Staff
Town council will be waiting a while longer to pass its 2017 budget.
The budget meeting tentatively scheduled for next Monday (April 3) has been postponed due to the fact the town has not yet received the 2017 education tax rates from the province.
Town treasurer Laurie Lindberg told the Times that council currently is looking at a balanced budget, but wants to wait to see what the impact of the education tax rates will be before finalizing it.
It is anticipated, however, that the education tax rates will go down somewhat, which means less revenue for the town–in particular, the payment in lieu (PIL) payments the town gets for properties owned by senior levels of government.
The budget is expected to have a zero percent levy increase this year to mitigate the recent reassessment by the Municipal Property Reassessment Corp. (MPAC), as per council’s direction.
“They didn’t want to see an increase in our levy–basically, the levy is the amount of taxes that we collect–because of the assessment,” Lindberg explained.
She added some people who have seen large assessment increases still will see their taxes go up while others whose assessment has gone down likely will pay close to what they did last year.
In other business at Monday night’s meeting, council:
•approved a donation to the Fort Frances High School “Chem-Free Grad” party committee, in the amount of $960.90, for the 2017 “Chem-Free Grad” event taking place Thursday, June 22 at the Memorial Sports Centre (this money is equal to the cost of renting the arena and auditorium);
•agreed to allocate contributions to capital from reserve funds in the amount of $259,810.55, and contributions to capital in the amount of $2,168.38 from the general operating fund, to finance certain 2016 capital fund expenditures;
•referred various in-kind requests from G. Thorstad, president of the Boundary Waters Dragon Boat Foundation, re: the sixth-annual International Boundary Waters Dragon Boat Festival here on July 8, to the Administration and Finance executive committee for its recommendation, with input from the other three executive committees;
•agreed to enter into a geospatial data licence agreement with fire underwriters, and further that an authorizing bylaw be brought forward to the next regular meeting for execution by mayor and council;
•declined a request for financial support from the Rainy River Cattlemen’s Association;
•referred a financial request from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, re: replenishing FCM’s Legal Defense Fund, to the Administration and Finance executive committee for its recommendation (the request is for two cents per capita);
•agreed to proclaim May as “Community Living Month” in the Town of Fort Frances, as per a request from Community Living Fort Frances and District;
•passed a bylaw to approve an agreement with 539989 Ontario Ltd., doing business as North Air Services, for the provision of Dial-A-Ride services here (this is for a three-year term, with the option to renew for an additional three-year term); and
•passed a bylaw to amend Bylaw 21/14 to include permitting heavy trucks to park on the 500-1200 blocks of Scott Street for no more than one hour and the designation of a handicapped parking stall at the Fort Frances Public Library parking lot.
