The municipal budget has increased slightly since it was first presented.
Timmins council talked about the proposed increase Monday.
As it stands, the net expenditure increase for 2019 is a 1.74 per cent increase over last year. For 2019, the combined operating and capital budgets is $72.7 million, which is a $1.2 million increase over 2018.
It’s not known what that hike will look like for the average homeowner yet.
Once the province sets the education rates, director of finance Natalie Moore said the city will be able model what tax rates and ratios will look like for the different taxation classes.
The net hike has gone up .22 per cent since the proposed budget was first presented last month.
This is because the city’s Ontario Municipal Partnership Funding was decreased by $159,900.
“The city departments did a very good job coming in at very minimal increases, it was inflationary increases that they did look at, nothing out of the ordinary, we kept it status quo,” said Moore.
“Especially it being a new council and a lot of new council, there might be changes that come in 2020, but for this year we tried to keep everything status quo and work with the inflationary increases.”
Increasing security costs at the Timmins Transit station sparked a conversation around the council table.
The extra cost is $132,000, however Moore’s presentation said it could be avoided by closing the washrooms.
“How do we address the problem rather than affect our residents by having to have security guards to keep washrooms open? I think there’s an underlying problem that’s severe enough that we have to look at the problem,” said Coun. Joe Campbell, noting there is a similar issue at the nearby library.
Mayor George Pirie said it’s a complex problem, and council wants to keep the washrooms open.
The solution, he said, “probably involves a combination of security and counselling and different social agencies as we evolve as a society that are involved in the solution.”
There are new positions in the budget.
Last month, council approved a new communications director position, and there is also a regulations officer for enforcement services, which would be a shared hire with the Mattagami Region Conservation Authority.
The other new positions are a utility technician for public works, parks and recreation project manager, full time dispatcher for Timmins Transit, as well as a full time driver, and a recreational therapist for the Golden Manor, which would also be funded by the Northeast Local Health Integration Network. There is summer student request from the planning department as well.
Some of the major capital purchases included are: $250,000 for repairs on the McIntyre Headframe, $500,000 for the Archie Dillon roof membrane, $350,000 for landfill gas system installation, $650,000 for a pumper truck for the fire department, and $487,000 for bridge repairs.
If council has nothing more to add to the budget, Moore hopes that the net expenditure increase will be approved at the April 9 council meeting.
You can read her presentations on the budget here.
