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Mayor Al McDonald, seen here during budget deliberations earlier this year, has established special review committees to oversee the inequity in water billing, the city's long-term financial plan and the 2016 budget process. PHOTO BY LIAM BERTI
City Council is taking new measures to make it easier to find consensus on some important issues.
In an attempt to address some of the city’s looming challenges, Mayor Al McDonald is leading a new push to scrutinize three crucial areas.
McDonald put forward three separate motions during Monday night’s council meeting to establish special review committees to oversee the recently approved water rates, establish a long-term financial plan for the city, and develop a timeline for the 2016 budget process.
“What I wanted to do was take groups of council that have expressed interest in those areas and work together with senior staff to bring recommendations back to the entire council for their consideration and approval,” the Mayor explained.
“By tasking the smaller groups to bring it back to council for their recommendation, knowing that their colleagues had a lot of input in it, I believe it will make it easier for council to move forward,” he added.
Chaired by Councillor George Maroosis, the committee in charge of reviewing the water rates will attempt to find a more equitable system of billing for water consumption.
After a long deliberation process, council eventually settled on a residential billing structure based on 60 per cent fixed, 40 per cent variable volumetric cost recovery model last month.
As of September 1, each residential unit will pay $31.06 per month for the fixed rate plus $1.45 per cubic metre of water used in the cost recovery model.
The institutional, commercial and industrial users, on the other hand, will be charged based on the current basic connection fee with a minimum consumption fee.
But not long before council’s ultimate vote, the city’s chief financial officer, Margaret Karpenko, told council that the residential sector is paying approximately 73 per cent of the revenue required for cost recovery, but only accounting for 51 per cent of the water usage.
On the other hand, the ICI/multi-residential sectors use the other 49 per cent, but pay roughly 27 per cent of the cost recovery revenue.
“Now that we’ve recognized the inequity of the water rates now that the water meters are live, we understand how residential is paying more than the ICI group,” said McDonald.
That point was emphasized again on Monday, as local resident Gary Gardiner took to the podium for a public presentation before the meeting began.
Gardiner was perhaps the most active resident throughout the billing debate, bringing new statistics and research forward every fortnight to support his claim that the residential users are heavily subsidizing commercial and industrial users.
He argued that whereas a typical residential user would expect to pay $31 a month in fixed rate, a large multi-residential unit could work out to be around $7 per unit each month.
In the end, that would account for the residential sector paying upwards of $9.2 million more per year for approximately the same amount of water used as the commercial sectors.
Leveling the playing field and addressing that imbalance is the intention of the newly approved committee.
“Having [Gardiner] present that in a very respectful manner, we were able to find the special review committee that’s going to look at the rates and find fairness across the spectrum,” said McDonald. “I’m a firm believer that everybody should be paying the same rate for their water.”
Gardiner showed his support for the formation of the committee on Monday and said he is cautiously optimistic that they will address the problem.
Councillors Mac Bain, Jeff Serran and Mayor McDonald will make up the rest of that committee, who are expected to report to council with more specific options and a new transitional model by September 8, the same month that the new water rates take effect.
Budget Process and Long-Term Financial Plan
Even though it seems like Council just settled the 2015 budget not too long ago, McDonald is taking proactive measures to get everyone on the same page for the 2016 budget process.
Part of that process will require the long-term financial plan committee to establish the city’s spending vision.
Those policies are essentially the blueprint by which council make budgetary decisions and attempt reach their financial end goal.
For example, the policies could determine whether council chooses to focus on improving their credit rating, keep taxes lower than the rate of inflation, or any combination of variables they choose to adopt.
“I want to make sure that council’s long-term financial policies are matched with staff because they’re being tasked with coming together to develop this policy; it’s not just driven from a staff perspective,” said McDonald.
“If we can involve all the members of council in the policies and the way we’re moving forward, I think we’re going to have greater success than if we did it piecemeal,” he added.
That review committee is chaired by McDonald and made up of councillors Derek Shogren, Chris Mayne, Daryl Vaillancourt and Mike Anthony. Their recommendations are expected be reported by September 8 for council’s consideration.
On the other hand, the budget process and timeline committee is tasked with developing a structured schedule to guide council in the Fall.
“I want to make sure that we have the process well-defined,” said McDonald. “That will also give our citizens the opportunities to know when all these budget meetings are and if they want to present at the budget meetings they are able to.”
Councillor Maroosis was one of many councillors who commended the Mayor on the proactive measures.
“This is breaking new ground,” Maroosis said during Monday's meeting. “Since I arrived here in 1982, we’ve never had anything quite like this.”
MEETINGS OF NORTH BAY CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL REVIEW COMMITTEES
On Monday June 15, 2015, North Bay City Council established three Special Review Committees with the respective mandates to develop the 2016 Budget Process and time lines; to develop a Long-Term Financial Plan for the Municipality; and, to review the water rates and options for a transitional model based on equity.
Meetings of these Committees will be open to the public and the initial meetings will be held in the City Hall Fifth Floor Boardroom on the following dates:
2016 Budget Review Process Committee TBA
Long-Term Financial Plan Committee
Wednesday June 17, 2015
12 Noon – 1:30 p.m.
Water Rates Review Committee
Monday, June 22, 2015
5:00 – 8:00 p.m.
