We have to show stewardship.”
The position was also “parked” in the parking lot for further discussion.
Other changes – increasing planning revenues by $250,000 in 2022, cutting $40,000 from the revenue-neutral Development Engineering outsourcing budget; correcting a nearly $100,000 accounting error in estimating the cost of a new Building Inspector; removing about $20,000 from the communications, materials and supplies for the building department – will have no impact on property taxes.
The Planning, Engineering and Development, and Building Departments are all operated on a full cost-recovery basis, not property taxes.
In the end, Council identified over $400,000 in potential cuts for the “parking lot.”
Mayor Keffer wanted to know what it would take to reduce the overall tax increase from 4.56 percent, to 3 percent.
“A little more than $1 million,” said Goodfellow. “We need to dive even deeper into our own pockets.”
The Budget discussions were set to continue for the next two days, with the 2022 Capital Budget and business plan, and the “Parking Lot” items still on the agenda. The meetings are streamed live on the Town’s YouTube Channel.
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