Budget 2022 Preliminary Notes

ADRA Board Member, Graham McIsaac attended the preliminary presentation of the 2022 budget and here are his draft notes. Note ADRA will comment on the budget in more detail shortly

The Budget will come to Council for approval on February 14.

Perhaps because this is an election year the “apparently” modest increase in the Operating Budget base is 1.79% and the comments from Councillors and the Mayor. The budget has1 additional FTE related to a Privacy Officer.

The increase in taxes proposed is 3.8%  ( 1.8% Operating, 1% Asset Levy, 1% and the utilities increase is 7.7% so the total is 4.8%. There is a question as to whether this should be reported as larger figure because the percent comparison was made to the 2021 budget and not the 2021 actuals – which would be a more standard way of reporting. (* and 2021 budget was higher than the actuals *).

This does not include School Tax, Translink Tax, Metro Tax or the Education Tax.

Apparently with increased assessed value 1,900 additional homes ( out of 10,000) will now be over the $3 million threshold and subject to the Education Tax. On the other side 1,900 homes will also no longer be entitled to the Home-Owner Grant.

Environmental Levy– Councillors Soprovich, Thompson and Lambur all said they had concerns that this levy is being proposed without a clear spending list. Others commented that given damages to our waterfront due to “climate change” we need to build this fund.

Note: The Province will not contribute to the costs of repairing the sea wall and our piers. Mayor Booth commented that we may not have the funds to repair the pier and we had to prioritize spending.

Councillor Lambur noted the need to be clear on priorities.

Councillor Cameron suggested EV charging stations should not be a priority compared to making infrastructure more resilient. He also expressed some concern in delays in hiring the (new position) Environment manager. CAO Bartlett said it was key to have a commitment to the 1% levy so the new manager would have funds available.

Councillor Cameron added that on priorities we could not spend money on things like Navvy Jack.

All noted that several major projects underway (eg Ferry Building and Municipal Hall renovations) are likely well over budget and regretted that reliable numbers are not available from finance staff.