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Council ratifies budget with 3.59 levy increase

City council passed the 2017 municipal budget on Tuesday with a 3.59 per cent levy after some last-minute amendments.
Gale
"Certainly without substantive changes to the work we do, continual efforts to find savings through efficiencies become more difficult. Of that, there's no doubt. That doesn't mean we won't do that. We will continue to look for efficiencies. We will continue to find ways to reduce budget growth." - City manager Norm Gale

THUNDER BAY -- City council ratified the city's 2017 budget on Tuesday after an evening meeting of 11h-hour amendments, including failed attempts to save the Chippewa Park zoo and to absorb the city's increased spending with $1 million from reserves. 

The city's $406-million budget commits to spending $6.4 million more in 2017 than it did in 2016. The 3.59 per cent increased levy represents a 3.13 per cent increased shared tax burden when growth is included.

Council will set the tax rates and ratio in the spring to determine the changes to property taxes.

Couns. Rebecca Johnson, Linda Rydholm, Larry Hebert and Trevor Giertuga voted against ratifying the final document. Mayor Keith Hobbs was absent.

In a 6-6 tie, council defeated an amendment from budget chairman and Coun. Frank Pullia that would have lowered the levy using $1 million from the city's stabilization reserve fund.

Pullia praised administration for finding $2.8 million in savings to begin the 2018 budget process, but suggested administration recuperate the $1 million through finding further efficiencies in the 2018 budget process. 

City administrators have consistently defended contributing to reserves. They've framed the 2017 budget as a "reset budget," committing more funds to uncertain areas like police, insurance and legal departments. 

"Putting an additional $1 million to find for 2018 will significantly challenge administration to find those savings without some significant surface-level impacts," said city corporate services general manager, Rob Colquhoun. 

"It's not next year finding $1 million. If council wants to get to a tax-levy increase of say 2.5 per cent, which was discussed this year, it would be in the neighbourhood of $2.5 million that would have to be found."

Following the meeting, Pullia said growth is the city's best path to sustaining citizen expectations.  

"I think we can only go back to the taxpayers so much. We need to start doing things differently," Pullia said.

"We need to reinvent the way we grow our city. Growth is going to be the next focus because I think we can only cut so much and then new opportunities for savings will be reduced as you find more efficiencies."   

Council also defeated Coun. Iain Angus' last-ditch attempt to preserve the Chippewa Park Wildlife Exhibit until September. The zoo is slated to close permanently on May 1 at a net annual savings to the city of $83,000. 

Angus said more than 800 people visited the park over the Family Day long weekend as he urged council to allow consultants undergoing a visioning exercise to finish their work.

Although significant capital investment would be needed to either restore the park, Angus argued only $1.4 million of the $6.4 million in recent capital upgrades have fallen on the local tax base. He likened the support the wildlife exhibit has in the community to that of the soccer, which the 2017 budget is supporting with $106,000 in planning dollars.   

"The Friends of Chippewa have a long experience in attracting, federal, provincial and even private sector dollars to rehabilitate the park. Over $5 million we've brought in from those sources to do the city's work in protecting the assets of that park," Angus said. 

"Give us a chance to do our magic again to get the kind of dollars we will require to rehabilitate the existing wildlife exhibit, let alone the kind of expansion they're talking about in terms of converting it into a wildlife rescue and conservation facility." 

The budget also includes a stipulation that will reduce garbage pickup services from three items per week to two. Recycling and waste management manager Jason Sherband said no changes will be made until at least March, when he presents council with a report that could introduce bag tags. 






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