New Westminster has pruned the proposed 2015 tax rate increase to 2.36 per cent.
Following the Feb. 2 meeting when council considered a financial plan that included a tax hike of between 2.75 and 3.45 per cent, staff did some further refinements on the budget. On Monday, council approved a provisional budget incorporating a 2.36 tax increase that will go out to the community for consultation.
“I think given the cost pressures, the regular inflationary cost pressures and the fact we have a major facility like Anvil Centre coming on-stream and affecting the budget this year, I am pleased with that,” said Mayor Jonathan Cote. “This budget still has an opportunity to deal with some of the staff enhancements but also was putting more funding toward the replacement of the Canada Games Pool. I’m happy that it’s able to move the city forward with our strategic objective and address the cost of Anvil Centre but keep the number down to a more reasonable number. We have been in that range for the past four years. It is pretty consistent with what other municipalities in Metro Vancouver are also considering.”
As part of this year’s budget process, staff will be reporting back to council with more information about the cost, revenues and business plan for Anvil Centre.
Council’s approval in principle for this year’s budget came after an $188,798 request for four labourer positions in the parks horticulture division was halved.
Dean Gibson, the city’s director of parks, culture and recreation, said the city has created many new parks and green spaces, including landscaped areas near new residential developments and traffic calmed areas. All of the existing and new areas need to be maintained.
Claude LeDoux, the city’s horticulture manager, said his department has “pushed this to the brink” and needs additional staff to ensure the parks and open spaces meet the city’s standards of maintenance. Without more staff, he said citizens will see more areas that are untidy, as staff won’t have time to get to all the sites in the city.
Coun. Mary Trentadue questioned at what point the city “stops making the city so beautiful” because of the costs involved.
In response to budget pressures, Gibson said the city reduced the number of hanging baskets in the city a number of years ago. A further cost-cutting measure could see landscaped areas returned to grass or replaced with natural turf or rocks, as that would be less costly to maintain.
“People appreciate beauty,” said Coun. Lorrie Williams. “I, for one, will support this request.”
Coun. Bill Harper said it’s incumbent on the city to maintain the quality of green spaces in a way that residents have come to expect. He said the requested money is a “fairly small amount” in the $110 million budget.
Ultimately, council decided to halve the $188,798 request – a decision resulting in a four-to-three vote.
Mayor Jonathan Cote and councillors Jaimie McEvoy, Chuck Puchmayr, Mary Trentadue supported the lesser amount, while councillors Harper, Patrick Johnstone and Williams preferred approving the full amount requested.
Trentadue said the decision to halve the request was a “reasonable halfway point” and isn’t a reflection on staff or the work they do.
“We have to really try and rein in the expenses wherever we can,” Trentadue said.
A $200,000 budget for the four mayors task forces also generated some debate in council chambers.
One of Cote’s first actions after being elected mayor was to establish task forces to address key civic issues – public engagement, transportation, housing affordability, and the development of an economic health-care cluster around Royal Columbian Hospital.
Cote said the money isn’t specified for any purpose, but will provides the city with funds to implement actions that are recommended by those task forces.
“Those recommendations will likely have some costs,” he said. “We don’t know what that is yet. … It is funding that would be available to the task forces to accomplish the goals.”
Trentadue said council needs “to be more realistic” about the ripple effect it has when asking staff to work on specific projects as it impacts the budget and staffing levels.
Colleen Ponzini, the city’s manager of financial services, said the funds don’t have any impact on taxation because they’re coming out of the community development reserve. She said the city would not draw on the funds in the reserve if the task forces do not require them.
Harper said he expected the health-care cluster task force would need to hire consultants to do some “key analysis” related to its work within a year.
McEvoy said projects could get hung up if money is not available to implement those initiatives.
He said the city needs to be more “nimble” and be able implement initiatives.
Puchmayr expressed concern task forces are doing work the city has deemed to be priorities, so staff would be doing that work regardless of whether task forces had been established.
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