With Chatham-Kent budget deliberations only a week away, one of the most vital parts of the process is officially underway.
The municipality hosted its first community consultation on Tuesday afternoon, which includes a summary of the draft budget and provides residents a chance to ask questions about the budget.
The draft budget is proposing a tax increase of 3.96 per cent for 2021. For an average household assessed at $173,700 in Chatham-Kent, an increase of 3.96 per cent would equal an extra cost of $117 a year.
The budget process is being done completely virtually this year due to the pandemic. All community consultation meetings are being held live on the municipality's Facebook page.
"It was really our first time using this type of format," explained Budget Chair Brock McGregor. "So there are always concerns about working those bugs out and making sure things go smoothly. Fortunately, it went well and I thought we were able to engage well and get to quite a few questions from community members."
Several questions on Tuesday dealt with protecting the region's most vulnerable populations including concerns about helping homeless individuals and plans for sustainable housing. A bulk of the questions also revolved around what's being done to assist homeowners and business owners who have felt the negative financial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
McGregor said it's no surprise that the spotlight was on these types of concerns.
"I think that it's really a message that we've heard for quite some time now," he said. "Obviously, we're quite a ways into this pandemic and everyone's aware of the stress that that's been causing and the challenges, particularly the vulnerable in our community are facing as well as businesses in our community. It's important to define what the municipality's role is in being there as a support."
According to April Rietdyk, general manager of community human services, plans for assisting the homeless population in Chatham-Kent is a topic that municipal officials have been working on for quite some time.
A section of the draft budget includes 0.43 per cent allocated towards "investing in our community," which includes investments towards affordable housing and emergency initiatives.
"Certainly we have seen in Chatham-Kent a significant increase in our homeless population over the last year...Our plans moving forward are to really look at affordable housing...Right now within the budget, you will see a supplementary ask accessing our economic downturn reserves to maintain our emergency rapid rehousing program until we are able to find accommodations for all of our homeless," said Rietdyk.
When asked about safeguards being put in place to protect residents from extra fees as they deal with COVID, such as late tax notice fees, reconnecting fees for utilities and other municipal control fees, Chief Financial Officer Gord Quinton said those kinds of programs are largely in the hands of upper levels of government.
"On the income side...if it's a business, both the province and federal government have a long list of significant programs they have...On the personal side, it's more on the federal government through their programs, whether it's unemployment or back in the summer we had the CERB program. Those types of programs are there in place to help individuals," explained Quinton. "I know all levels of governments are asked to help out, but sometimes it's about distinguishing which level of government is best prepared to react to certain needs. I think a lot of the COVID relief needs to come from the upper levels of government and not your neighbour, your other property taxpayers."
Quinton also fielded questions about why it was necessary to raise property taxes if the costs of houses continue to rise, which he said was one of the most misunderstood concepts when it comes to taxes.
"Rising assessments provide absolutely no money to the municipality. It's 100 per cent revenue neutral...For example, if everyone's houses went from an average $160,000 value to an average of $260,000 value. If everyone has gone up the same over the last five years, there will be no impact to anyone's tax bills," he said." It's only how your individual house compares to the average that will impact whether you're going to pay more taxes in the future or less taxes in the future."
A couple more community consultations are being held this week, one on Wednesday from 4 p.m. until 5 p.m. and one on Thursday from 6 p.m. until 7 p.m. Anyone unable to attend during those times can send a question or opinion in advance by emailing ckfps@chatham-kent.ca. Videos of the meetings can also be found afterward on the municipality's Facebook page.
McGregor said he's hopeful that even more residents will participate in the final two community meetings.
"As it stands right now, we're working with a draft budget and when we get to budget deliberations, that's when we really finalize some of those decisions," he said. "While we're listening to feedback all year and making decisions all year and taking that information in and weighing it, this is really that last best chance for people to provide some direct feedback and make their opinion known."
The budget deliberation meetings will be held on January 27, 28 and February 2 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. If more time is required, February 3 and 4 have also been set aside if needed.