To the editor:
Thunder Bay’s Chamber of Commerce commissioned Lakehead University’s business department to prepare a report on “City to get serious about spending control.” According to the TB Newswatch article of Jan. 17, 2014, the report claims “Thunder Bay ranks last among eight similar cities when it comes to getting bang for the taxpayers’s buck.”
Operating costs for Thunder Bay are higher than the average in 20 of 27 categories compared to other Ontario and northern cities and property taxes are among the highest in Ontario. The city over the next four-year period could be facing 7.9 per cent increases in taxation if the present trend of spending continues.
The reaction as noted in the TB Newswatch article with city manager Tim Commisso and Westfort Coun. Joe Virdiramo, “Commisso takes issue with that, as does city councillor Joe Virdiramo.”
According to city hall, the actual base property increases have been marginal but due to the accelerated infrastructure program these have contributed to higher increases.
If more public expenditures for infrastructure have been required due to prior years of neglect, under funding or whatever the rationale, they still translate into larger tax bills amounts. In total this infrastructure program expenditure is estimated at $148 million over the next four years. Debenture funding will be considered to fund this accelerated infrastructure program.
I do subscribe to the concept of effective planning as a blueprint for future community direction but has city hall oversubscribed to planning and a plethora of external consultants. There is a cost to planning but the heavier public expenditures become a financial reality as these plans become implemented.
Last April, Avi Friedman a consultant presented to council his assessment of what the city needed to improve its urban design.
The following month, the Thunder Bay District Social Services Administration Board informed council that the Royal Edward Arms was being reverted back to the city with millions required in renovations.
Remember the failure of the Atlantic Avenue sewage treatment plant in May 2012, city hall’s original estimate of $36 million for repairs was revised to $43.9 million.
Then there is that pending lawsuit of $375 million against the city with regards to the May flood.
Since the civic public purse is open, $1 million is required for upgrades to the Whalen Building. The Thunder Bay Art Gallery with a proposed relocation to the waterfront, the cost of constructing a new facility estimated at $25 million, as phase two of the waterfront development still remains an uncompleted enigma.
Brooks McIllroy consultants were hired to create a new vision of the arterial route from Simpson Street to Grenville Avenue.
We should be reminded of the proposed $106-million events centre and with regard to the Fort William Gardens, CEI Architecture has been engaged to determine its future.
But there are other operating items on the public expenditure altar, such as policing costs increasing 3.5 per cent, along with firefighters being given wage parity with their police counterparts and according to city manager Tim Commissio will result in a $6 million pay out.
It would appear that we the public are doing our part in water conservation but at a water revenue loss to the city. Therefore, water rate increases are going to be greater than originally projected, from 5.6 per cent to six per cent in 2014, 2.7 per cent to three per cent in 2015, and two per cent to three per cent in 2016.
With reference to the report by Lakehead University Business School, Tim Commissio comments that the report does not take into account $2.1 million in property assessment due to a huge spike in building permits over the past two years.
In November of last year, a city delegation was in Toronto to voice their concerns about the paper mill reassessments and the resulting impact on municipal tax bases.
Such as Thunder Bay’s Resolute Mill’s assessment would drop from $74 million to $35 million. Further to unfavourable tax assessment, Thunder Bay Terminals is facing more than $1 million in retro-active taxes which has lead to the layoff of employees. In response, Red River Coun. Brian McKinnon, “there’s nothing the city can do” and he is disappointed with the job losses.
From the province, Finance Minister Charles Sousa has granted special permission to northern municipalities facing significant drops in mill property assessments, a 15 per cent increase in industrial tax rates. As of December, our city fathers are considering their options.
Tim Commisso has stated in this regard, “the burden of the tax base is falling more onto the residential taxpayers.”
City hall should welcome this report as a non-partisan constructive analysis and an opportunity of self-examination.
A quote from Sir Winston Churchill: “Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.”
Emil Pohler,
Thunder Bay
