Staff
The entire 2009 budget will be explained at a public meeting tonight, after which time council will vote on bylaws to pass the 2009 budget estimates and accompanying tax rates to support the municipal levy.
As previously reported, residential taxpayers will be looking at a 1.1 percent increase.
During a budget meeting last month, council voted in favour of a long-term debt financing scenario outlining the following levy increases (shown here with how much each property class now will be paying per $100,000 of assessment):
•Residential—1.1 percent ($1,863.78 per $100,000 of assessment);
•Multi-residential—1.2 percent ($4,350.20 per $100,000 of assessment);
•Commercial—0.3992 percent ($5,356.39 per $100,000 of assessment);
•Industrial—0.4762 percent ($5,924.35 per $100,000 of assessment);
•Large industrial—0.4987 ($10,319.06 per $100,000 of assessment); and
•Pipeline—0.847 ($6,089.75 per $100,000 of assessment).
For the residential class, the levy increase equals an extra $20.33 per $100,000 of assessment over the 2009 notional base rate of $1,843.45.
The 2009 operating budget is $21,026,101 (the portion covered by municipal taxation is $9,692,090, with rest covered by education taxes, the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund, user fees, etc.) while the total capital budget is $15,272,758.
Most of the cost of the capital projects is funded through various grants or reserves, with $1,667,819 to be funded through long-term debt.
In turn, this long-term debt and interest is paid off over the next 10 years through the aforementioned tax increases.
The public portion of tonight’s meeting will begin at 6:10 p.m. in Council Chambers. It will be preceded by the in-camera committee of the whole portion, which is scheduled to run from 5:30-6:05 p.m.
Other items on the agenda include:
•revisions to the water system contingency plan policies and the confined space policy;
•a request from Lindsay Oster re: a sun shelter at McIrvine Park;
•a submission to the Main Street Ontario program;
•a response to resolutions from the City of Cornwall and Township of Sioux Narrows-Nestor Falls asking the provincial government to abandon its plans for the harmonized sales tax (HST) and consult with taxpayers through a referendum or by campaigning on a platform of raising taxes before introducing any tax increase;
•the 2009 BIA budget;
•verbal updates from Community Services manager George Bell and Operations and Facilities manager Doug Brown regarding local projects;
•a report on council remuneration and travel expense policy;
•a presentation of the 2008 consolidated financial statements and management letters by Jon Evans of BDO Dunwoody;
•a presentation by Wayne Samuelson, president of the Ontario Federation of Labour, regarding the “Drive to Work” campaign and “Buy Ontario” policy;
•a break-open ticket licence application from the Riverside Foundation for Health Care at the La Verendrye Hospital lobby from June 1-Dec. 1, 2009;
•a joint financial request from the RBC Financial Group and Riverside Foundation for Health Care for support of the third-annual RBC Charity Golf Classic (July 11);
•a financial request from the Wallaceburg Disaster Relief Committee re: the Feb. 12, 2009 flooding in Wallaceburg;
•a bylaw to amend an agreement of purchase and sale of land with 1621623 Ontario Ltd. (Robert Zanette);
•a bylaw to approve a contract with Bay City Contractors Inc. (Thunder Bay) for reconstruction of Victoria Avenue, Nelson Street, and Portage Avenue; and
•a bylaw to approve a lease agreement with the Rainy River District Social Services Administration Board, with various partners, for purposes of an outreach program at 1018 Webster Ave.
