Vision for an inclusive, sustainable community

Trying to keep a budgetary tax increase to 1% in a time of 4.5% inflation is unrealistic. It is also misleading as the impact on most homeowners is nominal. Even though the average increase is a miniscule $23.00, depending on the assessed value, this will range from an increase of $14 for an assessed value of $200,000 and $141 for an assessed value of $2M.
I find that the budget is not very visionary, in that it doesn’t paint a picture of the future our Council wants for our community. For example, in spite of the establishment of the Affordable Housing Task Force and receiving their report and agreeing to all the main recommendations provided, there is little in the budget other than the hiring of an Affordable Housing Specialist in the 2^nd quarter. No mention is made to set up a housing reserve fund or to develop a Community Improvement Plan which was agreed to in July 2021.
I encourage Councillors to be visionary in that to address the unique needs of our community to become a sustainable, healthy and inclusive community, to share that vision and then allocate the resources necessary to realize that vision.

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2 comments

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mquinlan over 2 years ago

Thank you for your feedback and interest in the 2022 Budget!

At the Special SIC meeting on November 17th, members of Council requested that staff include an additional $350,000 into Affordable Housing funding. This is on top of the already included $80,000 for an Affordable Housing Planning Specialist.

The updated Draft budget was included in the important documents link on the Town's Engage Page (Draft #3). This brings the updated proposed tax rate to a 2.01% increase over 2021. This document is what will be presented/discussed at the public consultation meeting on November 30th, 2021.

I hope you find this information helpful, but please do not hesitate to reach out should you have any questions or concerns and thank you once again for your interest.

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Marg over 2 years ago

I agree 100% with Jack Vanderkooys comments and would add that council made commitments or had requirements for certain expenditures that added up to the 1% already without addressing any other priorities. In regard to affordable housing, it is one of the most pressing issues our community is facing. The planning department needs to get started NOW on developing a CIP, a municipal capital facilities bylaw and a rental replacement by-law. I suspect these will require (and likely should require) the expertise of an appropriate consultant so money needs to be set aside for that. In addition, redevelopment of the Birch St properties is seen as a high priority and an allocation should be set aside to seed the cost of managing that process.

I would add that while I understand council's desire to limit any tax increases, it was disappointing to me that they did not have presentations from the various department heads explaining why they were asking for increases. Sometimes, some things are essential and ending up getting cut in a "spite our nose" scenario such as deferred maintenance of elimination of an essential undertaking (such as housing issues) that are new issues in the community.

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