City to pour more money into road resurfacing as part of 2018 budget
Property tax increase will be two per cent

OttawaCommunityNew.com
Nov. 9, 2017
Jennifer McIntosh

Mayor Jim Watson said he’s heard from residents that they’d like to see more money put into the city’s roads and winter maintenance.

Spending on roads will increase to $12.6 million in 2018 – bringing the annual budget to $112.4 million. Snow removal will get a little more than a $2 million bump, bringing it to a total of $68.3 million.

The figure for snow removal is based on recommendations by KPMG, a consultant the city hired last year to look at snow removal targets.

Watson said snow removal is one of the biggest challenges.

“You never know how much snow you’ll get,” he said, adding on lighter years, surplus funds in the budget get put into a “snow reserve.”

The city released the draft budget at the Nov. 8 council meeting. In what has become status quo over the last five years, the property tax increase will remain at two per cent, but provincial uploading of costs for administering the Ontario Works program and childcare, as well as a staff restructuring at city hall implemented after city manager Steve Kanellakos first took over the helm, has given the city some wiggle room to invest in key priorities.

It’s also worth noting that the budget includes a two per cent increase to recreation fees, a 2.5 per cent increase to transit fares, a four per cent increase to water rates and five per cent increase to waste water and stormwater rates respectively.

The city’s total budget is $3.42 billion. Forty per cent of that is related to labour, said deputy treasurer Isabelle Jasmin.

The other top costs pressures include: policing, water and sewer and community and social services.

The rural areas are also going to see a windfall for investments in their roads and culverts, Watson said – with the total number hitting more than $44 million.

Because of the rain and heavy snowfalls last spring and winter, the city has been plagued with more than the usual number of potholes, this year, prompting a $400,000 increase to that budget.

Watson also said he’s asked staff to explore the possibility of a city-run and owned asphalt plant to ensure we are using the highest quality asphalt and getting a competitive price.

ON THE MOVE

Getting around seemed to be theme, as Watson announced there will be 20 new bus routes in the capital. Largely those routes will be in the suburbs such as Kanata, Orléans and Stittsville, but there’s one slated for the newly minted community of Wateridge – the former home of CFB Rockcliffe.

An additional 17 double-decker buses will be added to the OC Transpo fleet and the eligibility criteria for ParaTranspo will be expanded to include those with developmental delays.

FAKE NUMBERS

College Coun. Rick Chiarelli spiced up the meeting by declaring the budget numbers to be “fake.”

In the past, Chiarelli has been vocal about the deficit - the debt load that it carries year over year. This year it stayed at $2.27 billion, the same as last year, but has steadily increased over the last decade.

Just comparing 2016, when the deficit was at $1.78 billion to the 2018 number, there’s a more than 27 per cent increase.

While Chiarelli wasn’t immediately available for comment, Watson spoke to allegations in the briefing following the budget’s release.

“The reality is I would encourage members of council to read the budget before they criticize it,” Watson said, adding Chiarelli missed the presentation of the budget by Jasmin.

“There are no one-time fixes,” Watson said. “The numbers are all solid.”

City treasurer Marian Simulik also called the numbers solid. She said one of the things city manager Steve Kanellakos did was look at where the city was vulnerable in terms of the budget estimates.

One of things that stuck out for Simulik was the vacancy allowance – an amount the city budgets for positions that become vacant that don’t have to be filled.

“We still have two or three areas to work on,” Simulik said, adding there’s always going to be surprises – like lawsuits, and a change to the minimum wage.

“We simply cannot be all things to all people,” Watson said in his budget speech. “It’s also about setting priorities – and I believe that Budget 2018 balances those key priorities in a manner that will broadly secure our residents’ support…”