The Municipality of Chatham-Kent is looking at a 2.27% increase for this year's budget to allow for much-needed infrastructure investments.
The tabling of the 2018 draft budget was held at the Muncipality of Chatham-Kent Civic Centre Wednesday evening.
Budget Chair Derek Robertson says the proposed budget increase equates to about $64 a year for a house assessed at $165,500 in Chatham-Kent.
"In terms of a 2.27% increase, I think that would be the highest increase that we've had in the last four years. We haven't had an increase over 2% and we froze the budget once over the course of this past term. This council, in my mind, has been one of the most responsible in terms of maintaining services, investing in infrastructure, investing in itself, and keeping a low tax rate,"explains Robertson.
Last year's budget passed with a 1.96% hike.
Robertson says of the 2.27% that is being allocated right now, about 1.35% would be invested into infrastructure. He says this increase in infrastructure funding is part of the municipality's 2017 Asset Management Plan, which focuses on the improvement of all infrastructure in the municipality, including roads, waterways, bridges, and culverts.
"Chatham-Kent has 5% of all the bridges in Ontario, it's a ridiculous number because I can guarantee you we don't have 5% of the people in Ontario... We currently pay for services and pay for the infrastructure with 44 people per square kilometer in Chatham-Kent, compared to 1,500 people per square kilometer in Windsor... now that doesn't seem like a fair game does it?" he says.
Robertson says another item to be allocated for on this year's budget is the province's new Bill 148, the Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act. The draft budget states that there is an $834,000 impact on the municipality from the new legislation, which includes a total cost of $302,864 due to the minimum wage increase. However, this will have zero net impact on the overall tax increase because of base budget reductions ($83,005), user fee increases ($163,351), tax area-rated increases ($31,211) and staffing reductions ($25,297).
Other impacts of Bill 148 will cost around $534,00 annually. These include equal pay for equal work, increase for part-time vacation pay, parental leave top-up, three-hour rule scheduling, public holiday practise, minimum on-call rules, and personal emergency leave days.
"It's going to a significant impact on staffing and wages with providing a living wage in our community... it's a figure that's imposed upon us and one that we have to react to. It's impacting all public sector entities, not just simply just this municipality, and it's impacting all private sector entities," says Robertson.
According to Robertson, there have been no significant service cuts in this year's budget.
"During budget time, one of the things that we always see is the threat to community assets... but we don't have a budget that is threatening our libraries, it's not threatening our arenas, or other infrastructure that's held dear in our communities," he says.
The municipality is currently in $86-million worth of debt, which is down from $161-million in 2010.
Budget Committee deliberations are scheduled for January 30, 31, and February 1 from 6pm to 10pm in the council chambers at the Civic Centre.
Robertson also reminds residents that they are invited to attend the municipality's community open houses next Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, which are being held in various sites around the municipality.