The city’s budget process is a long and arduous one.
It’s also complicated.
At $225 million and change, it’s the financial document that lays out what will and won’t get done next year, subject to council’s approval.
On Tuesday a number of councillors took advantage of an afternoon session at city hall that saw representatives of municipal departments gather in one room and make themselves available to answer questions that have arisen since the tentative document was released earlier this month.
Current River Coun. Andrew Foulds called it the beginning of the most important process municipalities go through each year.
“If you look around the room you can see the budget document is a huge binder full of a tremendous amount of material,” Foulds said.
“The operations of the City of Thunder Bay are huge and I’ve always personally felt it’s my duty to go through it page by page, not only for the ward that I represent, but for the entire city.”
There aren’t many councillors who can look at the budget and understand it completely, and not everyone will agree with the direction certain departments take.
The session was the chance to have a say behind closed doors, essentially, to better prepare themselves for budget deliberations which start on Tuesday night with the long-term financial review.
Foulds had plenty of questions as he went around the room, starting with the city’s debt.
He liked what he heard.
“Our debt is moving in the right direction. We’re slowly eating away at that by $10 million, give or take, ever year, so it’s coming down,” he said. “But what’s also interesting is the amount of other municipalities are taking on is increasing.
“So you know, even though we have a lot of debt, we’re moving in the right direction and we are a bit ahead of the curve,” Foulds said.
Red River Coun. Brian McKinnon said he finds the pre-budget process helpful, being able to address concerns with administration in a more intimate setting.
Sometimes questions arise about the timing of certain projects, a discussion that might not be suited for open session.
Other times there are items that just don’t seem to make sense without an explanation, he said.
“If there’s something we don’t quite know why (administration) put it in, here’s a place to do it,” McKinnon said.
“So here’s a good spot to get all the little detail stuff out.”
McKinnon said all councillors have pet projects and the Q&A session is also a chance to push for them, perhaps plead for shortened timelines, etc.
“You can make your decision based up what it is they’re proposing. And if it’s something that’s very near and dear to your heart and you’re going to say this is not just for my ward, but for the city in general. That’s what I think we’re all doing here.”
McKellar Coun. Paul Pugh said the session, in his opinion, is all about putting councillors and administrators together in one room for the benefit of the city.
But he’s not using it to formulate is decision-making during the budget process.
“I’m not so sure it bears on the budget process, to tell you the truth,” said Pugh, who went through the municipal budget processor last year for the first time as an elected official.
“I think it has a positive element in that we have an opportunity to meet with city staff in an informal matter. There are no direct budget items related. You can just raise any topic that you want,” said Pugh, adding he wanted to discuss the spiraling economic plight of some portions of his ward, particularly along Simpson Street, Bay and Algoma and the waterfront.
“I was just discussing in a non-official way how things are going in those areas, projects that are either in development or have already started and what the prospects are on the future,” Pugh said.
“We were brainstorming on how we can turn things around that aren’t working.”
Budget deliberations will be held over the course of the next month or so.
Follow Leith Dunick on Twitter: @LeithDunick
