With 2016 drawing to a close, Perth South Mayor Bob Wilhelm says a couple key things stand out from this year that the municipality got done.
"One of the controversial ones was the bins for the garbage and recycling pickup, it's something that we have to move to in order to assist the workers for Bluewater Recycling. Also another big one was the new farmhouse severances legislation," says Wilhelm.
Wilhelm says, overall, he felt it was a very productive year for the municipality. He also says 2017 is going to be challenging budget-wise for the municipality, due to major funding losses.
"With the reduction from the province on the OMPF funding, that's a major problem for us, with us losing over $300,000 in funding," he says. "We have to look at a way of finding that revenue somewhere without raising the taxes into double digits."
Despite funding losses, Wilhelm says there are some things that are top of mind for the municipality in the new year.
"We're certainly going to continue with our infrastructure, our roads and bridges, we've got a long-term plan which we need to stick to," says Wilhelm. "With that in mind, we're going to try and do some shared purchases and shared services to try and reduce some of our costs."