The Council of the Township of Whitewater approved the approach and timetable of the 2023 budget.
Treasurer Sean Crozier asked a video be played, which outlined the budgeting process.
He said they planned to pass the budget in early February, due to the delays with the Municipal election.
“The details of these reports are supported by data from experts in the field.” he said. “I’m taking those numbers and presenting them to you in order.”
He said that some reports would be coming on projects ongoing in debentures, and that they’re ‘not planning
Councillor Olmstead said that they were supposed to have a 23% increase in wastewater, while what they got was a 19%.
“We’re paying for sins of not charging what we should have for water.” he said.
He also said that they were 8.3 million dollars short of what they should be getting for funding.
“We certainly need to find a middle ground to get started on getting back to a healthy environment for infrastructure.” he said.
“We were setting records for severances. I would hate to see this report if we didn’t have that.” He said. “This Council is going to have some tough choices ahead.”
He recommended Key-performance metrics ot determine “how we stack up”.
Councillor Bell asked if residents with issues with the tax increases would have some kind of resource they could use, and CAO Burton said they could help communicate some.
Councillor Joey Trimm asked where they were in the four-year assessment cycle.
“We’re currently halted.” Crozier said. “Nobody really knows at this point. That would be a Ministry of Finance decision, and nobody really knows if it goes from 2016 to 2024. That is a question that comes up often.”
Mayor Nicholson asked if they could get in touch with their local MPAC representative on that regard.
Coouncillor Connie Tabbert asked if the Cobden resident got a 28% increase in taxes as per the report.
Treasurer Crozier said that the tax levy would be 9.2%, but that “does not equate to the tax increase to the resident.” And that they were having a 9.3% water rate increase, equalling $92 increase
Councillor Moore asked for a reissue of the Watson Report.
Councillor Olmstead told Councillor Tabbert that “it is important that you can’t equate the operating house levy to per household. Its a total levy increase, and then you divide it by the households.”
Councillor Bell commented: “it is important that we as Council understand that, in order to legitimize the changes. Maybe get some good comparisons in Renfrew County where we are in that basket.
“We are not approving the budget tonight, we are giving the staff some kind of idea of what we’re going for tonight.” Mayor Nicholson said.
He also recommended the increase of users would affect the total effect of the increase.
He asked Councillor Moore to ‘really dig into’ the wastewater and water costs, and recommended that the Council familiarize themselves with the report.
“You need to come with suggestions and input.” he said.
CAO Burton said that “we need to become sustainable.”
Mayor Nicholson also advised staff to “book us for as much time as available” if needed for the budget.”
“I’m very confident that we’re going to figure this out.” Councillor Olmstead said.
The motion was passed.
