Budget – 2012 First Draft
Council got its first look at the draft budget for 2012 prepared by the staff. According to the Background note the staff … have tried to incorporate the policies and goals established by Council while maintaining a 0% increase in the tax rate. Presumably, these policies and goals are in the “Strategic Plan,” the slim document that can be found on the Municipal website. The 0% tax rate refers to the mill rate, the only part of the property tax which the Municipality has any control over. In fact property taxes will increase yet again by 6.11% for residential owners and 2.46% for businesses.
Taxes have increased every year for several years principally because of the introduction of Market Value Assessment by the Provincial Government. The huge increase in the assessed value of properties caused by this policy was applied incrementally over four years. It means that municipalities get an automatic tax increase every year without having to take the blame. No doubt next year a new four year cycle will be announced.
The total revenue from taxes, grants, fees, etc is projected to be $8,797,209. Of this $4,444,972 or 95.4% of the total tax revenue comes from residential taxpayers. A further $463,000 comes from the National Park and $767,700 is a transfer payment from the Province. The remainder comes from user fees and a few other grants.
The largest single expenditure is for roads. This year $951,000 will be spent on new roads and road improvements. $1,650,000 will go on road maintenance. Parks and Recreation gets $1,700,000 and policing is allocated $660,000. The largest single capital expenditure is $130,000, which will be spent on new rink boards for the Lions Head arena.
Many departments bring in significant revenue mainly through user fees. Last year the building department cost $113,700 but it brought in $107,150 and ended the year making a profit of $3,007. Others departments are more expensive. The Tobermory airport, for example, cost $47,095 last year and only earned $14,994 making a loss of $32,101. This raises the question of the value of the airstrip to the municipality. It was estimated that fewer than ten residents of the municipality used the airstrip. Most of the traffic is from flying schools and government. The Municipality does not charge a landing fee for non-resident users.
Another money losing operation is the Tobermory Marina, which this year is expected to lose $30,000, unlike the Lions Head marina, which is expected to break even. One of the big differences is that Lions Head has many more berths for seasonal boaters which last year brought in $139,538. Tobermory’s seasonal wharfage only earned $23,496. However, the demand for wharfage in Tobermory is huge. Over 50 people have been waiting for a slip since 1992 and many more do not even bother to put their names on the list. This year a mere $10,000 in capital improvements will be spent on Tobermory’s Marina on minor repairs. Lions Head will receive $20,000 for docks. Clearly, there is a compelling case to develop a better business plan for Tobermory’s Marina.
Municipal water systems are another money loser. Last year, Lions Head water last year lost $64,643 and this year the deficit will be $83,960. Part of the reason for this is that when the plant was built it was bigger than was necessary at the time in order to handle groth. The theory was that as additional users hooked up the loss would diminish. That does not appear to be the case. An additional reason is that water rates are being kept artificially low in order to attract new users.
Tobermory’s water also regularly loses money. Last year the deficit was $73,363. However, the principal user is the Municipality through the Community Centre, the marina and the daycare.
The biggest money loser in the Municipality is the Lions Head Arena. Its average loses over the last two years have been $173,872. This year it is expected to lose $193,850. In addition, approximately, $130,000 will be spent in capital improvements. The Tobermory Community Centre regularly loses money and last year the deficit was $104,208. This year that is expected to improve.
For several years money has been put into a reserve fund to enable the Fire Department to purchase new equipment. This year $70,000 has been added to the reserve for a new fire truck replacement. The cost will be in the region of $300,000. While the existing pumper is probably not state of the art, given the very few times it goes out on calls, it is probably in excellent condition.
There has also been a steep increase in council costs. This is apparently due to the increase in the number of meetings caused by the Parks and Recreation Plan and the Waste Diversion Plan.
If you are interested in looking at the Draft Budget it can be found at:
https://northernbrucepeninsula.civicweb.net/FileStorage/CF65E4225ACC47C2842D514D29C48FD7-WorkspaceBUDGET%20REPORT.pdf
As it is your taxes that are being spent your views are very important. Pass them on the Mayor and Council. The next meeting to discuss the draft will be March 5, 2012.
Public Meeting
There was a public meeting respecting an application to amend the municipality’s zoning by-law to permit the severance of a property located in the former Lindsay Township in a 200 acre parcel and a 94.5 acre parcel. Council approved the application.
Daycare
There was a delegation from the Bruce Peninsula Family Centre requesting funding in the amount of $4,100 to cover grass-cutting, water, and heating oil. Discussion of this request was deferred to agenda item 13, which dealt with all funding of all community groups.
Department Reports
The OPP provided their November and December reports. Statistics for 2011 showed a significant drop in impaired driving charges from 52 to 29. Similarly, break and enter charges fell from 77 in 2010 to 58 but thefts and mischief charges increased.
The Fire department responded to 7 calls during the month of January. These included two medical assists, three fires, one false alarm and one rescue.
The By-law Enforcement Officer proposed minor changes to several by-laws to make them more effective. These dealt with Open Air Burning, Tents, Trailers and Motor Homes, and the Sign By-law.
The Facilities Supervisor provided background information to support a change in the Off Season Harbour Transient Fee for the Tobermoryand Lions Head marinas. However, the impact on the revenue the Municipality receives from transient wharfage will, apparently, be minimal.
Community Grant Requests
This was the most interesting issue on the afternoon agenda. Twenty three community groups requested a total of $34,410. This is double what was asked for last year.
The purpose of the By-law permitting the granting of funds to community groups does set out some criteria: To provide funds to cultural, heritage, arts, and tourism or community groups which will have an impact on the quality of life in the community of the Municipality of Northern Bruce Peninsula. This pretty much includes anything you can think of and it is no help at all in deciding who should get funding and who should not.
Requests came from groups wanting to put on community entertainments like street parades, Christmas presents for children, youth groups, scientific initiatives, Fall Fairs, etc. All of these are commendable but it was apparent that the criteria was too open-ended and some limits needed to be applied. For example, while it is excellent to fund meal programs and other forms of assistance for school children, perhaps this should be the responsibility of the Board of Education. A large part of our property taxes go to the Board and the ability of the school children to pay for and participate in the school programs ought to be the Board’s responsibility.
It is not clear why the daycares in Tobermory and Lions Head should have to apply for funding through this program. The availability of daycare is vital to the economic development of the municipality and it should have stable and adequate funding to enable them to do long term planning. We provide stable annual funding of $25,000 per year for the Physicians Recruitment and Retention Committee that is not dependent on going ‘cap in hand’ to Council every year. We also allow the Arena to operate at a huge deficit to provide a venue for sports and other amusements. The care and education of pre-school children at their most impressionable age ought to be a priority.
Council decided to postpone any decision until the requests and the rationale for approving them was considered in more depth by the staff.
