Budget discussions began for Stratford on November 28 at the finance and labour relations subcommittee meeting, with committee chair Mark Hunter confirming that city residents are looking at a tax levy increase of just under six per cent for 2025.
While the actual number may vary from the 5.8 per cent figure as deliberations conclude on December 3, a $6.6 million increase over last year’s budget remains a sizeable roadblock. That being said, Hunter indicated that this was better than he expected compared to last year’s 12.5 per cent hike.
“This was better than expected because I haven’t seen a lot of things that just generally have come down in price or that have slowed in their increase,” he said following the first day of discussions. “I was expecting something very similar to last year. I know that, as Karmen (Krueger) said, some of the contributions to reserves were slowed down a little. We haven’t erased those contributions but we’ve slowed them down a little to lessen the impact of the budget.”
Making a decision to put less money into the city’s reserves might help this year but it will be felt down the road, and Hunter said that the municipality has taken steps to counteract that. He pointed to their decision to green-light the Krug Factory development and provide more dense housing for the city as a means to generate income.
“That kind of growth is going to be an important part of balancing our budgets going forward,” he said. “Without it, we’d just have to keep asking for more money every year and none of us want to be doing that, and the people living here don’t want to pay extra either.”
The first day of deliberations included briefings from department heads on their individual budgets along with outside board presentations before council reviewed draft capital program considerations. One of those outside boards was the Stratford Police Service, which is asking for an approximate 16 per cent increase over last year. In that ask is more than $734,000 for replacement of existing capital assets that includes new computer equipment, four new vehicles, a canine unit vehicle and a next-gen 9-1-1 package. In Chief Greg Skinner’s words, these were ‘needs, not wants – there are no luxuries in this budget.’ Despite the need, Hunter did ask Skinner if there were areas they could find some cost savings.
“I’m sure like in any large organization there’s a bit here and a little bit there when it comes to savings, but they’re getting harder to find those little bits from my first budget,” he said. “We don’t have control over expenses, like the price of fuel, but we still have to serve our community. What I do in my business and what I think we’re trying to do here is also focus on the revenue growth side. If we can grow the revenue from non-residential tax sources, meaning industrial and commercial, it lowers the burden on our community and allows us to maintain high levels of service.”
The extra $6.6 million the city has to make us is a big number, but there is still potential to shrink the number as deliberations wrap up Tuesday. It’s going to take some hard choices, as Hunter indicated in pointing to his comments towards Skinner and the police budget requests.
“As the chief said, there’s been more gun violence this year than we’ve had in a long time, but we’ve got to have (the police),” he said. “Other communities have looked at have the OPP as an option, but I worry about the difference in level of service. And we don’t have control over the police budget – for good reason – but it’s frustrating when you see those costs go up and up and up and the community has to keep supporting it. It’s a tough balance, and I’m trusting our police board that we can find some savings for us this year and then figure out how we go forward.”
Included in this year’s budget process is an open forum for members of the public to attend on Tuesday in council chambers where they can bring their concerns about the document and be heard before final decisions are made. Hunter said they’re been getting feedback about the lack of a mechanism for people to be heard apart from delegating to council, and this was put in place to help fix that issue.
“Our hope in doing this is that we have a more engaged budget process this year, and that started with some reaching out to the community before the budget,” he said\. “The hope is if there are people in the audience that have questions, that we would have an opportunity for them to speak to council. I’m sure you recall last year there were a lot more people in the gallery because the numbers were so high and people were concerned. We welcome them to come with their questions.”
The committee meeting reconvenes in council chambers Tuesday, Dec. 3, at 9 a.m. Anyone with questions about the open forum can direct their inquiries to the clerk’s office.
