The 2019 Budget Open House had more taxpayers than city staff in attendance, which is an improvement over previous years.
Thursday nights open house at the Davedi Club provided ratepayers with the opportunity to speak with senior staff one-on-one.
Their input and suggestions will be considered during the 2019 budget process.
“My questions have been more around services, and understanding the scope of services that are within the municipal mandate and where the municipal dollars go,” said Margaret Karpenko Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer.
“There is a lot of priority on Cassellholme. And just a reminder that Cassellhome is a service partner. This city is a huge supporter and moving it forward with its redevelopment, but it also receives a large portion of provincial dollars. So health care is a provincial mandate, not necessarily a municipal mandate.”
Incoming Deputy Mayor and Budget Chief Tanya Vrebosch says the council will hit the ground running after Saturday’s swearing-in ceremony, with 23 budget meetings scheduled over the next two months.
“In January when we get to the line-by-line, it is probably going to be very pricey. We’re going to have to scale back the wants versus needs,” said Vrebosch.
“But I think this way staff are going to have a direction to say this is what we’re hearing. They want growth, or they want more soft services, or they want these capital projects as their top priority items, so they kind of know where to go within the budget. And then come January, we’ll have a better head start, we’re not starting from scratch.”
Ratepayers can expect an increase in water and sewer.
“We’re tabling the water rates. It is in the low two percent, that’s just what’s being tabled, so that one is actually looking to be good. Low-end users will see an increase of 19 cents per month, high-end users will be 54 cents per month,” said Vrebosch.
“We have costs that go up for ourselves. Hydro goes up for us, gas goes up for us so to be able to come in, in the low two’s and that’s without even looking at anything, I think that is a good news story.”
She says one of the challenges council faces is growing the city, and the price tag that comes with that.
Vrebosch wants to see more commercial and industrial growth.
“We’ve got to change the way we’re thinking. How are we structured within city hall? Do we have enough manpower to get growth? We don’t have any design projects in the hopper. When I first started, we had at least half a dozen shovel-ready projects ready to go if funding became available. We have nothing.”
Council is expected to refer to the Baylor report and its pillars for the strategic plan in moving forward.
“From there hopefully we’ll see a positive outlook for the next year talking short priorities versus long-term priorities, high priorities versus low priorities.”
The format for the open house was informal, with staff lined up around the Davedi Club with information boards, prepared to answer questions.
“We figured there would be a presentation by the new councillors giving people the opportunity to ask questions or hear what they planned on doing. So we’re very disappointed,” said Sandra Claudio.
Resident Tom McDonald was of a similar mind.
“I thought there was going to be presentations on what the budget is, and will be, and where there could be some corrections or looking for input from us as taxpayers and there’s not,” said McDonald.
“This is my city. I just recently retired so I thought I would contribute by coming here. This is important. I just expected something different.”
Michael Thompson used the open house as an opportunity to find out more about the workings at city hall.
“We are new to the area, so we just came for some information, and we’ll do some more digging. For us, the starting point is property taxes. We thought they were a little bit high, so this is a good starting point to see how the city works and where the money goes,” said Thompson.
“We have to remember the current staff isn’t sworn in, they have not officially met yet to get their ideas," said the Chief Financial Officer.
"That type of a workshop where people sit down and engage is really focused on one issue and we bring options or alternatives to discuss and get the citizens feedback.”
Karpenko added that councillors will bring what they heard during their election campaign, and from the two scheduled open houses, to work out a plan for the next four years.
“The purpose tonight is really just to get information to bring back to council once they’re sworn in. Council has a special meeting on December 10th and so all of the ideas brought forward tonight and again next week will be summarized for council to go through a priority exercise. What can we accomplish this year? What do we want to accomplish over the next four years.”
The next budget open house is scheduled for Wednesday, December 5 at Memorial Gardens from 6 to 8 p.m.
For those unable to attend in person, they can offer feedback and ideas, by going to [email protected]
A suggestion box will be available at the Customer Service Centre on the main floor of city hall until January 15, 2019.
