City proposes cutbacks in 2025 draft budget

You’re reading the November 5, 2024 edition of the Peterborough Currents email newsletter. To receive our email newsletters straight to your inbox, sign up here.

---

Good morning and welcome to the Peterborough Currents newsletter, where we share our latest stories and catch you up on local news.

In this week’s newsletter: The City of Peterborough’s draft budget for 2025 was released last night, kicking off a month-long period of deliberation and debate to finalize the city’s spending plan for next year.

Also this week: A new Hindu worship space opened downtown over the summer. We visited the Bhojan Hindu Temple Society to learn how it is making South Asian international students feel more at home in Peterborough.

Let’s get to it.

---

City’s draft budget for 2025 proposes service cuts to keep tax increase in check

The City of Peterborough’s draft budget for 2025 was released at a committee meeting last night, kicking off a period of public deliberation that will last about a month. Mayor Jeff Leal is expected to table the budget in December for final approval.

Councillors signalled to staff earlier in the year that they wanted a budget with a tax increase of no more than 5 percent. Instead, staff are offering a draft budget with an increase of 7.8 percent — but staff still had to make over $1 million in spending cuts to get there, according to the budget documents.

A 7.8 percent tax increase would mean a tax bill next year that’s about $375 higher for the median assessed home, the documents state.

If city councillors want to bring the tax increase down below 7.8 percent, they can consult a “menu of options” for further cutbacks that staff included in the draft budget. Some of those options are drastic and could include completely eliminating some services, such as the Art Gallery of Peterborough or the daytime drop-in at the Trinity Community Centre.

We’re still digesting the budget documents at Peterborough Currents. But here are a few items that caught our attention yesterday.

Arts groups and other non-profits face big cuts

In the draft budget, municipal staff recommend cutting funding for arts groups and other non-profits.

Through its Community Grants and Community Service Agreement programs, the city provides grants to various local non-profits and community groups. According to the budget, the groups “improve the quality of life for residents” and they work in sectors such as the arts, social services, and the environment.

The draft budget recommends cutting the grants by 25 percent for nearly all recipients. That means the Market Hall would receive $62,074 in 2025 compared to the $82,765 it received in 2024, for example. And the Kawartha Sexual Assault Centre would receive $11,250 — down from $15,000.

17 specific groups are targeted for the 25 percent cutback. For a complete list of these recommended cuts, click here. Altogether, these 17 cuts would save taxpayers $241,895 next year, according to the budget documents.

Discretionary benefits on the chopping block

City staff have recommended cutting some of the health benefits offered to people on social assistance.

They’re called “discretionary benefits,” and they cover items such as dental care, vision care, hearing aids, and funeral costs for people who receive Ontario Works (OW) or the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), according to the budget documents.

The provincial government funds these benefits — but only up to a point. The City of Peterborough currently contributes additional funding to offer more benefits than what the provincial funding makes possible. But staff recommend eliminating the city’s contribution as a way of saving $235,695.

The budget documents don’t say how many people might be affected or what health benefits they could lose access to as a result of these cuts.

Police ask for another above-inflation increase

The budget request from the Peterborough Police could drive the 2025 property tax increase even higher or necessitate more spending cuts elsewhere in the budget.

When city staff developed their draft budget, they gave the police a 3 percent increase. But the Police Services Board has instead asked for an increase of 8.8 percent — nearly three times as much as city staff budgeted for.

Councillors will have to decide whether to raise the tax rate higher or make more cutbacks if they want to accommodate the full budget ask from the police. (Check out our previous coverage on the police budget here.)

Last year, municipal taxpayers paid $35 million for police services. If councillors approve the full 8.8 percent increase, that will rise to $38 million in 2025.

---

Hindu temple opens in downtown Peterborough

For years, the Khera family has provided a taste of home to South Asian international students in Peterborough. They opened Indian Peacock on Simcoe Street in 2019 and sold Indian food and groceries from that location until a fire gutted the building in 2022.

More recently, they reopened on George Street under a new name: Bhojan. Since then, the Bhojan grocery store and restaurant have became a hub for South Asian international students, just like Indian Peacock was. 

But Bhojan customers soon gave Arun Khera some feedback. To feel more at home in Peterborough, the students said they needed a place to pray. So the Khera family got to work and opened a worship space in a storefront across the street. The Bhojan Hindu Temple Society opened in July 2024 with Mayor Jeff Leal in attendance.

Inside, the space is hung with orange and yellow marigold garlands, along with a bell in the centre of the room. A flame is lit on the puja, or altar, and thin tendrils of incense waft up toward the ceiling.

On a recent afternoon, a worshipper named Abusleck was in the space. He said he tries to make his way to the temple every day during his lunch break. “In India there are many temples so it was easy to go and pray every day,” he said. “But this is the only place like this here so I come whenever I can.”

Currents reporter Alex Karn visited the Bhojan Hindu Temple Society and spoke to some international students who use the space. To learn more, read Alex’s story on our website.

---

---

Thanks for reading the Peterborough Currents email newsletter! Here’s where you can sign up to have these sent straight to your inbox.