Local Journalism Initiative
Chatham-Kent budget planners are looking at a 3.96 percent tax increase to cover its 2021 budget. During a virtual budget presentation to councillors on January 13, staff gave a rundown of the municipality’s financial situation, followed by an overview of recommendations. The 3.96 percent increase would mean for an average household assessed at $173,700 in Chatham-Kent, an increase of 3.96 percent would equal an extra cost of $117 a year. Per $100,000 household assessment, it would equal an additional $67 annually. According to Ward 3 councillor Steve Pinsonneault, the proposed 3.96 percent tax increase is high. He added this year’s budgeting would bring its own set of difficulties, considering the pandemic throughout 2020 and into 2021. “I have never supported a tax increase, however under the current situation of the country, province and municipality, I don’t believe a zero tax increase is a reality,” said Pinsonneault. “We need to bring this budget in at the rate of inflation and let 2021 play out.” Come next year’s budget, Pinsonneault believes council will have a good reading on the damage from the pandemic. From there, he said council would have to take a good look at service levels and services offered to the communities. While having spent his whole political career protecting arenas, libraries, service centers and the amenities in small communities in East Kent, Pinsonneault said he does not want to see the “Ugly List” again, which was put out in years past. “What that does is pit community against community and rural against urban,” said Pinsonneault. He also added the work from home exercise will change the way business is done in the municipality in the coming years, which will bring in its own measures of cost savings. “I believe this budget we try to keep the wheels on the wagon, so we don’t go down the avenue of closing our amenities because of skewed numbers relating to the pandemic,” added Pinsonneault. Ward 3 Councillor John Wright also believes the pandemic has created many issues for both residents and the municipality. “We need to look at every dollar spent to strike the right balance for both,” said Wright. While the proposed 3.9 percent budget increase submitted by the administration is just a starting point for council, Wright said under the current situation facing most residents, he could not support the increase as proposed. According to Wright, there does not appear to be any closures of facilities or services withdrawn across Ward 3. However, he said it is still early in the process, and there is a lot of information to review. “I have requested further background on a number of the budget requests to make the best-informed decisions,” said Wright. “I still encourage residents, once facilities reopen to use them, or we will lose them.” A large portion of the proposed increase, 2.10 percent, is allocated towards investing in Chatham-Kent’s infrastructure. This includes replacing ageing infrastructure, improving storm sewers and addressing shoreline issues. “I think that there’s an expectation from the community that we keep working towards some of those goals,” said Budget Chair Brock McGregor. One of the newer areas proposed in the draft budget looks to address challenges that have been previously identified surrounding homelessness and affordable housing in the municipality. “For example, the affordable housing issue, the homelessness issue, transit, our rural fibre internet issue, which has been exacerbated with Covid-19,” Quinton said. “These are things that our community and our councillors have been asking for.” Investments towards affordable housing and emergency initiatives are included in the 0.43 percent of the budget that has been allocated towards “investing in our community.” Other priorities in the budget include money towards improving transit, doctor recruitment and better rural internet. “We’ve had a large issue with homelessness,” said Don Shropshire, Chief Administrative Officer. “For us to fund our homelessness, provide affordable housing, we’re recommending it would be an investment in those areas.” In 2020, because of the added costs of COVID-19 for things such as personal protective equipment and a decrease in revenues from taxpayers and businesses such as casinos, the municipality expected to have a $5 million deficit. However, the municipality managed to cover it with provincial funding, as well as measures it took to reduce its costs. Shropshire said there are still a lot of unknowns surrounding the financial impacts of COVID-19 heading into the 2021 budget. Although more funding is anticipated from upper levels of government, Shropshire said the municipality is preparing for the same impact level and reduction in revenue that was seen in 2020. “We believe that the municipality is in good financial shape,” said Shropshire. “We’ve got a fair bit of resiliency in the budget, but there is an expectation that we’re not sure about a lot of the impacts of COVID-19 in 2021. “ According to Quinton, Chatham-Kent faced more than $17 million in COVID-19 costs in 2020. “This dispense is the portion that we doubt that we’ll recover any funding from upper-level governments. So we see this as an impact on local taxpayers,” said Quinton. COVID-19’s impact makes up 0.43 percent of the proposed tax increase in the draft budget for loss of interest revenues due to a decline in interest rates and market conditions. Because of COVID-19, the budget process is being done entirely virtually this year. Residents are invited to consultations which will be held: - Tuesday, January 19 at noon - Wednesday, January 20 at 4 p.m. - Thursday, January 21 at 6 p.m. “With in-person meetings cancelled, I urge everyone to use the available methods available to contact council with your thoughts and views,” added Wright. Next week’s community consultation meetings will be broadcast on the municipality’s Facebook live feed. Deliberations are available on YourTV, as well as live-streamed on the YourTV YouTube channel. A more detailed look at the 2021 proposed budget can be found on the municipality’s website at https://budget.chatham-kent.ca/2021/default.html Budget Committee Deliberations will be held online from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. beginning January 27. In 2020, administration initially proposed a 4.99 percent tax increase, which was eventually brought down to 2.97 percent over three nights of budget deliberations. Bird Bouchard, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Ridgetown Independent News