Brampton budget process - Crunching numbers


NRU
March 4, 2015
By Leah Wong

Brampton’s budget sub-committee has wrapped up departmental presentations and moved to its public consultation phase. Local councillors are in the midst of holding virtual town meetings and a community meeting is set for March 24.

Council deliberations on the budget will begin March 30 after completion of the public consultation phase, with councilors debating the recommended budgets for each department. Council is expected to approve the final budget at a special meeting April 8.

This year’s budget process follows a report from interim auditor general Jim McCarter on the city’s financial health. McCarter’s report concludes that, in contrast to past reports indicating Brampton is in a solid financial position, there may be “financial storm clouds” ahead that could require difficult decisions. He highlighted three issues: a limited increase to discretionary reserve funds, state of good repair and increasing operating expenses. These issues are on the table as councillors work through the budget.

The planning and infrastructure services business plan and budget were presented by planning and building senior executive director Dan Kraszewski and maintenance and operations executive director Joseph Pitushka.

The department is seeking to maintain its service levels from last year. Its final budget request will include the resources needed to respond to the city’s growth through proactive municipal planning advice and development approvals. In 2014 council approved an $87.4-million net operating budget and $159.9-million capital budget for the department. Last year, the department had a staff complement of 659.

Planning and infrastructure services is comprised of four divisions-maintenance and operations, planning and building, development and engineering services and building services. The department’s presentation outlined a number of strategic initiatives for each division in 2015.

The planning and building division is focused on the official plan and secondary plan review, the downtown mobility hub/master plan and implementation of the second unit dwelling registration program.

Engineering and development services will finish its transportation master plan update and its review of the subdivision agreement/assumption process. It will also start work on the parks and recreation master plan and expand active transportation planning.

The maintenance and operations division will work on identifying key issues affecting traffic management in the city and utilize automated vehicle tracking locators in the delivery of winter services operations.

Building services will initiate a customer service strategy for the department and a departmental work force and capacity review. It will also define key performance indicators to implement measuring and tracking mechanisms.