Budget deliberations now stand at 8 per cent increase

That reduced the amount of money in the fire hall reserve to $200,000 with the other half coming from an estate donation.

According to the city’s own long-term strategy, they should have built a second station in 2020 and would be working on the third in order to reduce response times to the goal of arriving in four minutes after getting the call; a standard that is used across North America, said Fire Chief Kris Olsen.

Even with putting the larger amount of $500,000 in reserves every year, it would take 40 years to save the $20 million needed to build two fire stations.

Council acknowledged that fire halls will not be built without loans or grants from other governments.

Still, they are looking for more cuts and will spend the next few days combing over the budget themselves as will management.

“We will recess for one week and that gives the administration the opportunity to go back and look again,” said Dionne.

Dionne explained that some things are having huge impacts on city finances, such as the carbon tax.

As mayor, Dionne said he would be fine with eliminating the tax as it is a huge drain on the city’s coffers, given they have over 70 buildings that are all heated with natural gas and a vehicle fleet that uses fossil fuels to run.

With the province recently introducing legislation to stop collecting the federal tax, it has left the city in a bind when it comes to budgeting.

“We’re going to put it in a reserve because we’re quite sure the federal government will have a say in that,” Dionne said.

“It’s unfortunate we’re going to be sort of stuck in the middle.”

Another tactic the city is using to reduce costs is restructuring some positions and vacancy management.

“We actually moved jobs around. It’s a program we can do without affecting too much staff,” Dionne said.

They have gone through several departments and found $430,000 in savings (such as giving the responsibility for selling city-owned properties to another position) and will now be going through larger departments, such as public works.

In another case, they combined the duties of the parking manager with bylaw enforcement because they are a natural fit.

“It’s just managing better and using your staff more to their potential,” he said.

The changes don’t affect the salary of the existing staff, Dionne added and they will continue the process.

Despite needing the extra money to pay for the cost of operating the municipality, council is aware of the challenges facing residents.

“We’re on muscle and bone now. I wish there was fat because if there was fat, we could find it and that would help us. Our main thing is, we really wanted to be careful not to touch any of the services but we also want to be careful to protect our staff,” he said.

Day 1 of discussions here: The overview of the budget showed a large increase with $4.5 million to ensure the status quo.

Day 2 of discussions here: Councillors took the requested increase of $1.5 million for police and cut it in half.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com

by Susan McNeil

Budget deliberations now stand at 8 per cent increase

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