Editor's Note: This story was previously posted to StratfordToday.ca.
After two days of meetings on the 2025 budget, Stratford is facing the possibility that the original 5.8 per cent increase in the tax levy might now become the mythical ‘white whale’ before deliberations conclude next week.
The finance and labour relations committee began their session December 3 hopeful they would be able to find ways to lower the proposed levy to something closer to five per cent, but that train went off the rails following a day of talking about proposed expansions from the various city departments. Council was faced with a 2.29 per cent increase to the budget with all expansions included, and 10 items were approved while two were defeated, two were deferred for a year, and the biggest item in the package was sent back to staff to find a more economical option.
The item in question was the proposed Human Resources Information System (HRIS) that carried a $425,000 price tag and accounted for half a percent increase to the overall budget. Committee chair Mark Hunter didn’t disagree with the suggestion that the city’s HR department needed some help updating their processes but wanted to know if it could be done in a more cost-effective manner when he asked for other options.
It was that kind of day in council chambers.
“Depending on your perspective, from a tax payer’s perspective, right now we’re in a little worse position than we were after the first day of budget talks because we’re dealing with a long list of expansions,” he said. “We’re not done the work yet, and I think that all the expansions are going to give service to the community and that’s what is the hard part about this. I know everybody would love to hear from our community because these are all trade-offs – if you want quality service, you’ve got to pay more and we’re trying to balance that.”
Hunter was pleased with the discussions and said he thinks everyone is focused on the same goal in getting the most for the city at the least amount of cost, but with the talks not concluded and the levy increase still likely hovering over six per cent Hunter admitted there are going to be tough choices on the table when they finish deliberations on December 9.
Earlier in the meeting, Hunter expressed a desire to see the levy come in around five per cent and he made a suggestion during talks on the operating budget to cut the city’s community grants and supports to help get them there. That $1.2 million would’ve trimmed enough from the budget to put them a lot closer to the five per cent, but the rest of council didn’t have the appetite to take that step.
“That is one the one place that offers the most benefit back to the community,” Coun. Cody Sebben said in voicing his opposition to that suggestion. Fellow councillor Jo-Dee Burbach said that she would find it hard to accept the municipality not living up to its contribution to Stratford General Hospital, contained within that section of the budget.
These were the hard decisions that Hunger alluded to at the opening of the meeting, and ones they may have to revisit before they arrive at a final decision.
“We’re going to have to find some savings that we haven’t found yet (to reach five per cent), and that’s going to impact servicing,” he said. “I think we’ve got work to do and still have decisions to make. I personally feel like we didn’t get where I wanted this to get, but I look at other municipalities in Ontario and 5.8 per cent is not an unreasonable number to come back to. But even then, because we’ve had expansions, we’ve still got a little money to find. I think we can get there, but I’m less confident we’ll get below five now.”
The finance and labour relations committee meets Monday, Dec. 9, at 4:30 p.m. in council chambers to conclude budget discussions.