For Grey Highlands council, some very tough decisions are on the horizon as the 2025 budget process enters the home stretch.
On Jan. 8, Grey Highlands council completed its second straight day of committee of the whole budget meetings.
A day after decisions were made on capital budget items, council spent most of day two of the budget meetings discussing a list of 24 items to be considered as further additions to the 2025 budget. The full list can be found on the meeting agenda (item 10) here.
At the conclusion of the two-day decision-making process for capital projects and additional spending items, council was facing a local tax increase of 18.5 per cent.
Of this amount, 10.6 per cent was for increased capital spending, two per cent was for the additional items approved on Jan. 8, 7.4 per cent was for mandatory increases in the operating budget (examples include: increases for policing, insurance costs and new long-term debt repayments) and 1.5 per cent was for other annual increases (the full list of mandatory and annualized increase can be found online here - note: the mandatory increases were lowered after the province announced funding to reduce the impact cost increases for OPP services).
“We may want to reflect on that number,” said Coun. Tom Allwood, who is the municipality’s finance chair, after hearing the 18.5 per cent figure from staff.
At the first budget meeting in December, council had agreed to consider adding 10 per cent to the tax levy for capital spending. The decision was combined with members of council tasking themselves with making an effort to find five per cent savings in the operating budget to offset the proposed new capital spending.
The spending decisions made by council during the Jan. 8 meeting wrapped up with just over an hour to go before council hit its 4 p.m. cutoff time. This left just enough time on the clock for council to begin the conversation about potential spending and service cuts.
With the time remaining, Deputy Mayor Dane Nielsen and councillors Paul Allen and Nadia Dubyk were able to make brief presentations about possible spending reductions or revenue enhancements via fee increases.
“They’re not going to be easy conversations,” Nielsen said at the outset of his presentation. “I don’t even know if I’m supportive of these ideas.”
Nielsen pointed out that a five per cent cut to the operating budget amounted to a reduction of $750,000 in real spending.
“That’s not a small number. We won’t find that level of savings by nickel and diming,” he said. “We need to have serious conversations about service levels.”
Nielsen stipulated that the ideas he was presenting were for discussion and originated from his deliberations on the building and economic development and community development budget, the department he chairs. He said the suggestions were his ideas and did not come from staff.
Nielsen said the municipality could save significant operating costs (1.8 - 2 per cent) if one of the four arenas was closed, if two community halls were closed and sold to the public and if the financial assistance program to community groups and organizations was eliminated. Nielsen also noted the municipality would realize significant future capital spending savings under such a scenario.
“I’m not suggesting we do these things. If we’re serious about finding $750,000 in savings. It’s going to come from my department,” he said.
Dubyk, who chairs the environmental services department, said the municipality currently runs three landfill sites (Markdale, which is shared with Chatsworth, Artemisia and Osprey). Dubyk said $51,000 could be saved in the budget by closing the Osprey and Artemesia landfills and operating just the Markdale site. Dubyk said under this scenario there would be further savings with the elimination of the transfer of waste from the two landfills to the Markdale site, although she didn’t have a budget figure.
Allen, who chairs corporate and legislative services and the planning department meetings, suggested increasing the cost of cemetery plots from $1,100 to $2,500. Allen said the municipality sold 10 plots the previous year and this move would raise revenue by $14,000.
He also suggested increasing the marriage licence fees, cutting back on the number of conferences and seminars members of council could attend in a year, and cuts to the council and committee mileage budget.
In addition, Allen suggested the municipality’s planning fees be reviewed with an eye towards increasing them (a plan to do a full review of the planning fees was tentatively approved by council earlier in the meeting).
After the presentations, Allwood said the proposals were “severe” and would have a major impact on service levels.
“It’s very difficult to look at our operating budget and find $750,000 in savings without drastically cutting services,” he said.
As an alternative, Allwood suggested council direct staff to find one per cent in savings and task itself with reducing the capital increase from 10 per cent to five per cent.
CAO Karen Govan praised members of council for their budget work during the two days of decision making calling their efforts: “a job well done.”
However, Govan said staff had reviewed the budget multiple times and had “shaved and shaved” it down and she was concerned a direction for further savings would lead to a deficit.
“This has been the most difficult budget I’ve been through in 20 years,” she said.
Nielsen also said he couldn’t support asking staff to trim the numbers any further.
“We can revisit the decisions we’ve made. We know the final number now,” said Nielsen. “Trying to tell staff to try and find one per cent again is not appropriate. This is up to council.”
Council will resume budget deliberations on Jan. 14 starting at 9 a.m.
