Council wrap-up: budget, planning and camping

It was a busy City Council meeting for Kitchissippi yesterday and I thought it would be useful to provide a quick wrap-up of the highlights. I’ve stressed the budget for most of this post, but skip further down for updates on for yesterday’s discussion on Planning Advisory Committees, urban camping, and the 307 Richmond heritage approval.

Budget

The key item, of course, was the budget.

Residents won’t be surprised to learn that the budget for 2017 proposes a 2% tax increase. The Mayor and a majority of Council have been sticklers for this, and this year is no exception. In real dollars, a home in the city worth $395,500 will see an increase to their assessment of $72. The transit levy will go up 2.5%, and waste fees will go up by $2. Water rates will go up 5%. These are all in line with past increases and according to the City’s long-range planning.

There are several proposed items of greatest interest to me based on what Kitchissippi residents have told me.

Low-income transit pass

The first is good news on creating a low-income transit pass. The City is proposing to create a new bus pass for those in low-income households that will cost $57/month – a 50% discount compared to a regular pass. I fully support this, though it is not quite the $41.75 pass that those on provincial assistance qualify for. In the lead-up to the budget, I’ve been clear I was looking for a meaningful discount for a low-income pass, and I believe this qualifies.

The City considers that around 4,700 people will substitute their pass, and that will cost the City around $2.7 million to subsidize. Further discounting the pass to $41.75 would cost another $870,000 or so, and that’s likely not in the cards this year. Before calling for an even more heavily-discounted pass, I’d like to see how the first year of operation for this new EquiPass proceeds. There are many more people in low-income households than 4,700. If they begin buying this pass, that would be new revenue. To the extent that new revenue flows into the system without requiring offsetting new expenditures to meet increased demand, there may be future wriggle-room to further discount the price.

The Mayor and senior staff have also not given up on securing top-up funding from the Province. I have a philosophical difference with those who argue a discounted bus pass is a social service that should be funded by Queen’s Park. I consider it an equity issue within the purview of the municipality to figure out using our tools and levers. But, if they are successful, that would be another avenue to a more heavily-discounted pass.

The discussions in the next few months will be around determining eligibility. That’s not an easy task in the absence of easy ways to means-test recipients. I’ll be watching and contributing to that discussion.

Social services funding

My second critical issue was social services funding. Several councillors, social agencies and I have been calling for a very reasonable $500,000 injection and adjustment to the baseline funding provided to our community partners. These provide services such as drop-in centres, health care, food for those who need it, combating sexual violence and promoting sexual health and more. Demand for those services has skyrocketed, and past 1.5% increases to their budgets has not kept up with need.

The very good news in this budget is that rather than a 1.5% increase that we’ve seen in past, those groups will get a 2% increase if this budget passes, with a further base funding adjustment of $500,000. This exceeds what we've been seeking.

Last year, I opposed the budget. I’ve been clear in the past few months that a meaningfully-discounted low-income transit pass and a $500,000 increase in funding to our community partners are the minimum this budget should propose in order to win my support. This budget delivers.

Snow

Last year’s snow operations, particularly for sidewalks, in Kitchissippi were inadequate. We are stuffing the ward full of new residents and cars, and need to do a much better job of maintaining walkability in our community if intensification is to be sustainable. I spent a lot of time last year analyzing our snow budget, and have asserted for the past year that we are generally underfunding snow operations by around $10 million per year based on historical costs and snowfall data.

This year, the budget has proposed to put $4.5 million in new money into the task. At the same time, staff have promised that they’ve found better and cheaper ways to deliver the service. Combined, they’ve committed to a better job. I’m willing to wait and see how the sidewalks get plowed and the snow cleared this winter before pressing for more money.

Arts

I have heard a lot from the arts community over the past six months about the need to better fund artists across the spectrum of disciplines with operational funding. While there are significant funds going into capital projects, the artists who ensure new and renovated arts spaces are lively won’t see any large increases in this budget. But, there are a couple of steps in the right direction.

For 2017 and associated with that celebration, the budget proposes a previously-announced $500,000 for 2017 projects. But, there is also a proposed new $150,000 Arts Momentum Fund. I’ll be working to understand how that fund will be disbursed, and seeking a commitment to ensuring that it helps artists struggling to pay bills while contributing to our city’s vibrancy and cultural life. Investments in artists are ultimately to the benefit of our economy. My hope would be that that fund will grow in subsequent years, but at least the turf has been staked out in this budget.

Ward projects

With several of my key considerations apparently delivered in this budget, my attention for the next couple of weeks will focus on what the budget means for our ward with respect to capital spending. A summary document provided to councillors conflates projects paid for with cash-in-lieu of parkland money with budget money, and it will take some time to do a line-by-line of the capital spending budget. I saw what looked like some projects I hadn’t been anticipating, and residents will want to know what major projects are proceeding as planned, accelerated or delayed. I’m looking forward to reporting back on that analysis in the very near future.

Budget summary

In his budget address, the Mayor was careful to note that Kitchissippi in particular has seen very high property assessment increases – a pointed shot across the bow in light of my support for raising taxes beyond 2% if that’s what’s needed to provide the services residents want. A 2% increase to taxes will be compounded by assessment growth in our ward, and going beyond 2% should be treated very carefully.

At this early stage of analysis, however, that this budget provides most of what I and residents have been seeking. It would be very difficult to argue for adding to residents’ tax burden in light of increased spending on some critical areas within a 2% cap.

It is important to keep in mind that the wriggle room needed to work within a 2% cap was created through workforce reductions. In my conversations with senior management yesterday, there’s an emerging consensus that what was looking like a large structural deficit in the City’s finances has been addressed with the layoffs, a key reason why the taps have started flowing. That approach is not without risks. As my office and I navigate the day-to-day operations of the City, we’re periodically taken aback that some good people are no longer with us, including some rock stars. To date, that hasn’t seriously undermined Team Kitchissippi’s ability to deliver our help to residents. Our City Manager’s promise was to first address the size of the workforce, but he is also focused on streamlining operations so that service to residents is mostly unaffected. I’m encouraged that we’re moving in the right direction.

Planning Advisory Committee

It wasn’t all about the budget at yesterday’s Council meeting. One particular area of concern for me was the proposed new Planning Advisory Committee. As I outlined in my most recent newsletter, the composition of that committee – the establishment of which was recently mandated by the Province – was underwhelming. In the lead-up to Council, Councillor Nussbaum and I had some very productive conversations with Planning Chair Jan Harder about the opportunity to really enrich resident engagement with planning matters through the committee. I was very pleased that Chair Harder moved with myself as a seconder that there be further exploration on how to accomplish that before settling on a structure. A report is expected, now, in the first quarter of 2017.

307 Richmond Road, Tamarack heritage alterations, urban camping

Finally, I just wanted to provide a quick update since they’re likely to be lost in the shuffle that the heritage designation for 307 Richmond Road and Canada Day urban camping, as well as proposed modifications to the old Bethany Hope Centre were all passed by Council. These were uncontentious, and passed largely without debate. I did raise with staff during the meeting, however, the need to provide the cost estimates around the Canada Day camping proposal at their earliest opportunity. I believe that there are still details to be worked out, and I’ve heard residents’ concerns that in our ward Tom Brown might need some TLC when the campers go home. There have been questions about whether, if the Tom Brown turf is damaged, we’ll have the funds available to address that. I have staff’s commitment that the money will be there, but it will be good to have that math publicly available in the near future.