THUNDER BAY – Now is not the time to add additional burdens onto businesses that are already trying to stabilize their books as their costs rise across the board, urged the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce.
Speaking at a public pre-budget meeting on Thursday, chamber president Charla Robinson called on Thunder Bay city council to be mindful of the impacts of their upcoming deliberations on the business community.
“Businesses of all sizes, but in particular small businesses, are facing a challenging and in some cases uncertain future as employers look for ways to adjust to the dramatically increasing costs of running a business in Ontario,” Robinson said.
Robinson singled out proposed user fee hikes to the planning services department essential for almost any development project as an area of concern.
Those increases would result in $1,000 increases to each the official plan amendment and zoning bylaw amendment applications, bringing the cost to $4,000 and $3,000 respectively. The application for combined amendments would rise $2,000 to $6,500. City administration calculated those increases would generate $24,000 in additional revenue, which would amount to an increase of 10 per cent.
Robinson labelled the changes as a “steep increase” and questioned whether that was the message city hall should be sending to prospective developers.
“In reviewing the proposed budget package we were concerned to see what appears to be a serious disconnect between council’s stated desire for future assessment growth and the proposed fee increases of up to 50 per cent on some of those development opportunities,” Robinson said.
“Furthermore, the proposed nine per cent business licence fees, at a time when affected businesses such as food service establishments are already struggling to adjust to massive labour cost increases, suggests a lack of understanding of and sensitivity to the burdens local entrepreneurs are facing at this time.”
The draft budget features a gross tax levy increase of 3.61 per cent – or a net of 2.9 per cent after factoring in growth. The tax levy is the amount of money that must be collected from the municipal tax base and is not the change to property taxes.
Robinson, who pushed for administration and council to contain the after growth levy increase to two per cent, applauded $12.8 million being trimmed from the city’s operating budget since 2012 but said the business community wants more.
“Our members are asking that these efforts be expanded by focusing on core municipal services over non-essential items, eliminating duplication, streamlining processes and implementing new technologies to find efficiencies,” Robinson said.
As well, representatives from the 55 Plus Centre board of directors protested the elimination of two city staff positions that they said has a negative impact on the functioning of the River Street older adult facility.
“At a time when the senior population is growing annually, cutting positions that serve seniors is not reflective of the corporate senior strategy city council has endorsed,” board president Lorelle Stein said.
A group, which includes the commanding officers of both the Lake Superior Scottish Regiment and HMCS Griffon, planning centennial celebrations to commemorate the end of the First World War also requested a $20,000 contribution.
The meeting was an opportunity for members of the public to provide input before council next week will begin a series of meetings where they will review the budget and deliberate.
