Councillor Shortt states he will “reduce large property increases”. Our Council can avoid those ‘large increases’, yes. We can choose to annually pay down less of our nearly $10million debt.
But that produces larger interest charges for a longer period of time. Net result? Somewhat smaller tax increases, BUT for many more years ahead, and eventually, increased costs.
Council can resist building up our reserve accounts. That is fine, until a bridge goes out (we already have 2 ancient ‘one- laners’ in former Sydenham that are very suspect), or the Blue Dolphin pool fails to hold water, or a major piece of equipment falls apart. Then taxes shoot up again because there are insufficient reserves.
We can cut some staff members. This idea I am not opposed to (with very careful consideration). But laid off employees will demand (and deserve) severance packages. Could cost us more in first year to relieve them of their duties than we save in salaries paid.
And we can plow snowy roads only every 2nd or 3rd day in winter, or pick up garbage only every 3 weeks instead of two(NO!! I am NOT advocating either of those!!). What I’m trying to say is yes, taxes can be cut…….but the ramifications would be severe, and overall, unpopular.
‘Renovate and improve the present library’…….yes, that beautiful 75 year old building on Trowbridge St. can be renovated and modernized(the latter to a degree). There will still be far under the recommended 10,000 sq. ft. needed for a 21st century library.
We need a facility that can provide services to all those who need them, whether it be books, computers, CDs, dvds, movie rentals, newspapers, etc., etc. Although I have supported the building of a new Library, it is not possible during this upcoming Council term. However, choosing a property to locate the building on (my favourites are former Canadian Tire lot, former Harbour Moose property, and Arena parking lot). We must seek out public-private partnership potentials, and of course ‘big government’ grants before the earth is disturbed.
“Keep development charges down”……Council has already voted to increase our development charges. The vote was 6 to 1 in favour. Not an easy decision for me to make in favour, but current taxpayers should not pay for future development and expense. Development charges are one of the few tools the province has given lower tier municipalities to raise revenues. We should use the opportunity.
'Rescind Georgian Beach lawsuit’…..We cannot do this. It would be financially devastating, far more expensive than staying in to the finish. Cannot go into many particulars because of current litigation, but to terminate the lawsuit would see our municipal insurance provider walk away from us immediately. No coverage for damages, all costs would be taxpayer dollars. And the costs could very well be astronomical. Granted, to stay in and see the suit through will be very costly, but my estimation is it will be only 25% of pulling out, exposing ourselves to large future claims, and losing our insurance company, one of only 3 in Ontario who insure municipalities.
Councillor Shortt has mentioned he voted against the Operations Review, while I supported it. This is true. However, I stated publicly(more than once) that I preferred to have the Paysheets still distributed with Council package(which they are), and not to be taken away. I have also declared a number of times, that I am against hiring a Director of Community Services.
As a matter of fact, when a resolution arose on Sept. 13 last, to hire this person, it was I who demanded it be removed from a ‘joint’ resolution. The resolution is due to appear again, and I will move to block/defeat it once more. We have sufficient employees. Going back to the Operations Review, it contained approximately 124 recommendations. I had concerns about 5 of them, and I mentioned them more than once. But, I did not vote against the complete report because I opposed less than 5% of the suggestions. Do not believe that would have been right.
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