Treasurer Crozier said that the building department expenses increased by $67,275. He said that the increases were due to the e-permitted system being implemented, which was also partially covered due to government grants.
He said that the budget had been developed “with the user fees offsetting the expenses”.
“We wanted to show what the fees would do to change the building department revenue.” he said.
“The e-permitting thing is wonderful if we have cellphone coverage.” Mayor Nicholson said. “We have plans for that, but we’re kinda putting the cart before the horse.”
“Not everything has to be done with the e-permitting system.” Crozier responded.
“Is there an argument to be made that everyone in the community would like development, so that some of the costs would be spread, and that the fees would represent 90% of the costs.” Councillor Trimm asked.
“I’m sure there’s an argument to be made, that’s for this table, but that would affect the department.” Crozier said.
Councillor Olmstead asked if the e-permitting system was up and running currently.
“It’s very close.” Crozier said. “We’re ironing out the payment piece. We’re working towards that.”
Olmstead asked if there was building reporting with the e-permitting, which was confirmed would be the case and the online service would inform the user/
Councillor Trimm asked if the e-permitting program was subscription based, which Crozier confirmed that they had to rent the program.
“Is that going have a cost saving?” Trimm asked.
“It will be trial and error.” Chief Building Official Doug Shultz said. “It will save the cost, but it depends on how many use it. If we don’t have the majority of people using it, we won’t save. I won’t say that this is the system that we will use for years, but what we’ll do
“Security is my big concern.” Mayor Moore said. “What is our responsibility if we get hacked.
“We won’t be handling that; it will be that company that would be handling that. If they got hacked, I assume they would have the protocols in place to handle that. We just get the report.”
Mayor Nicholson asked how much of the fees were subsidized from the users, which Crozier asked if he could report back on that with the amount.
“I know we got behind before. Is there a way of putting an indexing of it, or rather than putting a big increase of every year?” Trimm asked.
“We look at this every year.” Treasurer Crozier.
Councillor Bell asked what the plans were for the wages amount were planned for the long term.
Emergency Measures, Animal Control and Bylaw
Emergency Measures expenses decreased by $83,500 to $18,300, due to a $70,000 line item in 2022 due to Flood risk assessment and a decrease to the COVID-19 line.
Animal Control decreased by 8,415, and By-law Enforcement increased by 1886, with a $1500 increase to contract.
Treasurer Crozier said the decrease due the removal of a $10,000 expense and revenue based on a government compensation fund for farmer livestock kills that he felt didn’t need to be represented ‘when it balances out.”
Councillor Trimm asked if the revenue for dog tags “substantially cover the expenses for animal control.”
“It doesn’t substantially cover expenses for animal control ,but it certainly does offset some costs.”
He said it was about 10-12,000 of revenue.
Councillor Moore asked where they stood with the contractor if their dog pound ‘was going to disappear’.
“The Township currently uses Bonnechere Valley’s dog pound, but there has been talk that the dog pound closes, and that’s because there’s a shortfall of revenue.” CAO Burton said. “We’ve been exploring other options, but certainly with the budget we can work with it.”
