Audio Social assistance cuts. A money-losing airport. An empty research park. Here are some key stories from the 2024 budget deliberations.

Peterborough city councillors went through the municipality’s draft budget for 2024 page by page and line by line last week. Sitting as finance committee for three nights in a row starting on November 20, they were staring down a potential 9.59 percent increase to residential property taxes next year and were on the lookout for ways to reign in spending.

A ballooning police budget, rising fuel prices, and recent wage hikes for city staff are some of the factors driving the proposed tax hike, according to budget documents.

The police budget alone accounted for 25 percent of the proposed tax increase, but councillors didn’t give it any attention during the meetings.

Instead, they tried to find savings elsewhere in much smaller budget lines. But even there, they were unsuccessful. After reviewing all of the city’s planned expenditures for 2024, councillors hadn’t agreed on any significant cutbacks or efficiencies to bring the tax increase down.

However, late on Wednesday, councillors voted to shift some of the tax burden away from residential taxpayers and on to commercial and industrial taxpayers. That way, they could lower the tax increase for residential property owners without cutting spending next year. In the end, they settled on a budget that includes a 7.38 percent tax increase instead of the previously proposed 9.59 percent. But that still needs to be approved at a city council meeting on December 11.

Peterborough Currents has teamed up with Arthur Newspaper to cover the municipal budget deliberations in a limited-run podcast series. Episode three focuses on the November 20 to 22 finance committee meetings.

In particular, we focus on five stories that emerged during council’s budget deliberations. From a proposed funding cut for social assistance medical benefits, to an airport that loses millions every year, these are five budget items that provoked debate among councillors.

You can listen to the podcast in the audio player above or wherever you get your podcasts. In addition, you can read a brief summary of the topics we discussed below.

Increased Frequency on Some Peterborough Transit Routes

The draft budget included $575,000 to hire six new staff at Peterborough Transit: two new supervisors and four new drivers. The new drivers would allow Peterborough transit to offer half-hourly service on some routes that currently run hourly.

But Coun. Don Vassiliadis moved to defer hiring the four drivers until 2025. That would save the city $340,000 next year, or about $7.85 for the median taxpayer.

Other councillors voiced their support for hiring the new drivers and boosting service frequency. “When people are believing that they can get to where they need to within an exact time with the greater frequency, we have an efficient transit system,” said Coun. Joy Lachica.

“We have to get transit down to a 20 minute service if we’re ever going to get people out of their cars and using transit,” said Keith Riel.

Vassiliadis wasn’t swayed. “If buses aren’t leaving on time and are canceled, then I can’t see how four extra drivers just at the moment will will increase the ridership,” he said.

In the end, city council voted against Vassiliadis’s motion, meaning the new funding for transit is still in the 2024 budget. It was a close vote; the motion to defer the hires lost 6 to 5. Councillors Beamer, Duguay, Parnell, and Haacke joined Vassiliadis in voting against the new transit hires, while the other six members of council voted in favour.

Social Assistance Discretionary Benefits

The draft budget proposed cutting the city’s spending on discretionary benefits for people on social assistance by $150,000 next year. That’s a cut of 35 percent, and it would save the city’s median taxpayer about $3.50 next year.

These benefits cover things like dental care, funeral expenses, hearing aids, and bus pass subsidies for people on Ontario Works, social services director Rebecca Morgan-Quin told councillors during budget talks.

The city’s commissioner of community services, Sheldon Laidman, told councillors that some of the budget for discretionary benefits has gone unused in recent years, which is why staff recommended cutting the budget in 2024. “There is a risk … that we will run out of money at the end of the year,” Laidman said. “But it was a calculated risk by staff that it was something that can be accommodated right now.”

Coun. Keith Riel said he was against the idea. “I will not be supporting cuts to discretionary benefits off the backs of the working poor, the marginalized or the homeless,” he said. However, Riel did not make any effort during budget talks to reverse the cuts, and so they remained in the draft budget without any vote on the matter by council.

Councillor questions “top-heavy” bureaucracy

The draft budget included the financial implications of a recent organizational restructuring undertaken by the city. Previously, the city had three departments, each with one commissioner leading it. Under the new structure, there are five departments, which means two new commissioners are needed to lead the new departments.

City soliciter David Potts has already been hired as the city’s new commissioner of legal services. But the position of municipal operations commissioner is still unfilled.

Coun. Riel moved that the hiring be deferred, saying that he hasn’t received any justification for the restructuring. “I’m hearing from the taxpayers that they feel that the City of Peterborough here is top-heavy,” Riel said.

Jasbir Raina, the city’s chief administrative officer, said he undertook the restructuring to enable “service delivery efficiencies and better accountability and transparency.” He also said councillors have received multiple briefings on the rationale of the restructuring.

Coun. Joy Lachica thought Riel’s comments were out of line. “There’s a casting aspersions, that I feel is very disrespectful,” she said. Lachica said that the CAO’s actions were informed by the strategic plan that city council developed. “We created that plan together,” she said.

Riel’s motion to defer the hiring of a commissioner of municipal operations failed by a vote of 10 to 1, with only Riel voting in favour of the deferal.

Lack of tenants at Cleantech Commons irks members of council

When they arrived at a page of the budget detailing payments made to Trent University’s Cleantech Commons initiative, some members of council expressed frustration with a lack of progress there.

The Cleantech Commons is supposed to be a home to environmentally-friendly businesses at Trent University. The City of Peterborough has spent $12 million to build roads and sewers and other infrastructure there, Mayor Jeff Leal said during budget talks. But no business has moved in yet.

“The bottom line is we want results,” said Leal. “We haven’t seen results, and something has to change.”

The city is budgeting to give Trent University $136,000 for the Cleantech Commons next year, which is enough to cover half of the salary of the research park’s executive director. Coun. Keith Riel said he wants to stop paying for the executive director’s salary and that the city should send a letter to Trent stating as much. But Leal said that the conversation would be more appropriate at the next meeting of the City of Peterborough and Trent University liaison committee, which is on November 29.

City spends millions per year on Peterborough Airport

Councillors reviewed the finances of the Peterborough Airport during their budget deliberations. The city owns the airport, and rents out space there to aviation-related businesses in order to spur economic development in the region.

But the airport is a money-losing proposition for the city. It runs a deficit of over $2 million every year.

That led Coun. Bierk to question the value of the city’s spending on the airport. “If you go ask 10 out of 10 people that I know, none of them would prioritize an investment into the airport,” he said.

So Bierk moved to defer $450,000 in planned capital spending that was earmarked to get started building a new airplane hanger and fuel facility at the airport in 2024. “We’re talking about building something to store airplanes, when people in the city don’t have a place to live,” he said.

That didn’t sit well with some members of councillors. Jeff Leal said the economic impact created by the airport outweighs the money the city spends on it. “The airport is not a net loss to the City of Peterborough, it is a net gain to the City of Peterborough,” he said. “So it’s just nonsense that we’re going to try to jeopardize this regional airport going forward.”

Coun. David Haacke agreed. “There’s a lot of action going on out there,” he said. “There’s a lot of transactions, financial transactions, that are done at that place.”

If passed, Bierk’s motion would have saved the median taxpayer a little less than $1 next year. However, it failed by a vote of 10 to 1, with only Bierk supporting the deferal.

Correction: This article was updated on November 28 to more accurately describe the purpose of the City of Peterborough’s $136,000 payment to Trent University for the university’s Cleantech Commons.