Thunder Bay City Council
has made the effort to address the rising level of taxes and expenditures in
its most recent budget deliberations on Wednesday evening this week which apparently
lasted eight hours. The Administration
was directed to find options for about $3 million in savings and they
responded with a tiered list of three categories ranging from the least
to the most intrusive that totaled $4.8 million. The reductions
approved by Council from the first list alone amounted to almost $1.7 million and among the items
that were eliminated (as listed in a CBC report) were:
- $150,000 for consultation and study for increased monitoring of area waterways and other open spaces
- $16,500 that will reduce family swim hours at Churchill Pool and hours of operation for the thunder slide at the Canada Games Complex
- $330,000 for the purchase of a new pumper truck for Thunder Bay Fire Rescue
- $20,700 for the city to hang Christmas lights in the downtown south core and Westfort and for the installation of hanging baskets in the two cores
- $45,000 in reductions to city budgets for WSIB and overtime.
As well, several vacant city positions were eliminated. However, some of the reductions in other
services in the other more “intrusive” categories such as the elimination of
weekend residential street snow or sidewalk plowing were not accepted.
When all was said and done, the increase in the total tax
levy was brought down from initial 3.3 percent (that had actually jumped
to 3.69 percent) – to 2.29 – that is from $195.9 million to $194.1 million –
about $1.8 million dollars. That does
not seem like a lot because there was also the addition of about $1 million in
new spending for police services (the jump to 3.69 percent) as a result of the need to deal with the
recommendations of the Ontario Independent Police Review Director on the
relations between the police and Indigenous people. The budget still has to be ratified and that
vote is scheduled for February 11th.
So, while an effort was made to restrain spending, when
you look at the updated figures (See Figures 1 & 2) that include the original proposed increases
and the new revised January 30th figures, there is still work to be
done. The new revised budget figures
still entail an increase in the total tax levy though the rate of increase is now much
closer to the inflation rate and lower than the average increase of 3.9 percent
over the period 2000 to 2018.
It remains that despite what seem like numerous reductions
to many items, there is still more tax revenue needed. The City Budget is in some ways analogous to
our hydro and water bills where even after people reduce their usage considerably,
the total bill still goes up because of “fixed costs.” Indeed, what has been done in the most recent
budget meeting can best be termed as dealing with the “low hanging
fruit.” A more substantive effort
requires a comprehensive expenditure and service review that needs to consider more substantial long-term changes.
Among these, there does need to be a review of
services like snow removal or garbage collection or transit that examines how
they can be done with less money while preserving a core service requirement. There
needs to be a review of overall city staffing that can start with a hiring freeze
and reduction of the total complement via attrition with restructuring of
management of services and service delivery so that fewer people – including managers
- are required.
As retirements occur, management
departments could be amalgamated. A glance at the City organizational chart shows numerous divisions within each category and one wonders for example why under Corporate Services and Long-Term Care there are separate divisions for Financial Service, Revenue and Internal Audit given that they are all finance related. Why is the Waterfront Coordinator not under Tourism Thunder Bay? Why is there a Central Support division in Community Services and another in Infrastructure and Operations? There is both a Corporate Strategic Services block as well as a Corporate Projects division in Community Services. There may well be good reasons for some of these organizational patterns but they do need to be reviewed and examined for efficiencies.
In terms of services, weekly winter garbage collection – say from November to 1st to March 30th could probably be changed to every two weeks with a three can limit every collection period. This would reduce the core staff required with the uptake in summer filled by summer seasonal student workers when weekly two can limit service resumes. Snow removal on weekends in residential neighborhoods could be moved from the current 5cm threshold to 10 cm which could help reduce overtime costs.
In terms of services, weekly winter garbage collection – say from November to 1st to March 30th could probably be changed to every two weeks with a three can limit every collection period. This would reduce the core staff required with the uptake in summer filled by summer seasonal student workers when weekly two can limit service resumes. Snow removal on weekends in residential neighborhoods could be moved from the current 5cm threshold to 10 cm which could help reduce overtime costs.
In short, Council has made a start but there is still
more to be done after this year’s budget is passed.
