Councillors during recent budget deliberations (Alison Sandstrom/paNOW staff)

By Alison Sandstrom

Final approval

P.A. city council passes 2020 budget

Dec 10, 2019 | 8:41 AM

P.A. city council has passed the 2020 budget in a narrow 5-4 vote.

Council had approved the budget during deliberations in November, but the final decision came after an hour and half of sometimes tense discussion at Monday night’s meeting.

The budget includes a 2.9 per cent tax increase, meaning if you own a home assessed at $350,000 your annual municipal property taxes will go up $63.84, or $5.32 per month.

Mayor Greg Dionne told paNOW he’s happy to have the budget passed, but disappointed that four of his colleagues voted against it.

“Let’s round it off and say there’s 200 items in the budget. You didn’t get your five so you’re not supporting the other 195? ” he told paNOW after the meeting. “So, when people walk up to those four people and say, ‘congratulations on the paving program’, they can’t take any credit. They voted against the budget, they can’t pick and choose what they voted against.”

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The dissenting votes came from Councillors Charlene Miller, Evert Botha, Dennis Nowoselsky and Terra Lennox-Zepp.

Coun. Nowoselsky has been a vocal opponent of what he sees as the city’s unnecessarily high spending on police and was disappointed to see the department’s funding increased again this year.

Meanwhile Coun. Terra Lennox-Zepp told the meeting she thought the budget lacked long-term vision. She took issue with the fact that council did not fund several items that administration had recommended on the basis that could save the city money in the long run.

“I’m hoping that in the future city council will consider chipping away at those priorities, not just think about saving money this year, this tax increase, but saving money into the future,” she said.

Speaking to paNOW after the meeting, Coun. Evert Botha said he voted against the budget because he hadn’t seen city administration make serious efforts to reduce costs.

“I think we need to look at where pencils can be sharpened and if we need to make some sacrifices. I’m not saying decreasing services, but we just need to take a longer, harder look at where the money comes from and where the money goes,” he said.

Efforts to amend the budget

Also on Monday night, councillors had the opportunity to fight for any last-minute amendments to the budget agreed upon in November before it was officially passed.

Coun. Charlene Miller tried to remove the additional $25,000 granted for floral displays. The amendment would have brought the yearly budget for floral displays back down to $50,000 from $75,000. The topic was the subject of lengthy debate during November’s deliberations, and ultimately Miller’s amendment failed. The $75,000 will be targeted at city beautification with an emphasis on the entranceways and the Second Ave. corridor.

Coun. Botha tried to reopen the discussion around funding for special needs transit by adding increased funding for the service as an amendment at the end of the motion to approve the budget.

But some of his colleagues felt he wasn’t clear in how he made the addition, including Coun. Don Cody.

“I never believed that I’d see something like this happen here tonight (…) that’s the wrong way to do business, this council has to do business on an open basis, not on a closed basis, not behind anybody’s back,” he told the meeting.

Even councillors who had been the most vocal advocates of increasing funding for paratransit voted against Botha’s motion.

Council will discuss adding additional funding for the service at a later council meeting.

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom