THUNDER BAY -- Managing city spending is no walk in the park, but one city councilor is growing worried over what local residents are beginning to see when they walk through their parks.
Current River Coun. Andrew Foulds voted against cuts to parks every time they arose over the 2017 municipal budget process, which on Tuesday ended with a 3.59 per cent levy increase.
"It's almost like a death by a thousand cuts," Foulds said. "Just a little bit here and a little bit there and all of a sudden, our parks system isn't what we want it to be for our citizens."
Council voted down Foulds' attempt to continue funding for the sleigh-ride program at Centennial Park in his ward. Ceasing to offer the program will save the city only $13,300 a year.
"I see this as a real loss to the kids of the community. I see it as a real loss of life experience," Foulds said. "I remember going to the sleigh rides at Centennial Park. It's one of those experiences that lasts a lifetime and I think it's a real loss to this community that we'll no longer have that."
Foulds was successful in saving the Muskeg Express from budget cuts. The miniature train at Centennial Park will continue to have a $15,300 annual impact on the city's budget.
Those decisions were made on the same night as council voted down a motion that would have saved the Chippewa Wildlife Exhibit from permanent closure. The zoo's closure will save the city a net $83,000 annually. The move to reduce Chippewa Park's rides and Centennial Park's Logging Camp and Museum from seven days a week to five will save the city a total of $25,100.
The budget came a month after city administration issued a report showing 55 per cent of city parks to be "in very poor condition," when the waterfront park is excluded from the calculation.
The city will spend $8.2 million on parks operations in 2017, 1.8 per cent more than it did in 2016 but nearly half that increase was reinstated through the budget process.
Foulds pointed out that investment won't close what has become a maintenance gap in the parks department. He hopes to make parks an election issue in 2018.
"Until council realizes the value of maintaining parks like a building, like a road or like any other asset, you need to make the ongoing investment, the ongoing maintenance so you're not hit with catastrophic costs or closures."
City administration projects capital investment in parks will continue to fall over its three-year plan, however. The city will spend a net $2 million of its $406-million budget on parks renewal this year and that expenditure is expected to be cut in half in its 2018 budget. Net recreation trail expenses will fall from $475,000 this year to $200,000 next year, then be reduced again to $150,000 in 2019.
The $185,000 spent on sports fields this year in preparation for the 2017 Under 18 Baseball World Cup will fall to $145,000 in each of the subsequent two years, including a 70 per cent reduction.
The urban forest program is the only program whose budget is estimated to rise. Its envelope will grow from $780,000 in 2017 to $855,000 in 2018 and $930,000 in 2019, largely due to the cost of confronting the invasive emerald ash borer.
City director of engineering Kayla Dixon said the 2017 parks budget reflects a bump in the three-year forecast, thanks to additional federal funding.
"At this point, there has not been a specific focus on investment in parks. We are still determining what our infrastructure gap is there," Dixon said.
"That would involve some direction by council to increase that and then a decision: do we increase that by itself or increase that and have a reduction someplace else?"
