Special Meeting of Council – December 2, 2025

00:08:08
Good morning everyone. My name is Maryanne Meid Ward, mayor of the city of Burlington and I’d like to call to order this special meeting of Burlington City Council to discuss budget for Tuesday, December 2nd, 2025. I’ll now read a safety notice for those in council chambers. In the event of an emergency, please evacuate the council chambers by the nearest exit staircase located through the doorway marked with the exit symbol.

00:08:34
Once you’ve evacuated the building, please gather in civic square out front of city hall. I’ll now read a land acknowledgement. Burlington as we know it today is rich in history and modern traditions of many First Nations and the Matei. From the Anesnab to the Houdton and the Matei, our lands spanning from Lake Ontario to the Niagara Escarpment are steeped in indigenous history.

00:08:58
The territory is mutually covered by the dish with one spoon wampom belt covenant, an agreement between the Irakqua Confederacy, the Ojiway, and other allied nations to peaceibly share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes. We would like to acknowledge that the land on which we gather is part of the treaty land and territory of the Missagas of the Credit.

00:09:21
I’ll now ask all those willing and able to stand for O Canada. Oh Canada, our home and native land. True patriot love in all of us command. Tony explore. God keep our land.

00:10:20
Glorious and free. Oh Canada, we stand on guard for thee. Oh Canada, we stand on guard for thee. City of Burlington committee and council meetings are live webcast and archived on the city’s website. We do have rules of engagement in council meetings and ask everyone to be respectful of each other. A reminder to council members, the procedure bylaw limits questions to two at a time and only for the purposes of gathering information relevant to the

00:11:18
matter under discussion, not making statements or assertions. By way of introduction of our members, our first order of business for today’s meeting is to conduct a roll call and I’ll turn it to the clerk to take attendance and confirm quorum. Thank you. Councelor Galbra, present. Councelor Karns, present.

00:11:35
Councelor Nissan here. Councelor Stolty present. Councelor Charman present. Councelor Bentovena present. Mayor me Ward present. We have quorum. Excellent. Staff joining today are Kurt Benson our CEO deputy clerk Lisa Polarmo clerk’s assistant Debbie Hordike audiovisisual specialists Richard Belmeare and David Thompson and other staff will be introduced as their items come up.

00:12:00
Before calling for approval of the agenda, are there any questions or requests to make changes? All right, seeing none, I do have a motion approved by council uh moved by councelor Galbreth, seconded by councelor Karns to uh approve the agenda as presented. I’ll turn it to the clerk for the recorded vote. Councelor Galbreth, support. Councelor Karns, support.

00:12:27
Councelor Nissan, support. Councelor Stoalty, support. Councelor Charman support. Councelor Bentovena support. Mayor me Ward support. That’s seven in favor. And that carries. Are there any declarations of pecuniary interest? Seeing none, we have no presentations. We do have one delegation. Eric Stern representing Focus Burlington will delegate virtually regarding 2026 budget review FIN 3625. Uh Eric, we see you.

00:12:58
You are in the virtual room. Whenever you want to get started, you have five minutes and you should be able to see the time clock there as well on your end. Go ahead. Okay, you can hear me. All good. Okay, thank you. I’ll start my own timer. Uh, thank you for the opportunity to delegate today.

00:13:13
I’d like to thank the city for giving us a few extra days to review the budget by releasing a draft. This is an improvement over last year, but still far short of the 30 days Oakville residents are per permitted to review their draft budget. That being said, can we all admit that the Burlington budget blueprint document is too high level? Focus Burlington as a group of citizens working to engage with the city.

00:13:37
We can’t effectively and meaningfully engage without the details. I’d also like the city to thank the city for responding to our questions. Is it time for clarity? The budget is increasing 5.8%. The overall tax bill will increase 4.6ish%. That’s clear and easy to understand. In a budget town hall, we heard the city chooses to share the tax increases 2.98%.

00:14:05
I choose to continue to object. City Talk magazine is delivered to every home at a substantial cost to taxpayers, showing 2.98% as the city of Burlington’s share of the total tax increase when the budget and the Burlington line on our tax bill is increasing 5.8%. Is this respectful to residents and taxpayers? We asked the city, when I received my final tax bill for 2026, how can I calculate the 2.

00:14:32
98% increase by comparing my final 2026 bill and my final 2025 bill? With every other bill or salary increase, you calculate the percentage increase by looking at last year’s amount and comparing it to this year’s amount. The city didn’t show us how to calculate 2.98% using our final tax bills. Is this respectful to residents and taxpayers? Jim Barnett in his delegation has serious questions about staff salary increases and increases in consulting fees.

00:15:04
If this information had been available in the budget town halls, a more wholesome discussion may have taken place. Holding budget town halls before releasing a draft budget is like putting the cart before the horse. Is it respectful to residents and taxpayers? If, and I’m emphasizing the word if, the goal of the city is to have meaningful engagement, detailed budget information providing evidence of the numbers presented is essential.

00:15:30
I was confused when I heard statements about cuts to the capital budget not leading to a tax rate decrease. Page 18 of the budget book clearly shows $53,514,000 is being transferred from the operating budget to the capital budget. Does it not stand to reason that a reduction in capital expenses would lead to a reduction in the transfer amount? And this in turn would lead to a reduction in property taxes.

00:15:57
Is there no opportunity for input on $15,700,000 in spending in the capital budget? is disrespectful to residents and taxpayers. Looping back to the budget blueprint, we learned that 2% was for inflation, 2% was for infrastructure, and 1.8% was for additional pressures. Our analysis shows a different story. A 5.

00:16:22
8% property tax increase adds almost 17.5 million to the city’s coffers. Where is the money going? All you have to do is look at page 42 for the answer. The change in salaries, wages, and benefits is shown as 11,412,000. Meaning 11,412,000 of the 17,477,000 tax increase is going to salaries, wages, and benefits. Using the blueprints terminology, 3.

00:16:54
79% of the 5.8% tax increase is going to salaries, wages, and benefits. is stating 2% for inflation, 2% for infrastructure, and 1.8% for additional pressures respectful to residents and taxpayers. If the city wants to argue that all the increase in total revenues from other sources other than taxes is for salaries, salary, wages, and benefits still consume 3% of the 5.

00:17:21
8% tax increase, exceeding the 2% number. If 1.8% 8% for additional pressures is accurate. That leaves just 1% of the 5.8% increase for infrastructure. Elect respect is an important initiative. A safe and respectful workplace is essential for everyone. Is it time for a taxpayer respect initiative? One where members of the community, residents, the media, and taxpayers are treated with respect.

00:17:54
After all, we are the source of the revenue of which the city is dependent. Thank you for your time today. Thank you very much. I will look to the board to see if there are questions. All right. Uh I have a couple. Thanks. Uh thanks for coming, Eric. And um the you were talking about the calculation of the 2.98.

00:18:17
Were you at the town hall where that was explained how that number uh was calculated? Were you able to be at that town hall to hear that uh discussion? I’ve heard many many explanations of the town hall, but I am looking for an at the town halls and over the years that I’ve been talking about this, but I would really like to see an explanation that shows how to calculate that from the bill because when we talk every other thing you ever talk about for percentage increases, you can calculate that percentage increase from the bill.

00:18:52
If the city has some wonderful calculation that involves the 51% of the property tax bill being for Burlington, which effectively means you divide the increase by half, that’s your choice to share that number. That’s not a meaningful number to residents and it’s not reflected on the bill. So, you would like to talk to staff about a different way of explaining the calculate.

00:19:16
So, you were there for the explanation that was provided. you just uh have a different perspective which which is fair. Uh my second question is around the uh the salaries piece and uh I’ll ask staff uh this as well and and I hope you can stick around for some uh some additional questions to get more information on the matters you’ve raised the um the salary piece wise it’s included in inflation.

00:19:40
Do you know that there’s a there’s a part of that that is related to cost of living which is in inflation and that’s why that sits there? Well, I understand that there’s inflation and in our you know obviously everybody understands that in our question to the city we just asked for an explanation as to why salaries why the average salary was increased by 6.14%.

00:20:06
Sorry, you’re just break I’m just going to stop you there for a sec. You’re breaking up a bit. uh your internet connection might be a bit unstable. Um I just want to make sure we can hear your answer. Uh maybe maybe try again. So you you acknowledge the inflation. We got we heard that part. Yeah. So we acknowledge inflation.

00:20:23
We understand that people need to be fair paid fairly. There are no objections there. The objection is saying that 2% of the increase is for inflation when it’s not. Okay. So, we’ll get some clarity for you. Uh, we’ll get some clarity for you on that. Um, and you do have a coun a question now coming from councelor Nissan. Go ahead.

00:20:49
And thank you through the through the mayor, Eric. Uh, thank you. Thank you for all the questions and uh being uh so actively involved. I just wanted to uh to ask I I know you’ve recommended um that taxes be kept to inflation. uh when it comes to the capital program where inflation on goods and labor have greatly increased uh are you know that that can be measured what the inflation is on those.

00:21:18
Do you still want to keep it to the overall national inflation or do you want to keep it to the inflation in those goods? Because if we don’t then obviously we’re not going to be able to do nearly as many projects and get ahead of our capital program. I I’m trying to stay out of the weeds on the budget. We did ask some questions about the non- construction in inflation rate and we got some very confusing responses and I’m going to avoid the word answers back from the city.

00:21:45
Um you one one answer was it’s only 32% over 10 years. Another answer was it’s 52% over 10 years. Um but I would I don’t want to get into the weeds in a discussion like this because it’s too complicated. I think the budget uh documents if you go back to the financial information requests we can see that uh Burlington’s taxes are up I think 100% now over 10 years.

00:22:13
So at a much higher rate than the nonresidential construction price increase. So that’s one factor. But really in terms of this delegation I want to stick to if if you need money for infrastructure great. If you tell us that 2% is for infrastructure, great. But if in reality only 1% of that is for infrastructure, that’s not great.

00:22:38
That’s what I want to stick to. If Burlington needs more money to cons keep their assets in good working order, then you need more money. Just be honest about it and say it. Don’t say the money’s for infrastructure when it’s really for salaries. Okay. I’ll uh clarify that with staff. Thank you. Not seeing any further questions.

00:23:00
Uh I did have one question of around your comments related to capital and I’ll also uh ask staff uh about this. So, uh, were you as part of the town hall, were you at the the town hall where we talked about the, uh, the infrastructure gap, which is the the the required capital needs all in, uh, versus the funding each year of the gap is roughly 340, and that all of the capital items including that 52 uh 3 million roughly um, are trying to close that gap.

00:23:35
So uh if you take uh money out of it, you make the gap bigger. I just wondering if you were part of that town hall to understand why uh we don’t cut capital. I participated in two I believe the town hall meetings and I it’s this whole capital thing is a very complex discussion. Non-construction inflation for 2026 is only 3%.

00:23:58
We can assume we don’t know what’s going to happen over the next 50 years. And in my head, I don’t have a full analysis of every asset in the city and the condition and when they need replacing. Uh so it’s very difficult to answer the question that way. What I can say is I don’t see money going into reserve funds.

00:24:19
I see money coming out of reserve funds. We paid we our taxes were increased 2% last year for infrastructure. So, we would sort of expect some money if we’re talking about a 50-year plan, we’d expect some money to be going into reserve funds from that 2%. I don’t I don’t see it. And that So, what I’m saying, we’ll get that. Yeah, that’s okay.

00:24:41
We’ll we’ll get that clarity. Uh, right. So, you’re telling us for infrastructure and it’s going to salaries. Okay. Well, that’s the objection. That’s not accurate, but I’ll let staff talk to you uh about that. And then my last question is, have you seen the city’s detailed asset management plan, which does spell out all the needs uh the funding required and the and the gap that we currently have, which is why there’s an infrastructure levy.

00:25:08
We’d be happy to get that for you, too. I’ve seen I’ve read it. I we have objected as a group to the 50-year uh replace full replacement cost every 50 years when people don’t do that in their houses. Uh people don’t do that in other jurisdictions. You go to Europe, every town hall is 4 or 500 years old. Um so I I don’t understand why assets can’t be maintained and kept in a good state of repair.

00:25:36
Why they have to as the director of the art gallery said, you know, it’s 48 years old. we have to fully replace it in two years. That doesn’t make sense and I don’t believe it’s boring. Okay. Be Yeah, you’ve seen the plan which is a mix of replacement and and uh new. But uh thank you. You have a question coming from councelor Karns through the chair.

00:25:59
Just wondering how you felt coming to delegate today. Well, this is my third year, I believe, of of being a u hopefully um not not delegating too many times, however I want to put that. And um you know, I find the continued discussion around the accuracy of the numbers being presented, uh the way they’re being presented to residents as um frustrating.

00:26:26
and I really debated um I did not want to delegate today. I don’t find delegation effective. Uh and as you know, we’re trying other means to reach the community and explain what’s going on at city hall. Okay, thanks for your insights. All right, I am not seeing any further questions. Thank you so much for joining us this morning, Eric.

00:26:53
We always appreciate hearing from our residents. So you’ll uh be put back in the virtual room. You can log on online and watch the conversation from there if you wish. Thank you. All right. We have one item to be discussed at the special meeting of uh council and this was discussed at the November 24th uh budget committee meeting.

00:27:15
Uh but before we uh well we may have additional questions so I’ll I’ll I’ll do that first. But before we uh discuss questions and vote, I will turn it to Craig Miller, our chief financial officer administrator to provide some preliminary remarks. Go ahead, Craig. Uh thank you, mayor. Just uh wanted to provide a a couple of of updates.

00:27:35
Um as as you know or if you’ve read your package from the uh the region, there was a memo where they um included some updated numbers. uh the bit of a there’s going to be a an increase to the request from the police that you’ll I believe the region’s considering tomorrow. Just so you’re informed, um that increase it’s moving the uh region’s budget um impact from uh 4.5% to 4.6%.

00:28:08
Which for us in the all blended rate means we’ll go from 4.46 to 4.49% 49% if the region does pass the budget uh with the new numbers. And then secondly, we were receiving some uh questions from council around the wording in the finance report um specifically in relation to the strong mayor’s act.

00:28:30
Um there was a bit of confusion so as to what council would be approving. So there I believe there is uh some uh new amendment to be considered that uh will add some clarity. Thanks. Okay, thank you. I will uh before we get to the motion or amendments, I’ll ask if there are any questions of staff around budget items. Okay, I’m not seeing any, but I do have a few.

00:29:02
And uh in respect of the delegate who who took time to be with us, I thought it might be helpful for uh staff to uh to share with all of us a response to some of the questions and concerns that were raised. So uh the first is around how that uh shity share of the overall tax increase of 4.46 is calculated. Can you uh maybe that’s a Craig question.

00:29:30
Can you uh share with everyone how that is calculated? Thank thanks for the question. Um through the mayor and and as council knows um we are a uh multi-ter municipality. So we have the city’s portion and the city services that we deliver as well as we have the regional uh services. So the city collects the taxes and pays them to the region based on their budget.

00:30:00
And then thirdly, the province um also has us collect property tax dollars to help uh fund some of the school board costs. So ultimately, it’s really a split between exactly uh how much of the property tax bill uh is used to pay city services and and that’s from a staff perspective. that’s more or less what the council can control.

00:30:24
Uh so that split is determined really based upon um the assessment base as well as the total value of of the city’s budget and the region’s budget. So those are the main levers that we we we produce. I will say there is some complexity in in property taxes and how they’re build and collected.

00:30:47
So to look on your tax bill, there are other variables that go into your tax rate on an individual basis. So if you had renovations to your homes, that sort of thing, that’s not really reflected in in in a budget applesto apples comparison. So that often does provide some some confusion, but we are able to work with individual property owners if they have specific questions on their tax bill, and we can we can certainly reconcile that.

00:31:12
Um, but ultimately, it’s just not getting too technical. It’s really just the split between the region, the city, and the province to come out with that percentage. So, how would somebody uh just follow up, how would somebody calculate that? So, if the the overall budget change is 5.8 uh and we did have a a letter actually from a a resident saying, you know, the 5.

00:31:37
8 is the city share, why why do you say the 2.98 is the city share of that overall 4.46? So there is confusion about uh the difference. So if you take the 5.8, how do you get to the 2.98 if somebody wanted to calculate that for themselves? I’m going to pass that one over to our manager of budgets and policy, Lori. Uh Javan to the mayor. Um, as as Craig mentioned, we are one of three levying bodies and we make up about 51 almost 52% of the uh property taxes levied.

00:32:20
So, you would take the city’s uh budget increase and multiply it by our 52% and that should land you at the city’s share of the blended rate. The way I um often describe it to residents is we are looking to um isolate the city’s impact on your overall bottom line tax increase by showing it this way. And so if you think about the fact that if the region had had a 0% um change in their budget, education was a zero, your overall property tax bill would go up by the 2.98%.

00:32:56
Similarly, if we had had a 0%, the region had their 4.6% 6% and education was zero, an overall property tax owner would go up 1.51%. You add the two numbers together and that is how you arrive at the blended rate total of 4.9 4.49. Great. Thank you. Uh I also wanted to ask uh on behalf of the delegate around the uh capital uh and the infrastructure and asset management and when uh someone uh brings a motion to perhaps cut capital why we uh why that doesn’t show up as a change in the tax rate.

00:33:36
Uh thanks for the question. So the the general principle on capital is from the operating budget we contribute to a capital reserve that then funds the individual capital projects. So it’s not a onetoone relationship. We do try and put money away but the reality is the city needs are so high that a lot of the money gets pulled out of that capital reserve and it gets assigned to specific projects.

00:34:04
So, if there’s a motion to, let’s say, defer a capital project, what that we end up doing then, if there’s no offset in the operating budget, which we would not recommend because you’re basically putting money away in in an account to to help fund capital, we wouldn’t remove the money from the operating budget.

00:34:23
We would hold it in a reserve and it gets prioritized quite quickly and used up pretty well. um if the municipalities didn’t take this approach, if we didn’t have the 2% levy, we would be falling further and further behind. We would have to use more debt and we are limited as under the municip as to how much debt we can use.

00:34:46
So it is um the general principle is from operating to a capital reserve. It does get complicated when you get into the different types of reserves that we have as we do have reserves that are called obligated reserves and they’re restricted for certain uses. But again, um we’re certainly happy to continue the dialogue with the deputen and and uh um it’s a great amount of questions and uh we always uh appreciate the feedback.

00:35:12
That’s great. Thank you. Uh councelor Karns, you’re next. Uh thanks very much. I just wanted to add some uh question or clarity around the police board budget and its effect on the region. So um at its November 27th meeting, yes, it’s true the police uh board did approve a public safety unit at that time.

00:35:32
It was indicated that it wouldn’t have an impact to the tax rate uh because it would be out of regional capital funding. Um however since that time I think the the CFOs at both the region and the police board did have a discussion and it put the police services uh portion up to 8.33 from its approved 8.22%. So this is something that will still need to be voted on at regional council uh with that commitment from the police services board that they would come back with 8.

00:36:02
22 22 and on the request of the regional counselors came back with the public safety unit and we’ll have to figure out how that will be funded if it will take a tax impact uh or out of capital once we bring ourselves into the regional chambers. So um is that the understanding that you would have um Mr. CFO uh through the mayor? That’s that’s correct.

00:36:25
We just wanted to make sure that we were providing as much current information as we could but that’s my understanding. Okay, perfect. And then my second question is this, and it’s very simple. Um, is the percentage rate that we have an accountability around quite simply the 5.8% city tax increase? Uh, I’m sorry. Could you repeat that question? Just going back to the folks at this table. Exactly.

00:36:53
Taking out the school board, taking out the region. The staff and this council are responsible for the 5.8% 8% city portion tax increase. That’s correct. Okay. Thank you, Councelor Nissan. Yeah, thank you. Um, yeah, I just wanted to ask um it’s a it’s a bit unusual for us to be talking about the regional and the police services budget.

00:37:20
Uh now could um our CFO remind everyone when those are going to be reviewed and approved at you know by a different government body uh through the mayor. It’s my understanding I think tomorrow. It’s uh the budget’s being deliberated at the region. I believe uh council approvals set for next week at the region. Yeah, that’s that’s my understanding as well.

00:37:46
Um, so why are we why why do you see why do you think Craig we were talking about this uh today? What’s the reason for talking about it today? Uh through through the mayor I just I believe the memo I got a copy of the memo Friday night and we just wanted to make sure that council knew of the latest and greatest forecast. Um, I know last year there was a time there was something similar happen last year that I remember a couple residents were were criticizing uh finance for not uh providing timely update to council.

00:38:15
So that uh that’s part of the uh the reason as well. Presumably it’s also because we’re working towards a target. Is that fair to fair to say? Uh through the mayor it’s it’s just update where where where where we potentially could land it. you know, when you build a budget, it almost it can change daily, monthly.

00:38:36
So, we just wanted to provide the the final number that we’re aware of. Okay. Uh, with respect to the delegates, could you tell us how many questions uh because it’s all in the public record. So, how many questions were asked from that from that delegate representing the Focus Burlington group and approximately how much staff time was spent uh answering those questions? I’m going to slowly answer the question and uh Lori can nod if I’m off.

00:39:06
I believe it was 75 questions roughly that we we got from the group. Um I wouldn’t be able to say uh the estimated of of time. It it it does transcend not just the finance department, it goes to all departments throughout the city. Uh so it it it it’s it is quite timely to to to provide that many answers. Okay.

00:39:31
Thank you, Councelor Charman. Thank you very much. I I think we’ve been having the conversation for as long as I’ve been on council about the uh tax rate versus the budget. Um and and it’s always been confusing because we’ve had this continuous dialogue. Is the budget the tax rate or is the budget the budget and the tax rate the tax rate? What’s the answer? CFO, please.

00:39:55
So, the budget, the 5.8 8 is the net budget of your the city’s raising uh our net levy and property taxes is going up 5.8% to deliver city services and that translates into an individual’s property tax that they pay on their bill of 2.98%. So for clarification, you just somehow concentated levy, tax levy and budget.

00:40:19
Just for clarification, is it budget or is it the amount of property taxes that somebody’s going to pay? So the budget that council approves drives the amount of property taxes that we pay, but by different numbers. 5.8 is the budget. Yes. And a proportion of the tax increase is not 5.8. 8%. No. What is it? It’ll be 2.98% on your tax bill.

00:40:49
Oh, okay. So, I’m hoping people who are listening heard that because that is absolutely correct. Thank you, Councelor Kurts. I’m just going to put my hand down. All right. Uh I did have another question and this one is over to you uh Sue, our chief human resources officer. It it came up in one of the delegations.

00:41:17
It came up again today around the salary line and uh going through the budget and seeing the increases. Can can you advise um what is included in those lines? Is anybody getting a 10 or 15 plus% salary increase? Uh that’s that seems to be the suggestion and understanding out there. Uh can you clarify that? Thank you for the question, mayor.

00:41:41
Um no, absolutely not. No one is getting a 10% increase. Um when they talk about human resources salary costs, it’s inclusive of uh and the delegate did mention that benefits, there’s the tax pieces, there’s salary, it also um takes into consideration the collective agreement um uh factors that are that come into play.

00:42:03
Um so it’s certainly not talking about that 6.3% is a salary increase. It’s inclusive of a number of different areas and benefit costs are one of those costs that are increasing significantly higher than inflation. When you hear 2% um right now in North America, they’re seeing a trend uh close to 8.1% with regards to benefits.

00:42:24
Um and that is something that’s globally, but we it’s not unique to the city of Burlington. And do some of those lines include additional staff positions? Absolutely. Um so each department is different. So that’s why you see varying degree of percentage increases across um the departmental budget lines as well. That’s great. Okay.

00:42:48
Uh councelor Charman over to you. Thank you. The the questions that were asked about the increase is the major increase in with um respect to salary wage and benefits. So it’s 5.9% for the base change which could be believed to be related to a 2% inflation increase. So what are the so there’s benefits and and then what else goes into assessing the base rate change in income um when they’re talking about a base for salary only.

00:43:22
So the numbers that we’re seeing here once again are included of the taxes, the health tax, the benefits, owners, um it’s inclusive of everything. When we’re talking about salary in particular, um on the non-UN side, we’re talking about a market adjustment as well as a performance adjustment that’s included in that.

00:43:38
And you mentioned at the last town hall meeting that was open to the public in relation to where we had to do a major correction in 2023. So we do participate in in market analysis surveys to ensure that we are staying competitive but also not paying too much and or too little. Um and we have a target of the 65th percentile when it comes to our market comparator.

00:44:00
So uh we participate in those annually uh to ensure that we are that we are um maintaining that percentage rate. Well, thank you very much for that clarification. Um just going to follow up on that. Are we having difficulty with with um maybe I should ask it differently. What is the nature of the of the challenge in hiring replacement staff and new staff? Is it straightforward today or is it more difficulty difficult because of competition and our previous salary rates? With regards to attraction and and the retention piece, it depends on the profession. So we we certainly experience um some challenges with regards to compensation in some areas and we take a look at that to make sure that we are still com u competitive in those particular areas but um it’s not uh it’s not uh I’ll say a flag right now with regards to staff who are leaving the organization because we’re working them. Secondly, I do have a second question if I may ask

00:44:59
and that is with respect to the 50-year amatization replacement logic. We don’t actually do amatization in in in regular company bookkeeping terms for profit companies. Um the Could you talk a little bit about the 50 years and why that’s a reasonable assumption uh through the uh mayor? Sorry. Could you just repeat that question in the context of the 50? Yes. Yes.

00:45:28
The delegate said well we made an assumption that every everything has to be replaced in 50 years. I I I’m not sure I understand that cuz cars are clearly different and tech costs are different. So the 50 years I’m assuming is talking about buildings. Is there such a number in that you’re aware of? Uh through the mayor.

00:45:45
So like so there’s financial statements where we do have amortization policies and to your points. Um they are informed by our friends in the engineering department and their best standards. So um for example, I know we don’t do water manes but water manes are 100 years. uh buildings generally 40 to 50 years, vehicles much less than that.

00:46:06
So um unless I’m going to let my uh colleague here jump in on from the asset management side. Uh thank you and through the mayor to the counselor. All of our different assets have a different shelf life I’ll call per simplicity. So um such as a road as council’s aware it’s a 60ear shelf life.

00:46:28
But if you do a a shave and pave, we’ve so fondly called it every 15 after the first 30 years, we could extend that to 90 plus years. So there’s mechanisms we can extend life. So we don’t budget on a straight 50 year or set timeline. We always review that asset and all the assets to see where it’s at and try and get the best strategy to extend that life beyond.

00:46:46
So when we do budget in the asset management plan, it is based on the type of asset and the projected service life of that asset. And then we look at and review that throughout the life of the asset to see if we can extend it. So it’s not a set 50. It’s not we group all the assets into the same bucket of of a certain age.

00:47:04
And we don’t necessarily replace it because it’s at that projected age of it. So if we have a road, I’m just using road for simplicity. uh if it’s at 60 years but it’s running functioning totally fine and there’s no issues with it, we’ll keep pushing that out another 10 years or do some remedial efforts on it to extend the life of that asset and put that funding to another asset that may not have that same longevity.

00:47:25
That’s very helpful thinking. If I may ask a follow up on that. Um with respect to the engineering component of this, you my understanding is you do a very significant continuum study uh index on every asset that we have. Does that influence the amount the the the the size of the gap we funding gap we have and does that influence therefore the percentage we set aside for our uh annual um infrastructure renewal uh percentage.

00:47:57
So through the mayor to the chair if I can understand the question correctly. Yes, we do always review the asset and see and so if there’s technology changes or improvements of of of how we can extend that life asset, we do change what the value of that asset is and then that value will change and we constantly update the asset management plan and the level of service.

00:48:16
So it takes into that constant refined number. So if it’s uh it so if your gap for example if your gap increases by 20% because of certain factors there may be changes in certain types of the asset categories we do own as a city that could bring that gap back down to a more manageable. Well, that that gap was always changing based on technology and as we progress so really it’s a snapshot in time as of today your infrastructure funding deficit or gap is X but as things progress and as we do certain techniques or or methods on a road I I use road because it’s the easiest one to know that we all aware of we can prolong the life and reduce that cost and that helps us to decrease that funding gap. So there’s things we can do and if we stay on top of our maintenance schedules, we can reduce that gap without adding additional funding to that uh capital program. Thank you. That that’s that clarifies the question that was being asked earlier. It is clearly very complex. Thank you. All right. I’m uh not seeing any other

00:49:21
questions. So we turn now to uh the motion. So this is the motion that came forward from committee in uh in separate parts. We can take them in separate parts, but there there is uh an amendment to come. So councelor Stoalty, go ahead. Thank you, mayor. I’m wondering if we could please pull the amendment wording up on the screen.

00:49:45
So it’s fairly straightforward. I’ll start to talk of it before as we’re waiting for it to come up. So, the amendment is to clean up the wording just to be in keeping with the strong mayor powers and what the mayor versus council can or cannot approve or adopt or whatever the wording is. So, yes. Okay.

00:50:08
Sorry, I was expecting it to be more wholesome, but that’s basically what we’re looking for is to remove paragraph 1 and three that uses the word adopting the 2026 operating budget and then paragraph 3 is adopting the 2026 capital budget. We’re removing those and we’re replacing the wording with approve the budget amendments because that is what council is actually in a position to do is approve the amendments that we put forward to the budget.

00:50:30
So that is what’s on the floor. Thank you councelor Shartman. Thank you very much for the opportunity to uh change the language because this is straightforward and is correct. It is what we did at the meeting I chaired last week. uh we did not uh deal with the budget in its totality. What I think we’re reviewing here is council can approve what it amended last week and that’s what we’re being asked to do and it’s correct so I’m this is easier to do. Thank you.

00:51:06
Any questions? Go ahead councelor Nissan. Is there a seconder? It’s moved by councelor Stoalty seconded by councelor Charman. It’s on the floor. you can speak to it. Go ahead. Yeah, I’m going to look at this and uh get in line cuz it’s uh coming very last minute. Thank you. Okay. Uh Councelor Karns, go ahead.

00:51:33
Thanks. I’m just wondering um if the chair would entertain a fivem minute break just so we can compare paragraphs and uh would you entertain a fivem minute break? We can take a recess. I’ll see if there are any questions before we resolve so we can get those forward. Councelor Golreth, go ahead. Uh, yeah.

00:51:52
So, does this mean we do not approve the entire budget? We’re just approving the amendments, just to be clear, councelor Salty. Yes. Based on what council uh members are able to do and have the authority to do, that’s correct. So, that includes the capital budget as well. Yes. Thank you. Uh and I do have just before we resolve I do have a question for staff.

00:52:18
There has been a query to uh separate out the operating and the capital pieces. So uh would we um would it be your advice in in order to honor that request to approve to modify the language here? Approve the operating budget amendments as reviewed. approve the capital budget amendments as approved.

00:52:43
It’s just in two uh two parts to separate those out if if there’s any uh concern and then I would look to the mover and second if they’re meaningable. Okay. So yes uh they are and and perhaps uh Blake when you answer that you can um uh provide some uh commentary around what council has the legal right to do under the strong mayors before we uh resolve for a couple minutes. Go ahead. Uh thank you mayor.

00:53:11
Uh so yes and to address the question yes if uh the will of council is to separate out and amend the recommendation to include two uh one approve the uh operating budget amendments and a second one to improve the uh capital budget amendments. There’s no concern from a uh municipal act uh budget requirement perspective.

00:53:33
So just to to answer the second part of your question the general overview. So the strong mayor powers in the municipal act provide that that head of council prepares the budget and provides it to council for council’s consideration. Um the act provides that after receiving the budget council can pass a resolution or approve making amendments to the proposed budget which is what’s being considered here today.

00:53:54
And then there is an opportunity under the uh strong mayor Paris of the municipal act for the mayor to veto the resolution uh veto the budget amendments if uh the mayor uh was not supportive of them. That’s included within the strong mayor powers. If there’s no veto then the budget for the municipality is uh adopted in accordance with the regulations.

00:54:21
And so the regulations associated with this uh confirm that um if the mayor doesn’t veto then the amendments then pursuant to the regulation the uh if there’s no veto then in accordance with subsection 6 within 10 days or a shorter period if that’s determined within the period the proposed budget shall be deemed to be adopted by the municipality.

00:54:43
So, by operation of the act, uh if the city today approves the budget amendments and the mayor chooses to not veto those amendments, then the budget will be deemed to be adopted by the municipality within accordance with the act. Okay. Uh that was my understanding. So, um, after this, should I choose not to veto, which I won’t, um, I would have to issue two mayor’s directions.

00:55:13
A, I won’t veto. I support the work of council by majority vote. And secondly, shortening that 10day or so, I’d have to issue two directions and then at later today as whenever we’re done our work here, the budgets locked and live. That’s correct. the uh reg act and regulation provides that the the head of council the mayor can shorten the period uh to which the uh after there’s no veto then the budget would be deemed to be adopted.

00:55:42
So you would require the two meril decisions the one being choosing not to veto and the other shortening the period. Okay great. Uh councelor Karns go ahead. Thank you. So with this adjustment, when would be the appropriate time to to register any members um support or discourse with the overall documents? Would it be in the amendment section or would it be in the main motion through the uh mayor to the counselor? uh if a member of council had a concern with the budget, then presumably they would deal that with that through the amendments and any amendments that would be necessary to resolve that concern. And so I would suggest that if you’ve got any concerns with the budget, then you would be dealing with it through the amendments. Okay. Thank you.

00:56:40
Okay. And um just to follow up on that question that council members would have to bring additional amendments to change the overall tax rate and see if that was satisfied by council in order to change the tax rate. Uh yes. Uh to the mayor to perhaps look at it a different way. If council did not bring forward any amendments then the budget would be deemed to be adopted by the municipality a be adopted by the municipality after the 30 days.

00:57:12
Uh so the fact that there are amendments and uh consideration of those amendments that’s where if there’s a problem with the budget it would be dealt with through amendments. Gotcha. Okay. Um so before we break I’m just wondering if we can get the language uh to separate those two. We will take a seven minute break and come back here at quarter to 12.

00:57:32
Uh let me see if that’s is that the right time up there. No. Okay. So it’s 11:34. Uh so let’s say um we come back at 11 uh 11:40. That gives us six minutes. Okay. Thanks. Welcome back everyone. We are back at

01:04:47
our budget committee uh committee meeting after a brief recess and we do have an amended motion that we will take in two parts. moved by councelor Stoalty, seconded by councelor Charman, and the first part is to approve the operating budget amendments as reviewed at the budget committee meeting of November 24th.

01:05:08
Are there any questions about the amendment? Councelor Nissan. Yeah, thanks. I I just want to better understand why this uh I mean the budget’s a pretty big deal. So, we’re bringing an amendment at the last minute here, and I just want to know why. Obviously, some members of council had a heads up on it.

01:05:29
So, I’d like to know why it’s being why it wasn’t circulated, why it’s being brought at the last minute. I mean, this is the budget. This isn’t like a a regular a regular day, so would appreciate that. Uh, I’ll ask councelor Dalty to speak to that. Thank you, councelor Nissan. I appreciate your question about it being more last minute.

01:05:50
It was more of a conversation this morning out of that came out of our conversations back on November 24th about comfort levels with wording and that we did go through the uh difficult process last year of looking at the words endorse, approve, adopt and all the different variations. So, it was just a conversation this morning that was in an effort to address that concern and to make sure that it was super clear and clean about what our committee members have the opportunity and authority to approve.

01:06:18
Um, we are approving only the budget amendments. So, I just thought it was important that that was clear today. Councelor Charman, thank you. I just want to add to this that, you know, I think um, our solicitor clarified the law, the legal language entirely correctly. Um, and any other language was not appropriate um, in terms of the process that we are following.

01:06:43
And so, we didn’t need to make the matter more complicated than it needed to be. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions before I call the vote on the amendments for the operating budget? All right. Seeing none, over to you, clerk. Thank you, Councelor Galbbert. Support. Councelor Karns. I have councelor Nissan’s hand up. I’m just wondering if that wants to be acknowledged.

01:07:10
Just started. I just saw your hand. We’ve started roll call. So, I’m going to ask the clerk what we do here. You can finish the vote. I’ll I’ll make my comments on the next line. Thank you. Okay. I’ll I’ll pause a little bit extra next time before calling the vote just to allow folks to find their hands up so we don’t end up in that situation.

01:07:33
Uh so, we are um in the middle. Go ahead. Yep. We are in the middle of a vote. Go ahead. Councelor Karns support. Councelor Nissan support. Councelor Stoalty support. Councelor Charman support. Councelor Bentovena support. Mayor me Ward support. That is seven in favor. That carries unanimously. Turning now to the approval of the capital budget amendments.

01:08:00
And we’ll just wait a moment to get that on the screen. And uh councelor Nissan, do you want to speak to it now or do you want to wait for it to come up onto the screen? Uh, well, I have a preliminary question, which is we’re only showing one paragraph at a time here. So, I want to know if we’re going to be approving the whole item as a whole, so that’ll be my chance to make comments, or whether this is being completely pieced out.

01:08:26
Yeah, this is an amendment to the main. It replaces only two paragraphs out of the main, so we still have to deal with the main. Okay. So, I can speak to the main. That’s what I’ll do. Thank you. Okay. Uh, any other comments before I call the vote? All right, not seeing any, I’ll ask for the vote. Councelor Galbreth, support.

01:08:56
Councelor Karns, support. Councelor Nissan, support. Councelor Stoalty, support. Councelor Charman, support. Councelor Bentovena, support. Mary Ward, support. That is seven in favor and that also carries unanimously. All right. So we still have some remaining uh motions to approve and we can take those uh one by one uh if you wish or we can take them as a whole.

01:09:22
Uh so the the remaining items which council does need to approve under the act uh paragraph 2 endorsing the surplus uh deficit disposition administering the debenture for uh debt uh administering the debenture for the multi-year community investment and the matter related to development charges. So I will first ask if anyone wishes to uh have a separate vote on any of those paragraphs.

01:09:52
So that’s 2, four, five, and six. We’re going to do Okay. So, uh, I’ve I’m advised by the clerk that unless somebody wishes a separate vote on any of those items, we can do it all in one now. Uh, item 1 through six. Okay. So, just pause a moment to see if anyone wants to separate out a paragraph. All right. Not okay. Uh, turning to comments now.

01:10:38
So I’ll just uh in order that I see them. Councelor Nissan. Yeah, thank you. Um so uh you know I did express a concern at committee about amendments versus the main budget. So this is actually an improvement. I just would have uh liked a little more time to um prepare comments related to that. But that’s okay.

01:11:05
Um, you know, I I I thought the work that we did on the amendments was pretty good. Um, I like that we were able to get more money into capital. That’s important to me. Um, as mentioned at committee and um, as everyone knows, I didn’t support the target tax rate. I’ve been clear about that.

01:11:26
I think that’s putting the cart before the horse and doesn’t get us staff’s uh best budget which is something that was uh was always a pri always the uh sort of the priority to get the budget that staff recommended not towards a uh towards a target. So um to to have that turned around now is not something I was willing to support.

01:11:48
Um, and it doesn’t um it doesn’t necessarily get us the best budget from the city from both a savings and expenditures point of view. Um, overall I would like to see us investing more in capital versus operating um to ensure that we can fund uh the plans that we’ve committed to in the future. So, um, yeah, overall these, uh, these, sorry, I’m just amending my comments here, but the, um, the amendments are the amendments are fine.

01:12:21
We’re getting we’re getting, uh, we made some good work as a committee. So, I I want to thank, uh, Councelor Charman, the mayor, uh, the rest of committee as well as staff for sure. Um, putting a lot of time into, um, into consulting the community. I mean, 75 questions. Staff didn’t have an estimate of how much time that would take, but based on a per word basis, I think there was thousands of dollars of hours, staff time spent, overtime, extra time to get back to uh the most focused delegate and most focused uh group that we had. So, that was a lot of really good work. Um I I hope that uh once we get over the hump of next year that we can get back to uh not going towards a target and asking staff for the best possible budget. We haven’t even approved the regional budget yet. We haven’t even talked about amendments to the regional budget which will be uh on

01:13:18
Wednesday. Um so you know that would be my preference but uh I will be uh supporting uh what’s in front of us today. Thank you. Not the budget but the amendments. Thank you very much, Councelor Charman. Well, thank you very much uh to uh to Councelor Nissan. Uh it was in indeed his comments at the committee meeting that caused us to think that we may have the wrong language and and so we now have the correct language and he is supportive of it as has been uh councelor Karns.

01:13:48
Um I think with respect to the key comments and I’m I’m I’m very sensitive to the comments uh by our delegation this morning and by other uh uh people in the community who have similar concerns. uh language is really important and I and as I look at as I think about the base question that was raised about is 2% inflation the correct number when you take a look at the increase in salaries for example and the answer is well inflation is 2% but then there are market adjustments that are different and they also incremented and affected the the salaries and and so the comment was well we don’t have enough data uh to understand that when we go through the budget it’s not clear in that in that that level of detail. Um so we can think a little bit more about how much more information we would want to want to provide with respect to that kind of analysis. Um I think there’s the other question that was raised about the

01:14:46
amount of capital uh the the 2% a year and whether it’s reasonable. Well, number one um you know the comment that there’s a 50 50-year replacement on on on all our capital assets is incorrect. uh it is a way more complicated uh uh analysis uh that the the city spends lots and lots of money and energy in getting that number right and it’s it’s a moving target but the fact of the matter is we do know we have insufficient um uh money put aside for our capital requirements for uh maintenance repair state of uh state of good repair um and so our budget is is is kind of in is is like any budget you know it’s based on assumptions. It is not correct. It is not perfect. It will never be right. We’ll have variances and that’s the way it will be. Um but what we have is something that’s in the right direction. Um it is not this it is by definition uh doesn’t have a significant influence of high inflation because it’s

01:15:45
come down. Uh and with respect to u to the um infrastructure renewal, we are not getting away from that anytime soon. It’s going to be added every year for the for future years. and and we are going to have to deal with that as a community whether we like it or not because otherwise what will happen is the city will start to be in a state of bad repair and and everybody will be complaining about that.

01:16:07
Thank you councelor Karns. Thank you. I’ll have two comments. So I’ll just first table my first one on relation to item number two. Uh so it is projected that the city will not make its 75 projected estimate in assessment growth. Assessment growth is one of the tools that some of our neighboring municipalities use to drive down uh the tax impact and and we will not be achieving the 75 based on current indicators.

01:16:38
So that amount in order to keep all the numbers the same will be a transfer likely out of the tax stabilization reserve fund. And so we will remember that we did manage to have a reduced budget impact through the work that we did in the budget amendments and that was transferred into uh capital expenditures so that we could do another capital project.

01:17:00
Much needed of course but it wasn’t necessarily in for this year. So, I just want to give folks a heads up that that, you know, we could have maybe used that found money uh to put that against the tax stabilization reserve fund, which, you know, I’m always vocal about uh to hopefully minimize some of that likely deficit we may receive from the assessment growth piece.

01:17:24
So, um that’s part of the reason why I called the recess was just to refine this understanding as it relates to the budget amendments um and the part that we’re approving here. So that is my comment on that matter. All right. Any further comments on the budget before calling the vote? Councelor Kron. Okay. So I might use my five minutes, but I I really worked hard on this budget and I do want to table some comments related to it.

01:17:59
So, um, many people would hopefully subscribe describe this budget as sustainable. I I think it’s a bit of a challenge. And I respectfully acknowledge that this budget, the 5.8 city portion tax increase, which means we spent 5.8% more than last year, is in fact hard for taxpayers to accept despite the many layers of rationale that’s been tabled.

01:18:24
And I really encourage us continuing in the next few years to put a harder emphasis on fiscal responsibility because of what is going on. Um I’m really impacted by the way in which we need to protect our most vulnerable residents and keeping them in the houses they already have is a really great part of our housing strategy.

01:18:41
I think we need to set a budget that’s aligned with the realities of inflation and maybe focus on a more modest or phased in infrastructure renewal with those limited enhancements. Um, many residents expect this and it would show the kind of accountability and empathy and prudent financial management we need in these difficult times.

01:18:59
I’ve already mentioned that the path to housing affordability is keeping people where they already are and I hear this through our young families and their voices and through some people who are in their golden years. I do definitely want to appreciate the finance and leadership team. You worked so hard through these documents and the recommendations and you exemplified every diligence and response with your knowledge of excellent and excellence.

01:19:20
I also want to give a note to residents that have shown up and got involved. Good for you. Although we see the numbers dwindling with only one delegation today and minimal correspondence. Uh we did have a lot of questions which also include councils and we really need to take a hard look and ask why. Canada’s economy is experiencing a mixed and challenging situation.

01:19:41
I saw on the news today that Al Steel, our neighbor to the west, has just laid off a thousand people in the last 24 hours. And this is really the blunt reality of 2026. And this is why we know that the impacts will be felt through the year and through more and more families. I can say with every confidence that I fully engage with this budget process and hosted real workshops to work through the budget, meet people where they are in arenas and senior centers and online and social media.

01:20:08
Uh none of it was scrubbed or anything like that. It was just real and empathetic because that is where we are today. Residents know that we have a great city and we know that too. But we can’t keep spending at a time on the best when people are just trying to make do. I went through every line of the budget as many of you all did.

01:20:27
Challenged our own spending, offered threequarters of a million in savings or cost avoidances while proposing one position that was not accepted. But it did open up a great dialogue. I’m grateful for that conversation to manage funding that advances equity in our city. I was pleased to see a priority section this year on savings across workforce optimization, equipment savings, process streamlining, and that is exactly the type of efforts the community desires from our leadership.

01:20:54
I’ll continue to challenge consulting costs facing You are out of time on your three minutes. I said I was going to use my I’ll ask the clerk if we can uh do five or not if we need uh a procedural amendment. Go ahead. That will be at the call of the chair since the procedure bylaw does say five minutes.

01:21:13
It was an understanding between council the three minutes. Okay. Carry on. Would you like me to put another two uh minutes on the clock? Go ahead. Go ahead. I continue to challenge consulting costs now that my time was interrupted, phasing in new positions and striking expenses that provide incumbent advantages. I lose sleep over our tax stabilization reserve fund and encourage the focus on this necessary fund’s growth investments in growth.

01:21:46
While we continually struggle to break meaningful assessment growth, we need a better balance for those here and now. and I didn’t support last year’s budget and unfortunately I can’t stand behind this one either. Okay. Uh Councelor Bentania for first time. Go ahead. Thank you, Mayor. Yes, I want to jump in um since our last debate on this budget.

01:22:13
Um I I must give credit where credit’s due. Um I always use the word um I need you to help us so that I can help you. And uh the last um uh committee the whole meeting uh there were three items on the agenda that I was quite pleased about because one of the things that uh I’d like to focus on is getting revenue from departments where they can and obviously efficiencies where they can as well.

01:22:48
Um, I I want to talk about a little bit things like the dome at Corpus Christi is an excellent way that taxpayers don’t have to put out a dime. And we got a facility that if we did it would cost us a fortune. And then and everyone else that’s using that facility is still going to use that facility if we owned it one way or another.

01:23:12
So, I want to thank staff for that and and saving taxpayers money. Second one, my favorite, the tree bylaw, which has been adjusted. We didn’t talk about much yesterday, but now the user pay is fairer. It’s not what it was and it is more accurate based on the individuals and the smaller homeowner will benefit from it as well.

01:23:45
Having said that, the large developmentdriven removals of trees now will pay their share. So again, there’s more funding coming in from the development which we’ve all sort of wondered why they sort of don’t pay their share. And so that will reduce the burden on our tax people as well. And then lastly, we had a big discussion yesterday about the uh the housing accelerator fund and I know we went all over the map with it.

01:24:22
The way I look at it is $5.3 million fell on our lap that the staff have gone out and gotten. If we don’t agree and move fast enough and let staff do the work that they need to do, we may not get that $5.3 million. We’re still going to build these affordable homes hopefully, but we’re going to pay for it instead of using the $5.

01:24:47
3 million that fell on our lap from upper level government. So, I’m I’m I’m encouraged by seeing those three things and I’m hoping that we’re all listening and saying, “Let me do my part in what I do to service residents through whatever department I work for to find efficiencies.” So, um you’re at your three.

01:25:19
Do you need additional time, Angela? I just need 30 seconds here. Go ahead. Thank you. I just want to say, you know, I I I like what I saw and and and sometimes you want to encourage because I’m one of those people who who like to reward good things. Um, so I I’m I’m I’m still on the fence here uh where to go and you know my past history at this point, but uh I just want to make sure that we hear the good news, too.

01:25:49
Thank you, Councelor Charman. Thank you. This is uh with respect to the overall budget um that will be facilitated by what’s in front of us. uh 15 years on council and uh we used to have every year a target that was uninformed. It was a political decision. It was just how do we feel about what the tax rate should be and that we would to adjust the budget.

01:26:16
Um for years we underfunded really important things and we had subsequent failures or consequent failures that council then had to put in additional funding. um and it was poorly informed. Uh those targets were poorly informed. So I’m a strong believer that that the work that we have from uh our finance staff now is is is excellent by getting staff to do their work in terms of telling us what risks we have that we need to address and then to allow us to make amendments to that relative to um our understanding of that presentation. Now, I know we had a bit more of a target this year and that was specifically related to the fact that it’s been a tough few years with putting in significant increases for three years in a row and and I I will be honest with you, I I felt everybody needed a break. We couldn’t get the break we wanted, which would have been zero or negative.

01:27:16
We don’t know how to do that because there are some factors in there that are that that need to be addressed and constantly aware of. The first one is our marketplace has changed in terms of competitiveness and the fact that in in 2011 we put in a t a a almost zero tax increase.

01:27:33
It actually was zero except we allowed 1% to go to funding Joe Brandt hospital. Um and then subsequent years we kept on giving low low low increases in the uh in the budget which caused us to underfund the city and it’s only as a result of that we ended up with a a total compensation percentage of 48%. And we started losing employees.

01:27:56
we found people wouldn’t want to come and work here and then we had you know the um the baby boomer impact of people retiring and we ended up being a training place for years and we had high turnover but we couldn’t have a we did not have a sustainable workforce the degree that we needed that is now being addressed in a competent and responsible way I have to say that I believe that um irrespective the underfunding has also added to our infrastructure renewal problem that is not going away and that goes back decades and decades. So we now are in a place where we do have to keep funding. I’m going to go for my five minutes, please. Okay, just pause for a moment. We will add another two as a courtesy to you. Go ahead. Thank you very much. Um that said, we’re learning, technology is changing and we’re introducing new software and that cost us a lot of money over the last few years. Uh we’re applying more modern

01:28:55
thinking around process improvement and management. Although we have to overcome our fundamental culture, which is to apply um quite rigorous attention to regulations and bylaws that sometimes get in the way of us doing something that appears more reasonable. And you all know what I mean I mean by that. Um, having said that, you know, one of the things we note is that those those rules and the way we operate tend to constrain the way we change.

01:29:26
And I want to use the the the example of that as being idle capacity. We know that when we introduced the orchard hub, we discovered that we could allow the community to schedule the use of that that location and therefore increase the capacity utilization. We therefore went on to apply the same thought process to our other recreation centers so we could therefore allow the public to engage take up more utilization of capacity.

01:29:54
The the what got me on council was empty buses talking about idle capacity and I’m going to hear some moaning around about now. Um, but what got me on council was the fact when I looked at the buses going by my house every morning at 6:15 and then all through the day, the only person on the bus was the driver.

01:30:13
When you take a look at the $37 million in this budget to fund the transit system, we’re only getting about $6 million back at the fair box. Yes, people say we have three.5 million riders, but actually it’s only 9,000 people a day. My point to you is we have 80% idle capacity on those buses and we should be taking a look at the service given to the individuals service our community members rather than focus on a fixed route and on fixed capacity and big buses. I’m done. Thank you.

01:30:45
Thank you. One second to spare. Uh councelor Golra three or five up to you. We can put five. No, I will not take five. Okay, go ahead. Thank you, Mayor. Um just uh yeah, my comments on the budget are um you know, I I I know it’s uh it is a hefty increase uh again and I know we’ve uh we’ve had 3 years of those coming out of uh co um inflation has been rampant and not just the regular inflation.

01:31:11
Um we did see some figures in this budget that uh that uh the construction costs have have averaged 8 to 9% uh over the 2% inflation. So, uh, the city does a lot of construction. We we have a capital budget of well over $und00 million and all that’s to go to construction, which is I think out of co was a 33% increase, but averaged 8 to nine over the last 3 or 4 years.

01:31:39
So, uh, we’re falling behind in that. That’s why we’re falling behind in our infrastructure. Um, so, and I don’t know the answer to get ahead of that. Um when we look at our uh assessment growth of 75% and it looks like we’re not even going to hit that. We are the slowest growing municipality in our region. Um both Oakville almost 2%, Milton over 2%.

01:32:00
They have that assessment growth to drive down their budget. Burlington doesn’t. So we we we’re stuck with uh a higher tax increase, although theirs is is higher this year as well. Um because we don’t have that assessment growth. So um I I am supportive of the budget. I think we did a great job in uh in our amendments.

01:32:24
Um we all tried to find efficiencies as best we could. Um uh I’d like to thank the public for their engagement. I was certainly at my uh budget town hall and had uh several meetings with uh constituents at my dropins and uh you know listened to the budget concerns. So um I just want to thank everybody for all their questions and staff for all the work they did on answering them.

01:32:47
So thank you. Any final comments? Just a moment. All right. Uh, councelor, I see your hand up again. And just so, uh, some procedural matters that I’ve discussed with the chair, uh, sorry, the with the clerk. Um, council, uh, as you know, in our procedure bylaw allows speaking two times to a motion. You have spoken

01:33:45
twice. However, our procedure bylaw is unclear. Uh so something we should fix uh but not uh in the moment on the fly. Uh that is it uh uh two five minute tanches that you can take in 10 one minute times or is it two times speaking or what is it? We we have not come to ground as a council on that or provided uh clear direction in our own procedure bylaw.

01:34:12
So at the end of the day it is up to uh the chair. So uh given that we don’t have clarity on either matter yet um I will uh allow the councelor to speak a third time. Uh you used up or you had left in your first three minutes uh I believe a minute 21. Uh so under our bylaw of five minutes uh you would get um 5 minus 121 left uh to be on the right side.

01:34:44
If we wanted to make any changes to that it would require a 2/3 vote. So I’m going to suggest that uh in uh in very short order as a council we decide whether it’s three or five and we decide whether it’s two speaking times regardless of whether you use all of your time or not. So that not we’re not in this situation of uh lack of clarity around how much time you get to speak around whether it’s in two times or multiple parts uh which requires myself or the clerk to be uh time clocking and keeping which we don’t uh do other than watching the clock. We actually listen to uh the comments that council members make. So with that uh preamble, I uh will turn it to you and we’ll get the right number on the clock so that we know for sure what is is left. Uh so if you can give us five minutes minus 121. So we are perfectly in line with what

01:35:42
our existing procedure bylaw says. Uh if you would like to ask, I’m actually looking to table a point of privilege. Uh just a moment. We’ll get the we’ll get the clock and then uh you can actually table a point of privilege now if you would like. Okay. So not using a second or third comment.

01:36:05
Um, I just wanted to say that I said in advance that I was using my whole time and we covered this item in the September committee meeting when we did 2072 Lakeshore around the uh lack of clarity in the bylaw and what’s customary versus what goes to the vote. So I felt in terms of being in respectful dialogue that I was purposefully disrupted while clearly reading my notes and providing a preemptive disclosure that I was using my full time.

01:36:36
And I felt like that didn’t allow me to complete my job or perform my best because I was feeling like I was interrupted when I shouldn’t have been. Okay. Thank you for for that. Um and that uh same interruption was provided to all council members when they reached the 3 minutes. But this is exactly why we need to clarify was the only counselor who said I was using my five minutes in advance.

01:37:04
We don’t debate council. We don’t we don’t debate. You’ve tabled it. We’re done with this item. We are done. We are done with We are done with this item. We are done with this item. We are if I need to call a recess to to bring order and respect back to chambers, I will. But we are done with this item.

01:37:21
So this is why we will call a recess now. All right, we’ll be back at uh let’s say 1:00. We’ll take a lunch break. Thanks. All

02:23:49
right, welcome back everyone. Uh we are back in our budget review. Uh and we uh prior to taking our break were discussing uh a point of privilege matter. So I would like to invite uh I understand that the uh the councelor felt interrupted uh during her remarks. I was trying to consistently apply the rules to everyone uh to give them the notice of 3 minutes which has been our agreed upon uh practice but it is not in our procedure bylaw.

02:24:22
So, as a courtesy to the council, I’d like to invite her to uh restate her 5 minutes if she would like uninterrupted. Uh I understand that was the concern is that uh the interruption of reminding the three minutes was uh was awkward. So, I would like to turn the opportunity to you counselor to uh without interruption share the thoughts that you uh would have shared in your full five minutes.

02:24:49
So, over to you. Thanks. I’ll pass the windows closed. Appreciate it though. Okay. Uh thank you. So we turn now to the approval of the um the budget and we still have some opportunity for speakers who haven’t uh spoken if there are any further comments to the budget. All right. Well, I do have some thoughts.

02:25:20
uh as you might expect that I will share. Uh you can give me three. Yeah, that’s fine. Uh so I just uh first of all want to thank all of the uh uh committee members who uh were very involved in this at multiple touch points at the town hall for interactive conversation at the uh budget uh town hall, the telephone town hall where we took questions, food for feedback and so many other touch points. Uh thank you.

02:25:50
Uh what we heard certainly was concern about affordability. We also heard the need for sustainability and protecting our amazing and wonderful quality of life here and did not get substantive uh suggestions from community uh or even amendments from uh council that were approved to significantly cut service in any way.

02:26:13
So I think that really speaks to the value for dollar that residents are getting for this budget. Uh we do uh at the region set a tax target. I know it hasn’t been our practice at uh city, but that is a standard practice we’ve been doing for roughly 15 uh years. And it gives community and staff an idea of uh of what to um what to budget for.

02:26:38
It’s a good practice and uh I’m glad we did it in this case. Uh we also uh know that there are uh much higher increases in some of those budget line items including uh the police budget which certainly I supported and I think every member of council did uh at 8.2. So I think the message there is rather than uh a number being the right number it is are you getting value for dollar and uh we said that uh at at uh when we asked the police to come in with a target.

02:27:09
We said that at region uh when we asked them to come in at a target of 4.6 and all told uh your tax increase if you’re looking to um uh to budget and set your budget uh the impact for the city portion on your tax increase is 2.98% which is actually less than uh uh in some cases the constru the inflation that we have to account for the construction inflation and other measures.

02:27:38
So um this is a budget that is primarily driven by uh adjusting to inflationary pressures ensuring a state of good repair and infrastructure levy which we know uh has been eroded to some extent over the years because of the cost increase uh from tariffs and construction uh and some amount to account for additional services coming online like our library.

02:28:01
So it is a uh it is a a budget that does respond I think both to affordability, sustainability and value for money protecting our quality of life. So thanks everyone for your input and uh again the suggestions for how we can do community engagement in a different way. Always appreciate those. Uh thanks to community for that and we uh we continue to revise our process. So, thank you.

02:28:31
Uh, councelor Nissan, go ahead. Yeah, thanks. Um, I would just like to respond to a couple things. Um, the first thing is that, uh, let’s be really careful about 2.98%. Um, that we cannot say that that’s under a metric of inflation because that’s compared to your total tax amount. We’ve been over this before.

02:28:55
So, uh, if you want to do apples to apples, you’re going to have to see what it is closer to the 4.5%. But you can’t say that we’re under infla we’re under inflation because our budget is well over that. So, let’s just try to be clear about that. Um, inflation isn’t the only marker. It’s not the only thing that matters and there are different types of inflation.

02:29:18
So, um, but we can’t say that we’re at 2.98% or below inflation. I don’t think that’s fair to say. And the second thing is I would just say as far as going towards a target, I would just refer anyone who says, you know, that it’s okay just to your own comments in previous years where we said we would not go to a target and have a look at that.

02:29:40
I think it’s pretty clear. I mean there are two sides to it for sure but I come down on the side where we shouldn’t be picking a target and I think Halton region is very different um in terms of the operations and capital and also being uh really well ahead of their capital program compared to the city.

02:29:59
Thank you very much. Thank you. Are there any final comments? I’ll just say thank you uh councelor Nissan for your comments. Um my my comments were misunderstood. I was referring to uh all levels of inflation and construction of course is is closer to 30 uh%. So uh we we we’ve heard uh benefits are 8%.

02:30:26
There’s many different uh markers that have to be accounted for. So, uh, hopefully, uh, that clears that up and and there’s no misunderstanding about, uh, about the 2.98, which accounts for, uh, all of the items that we’ve been talking about, which is, uh, 2% for inflation, um, 2% for infrastructure levy, and 1.8% for additional uh, services is roughly uh, what makes up the budget change, which translates to the 2.98.

02:30:54
So, uh, I hope that is more clear, but thank you for that. All right. Uh, finally, I will just say, uh, for the media out there that are reporting on this, we always really appreciate when you carry the message to folks that can’t be in these chambers. Uh, I, uh, will share that the, uh, the budget is built in a new way because of the, uh, legislation that we don’t control.

02:31:20
Uh but all uh council members had the opportunity to bring amendments to change uh the tax increase and at the end of the day there were um uh in terms of what was approved there were as many increases uh around infrastructure and storm water management and I really appreciate council supporting those uh as there were decreases.

02:31:40
So I think that again indicates that uh there wasn’t a lot there to cut without deeply going into services which residents overall have said they don’t want us to do. They really do value the uh the services that we provide. So uh it’s a it’s a tough budget and a tough year and certainly other municipalities are uh sharing that pain.

02:32:03
uh along with us I was talking to my colleague uh from uh uh from GE their budget uh overall so comparing to our overall at 4.4 four and six is looking closer to over eight uh% uh all-in blended rate. So there’s uh there’s a lot of challenges out there given the um uh given the circumstances that we are in and we are doing uh I believe a responsible uh budget to manage uh keeping services for residents that they depend on, providing affordability measures right in the budget in terms of uh property tax rebate for those who need it to keep folks in their house. uh free transit uh heritage tax rebate and a whole host of other measures to address that affordability piece uh that are in there. Our proper our um uh discount on uh programming and rec centers so that people uh don’t have to choose between uh you know paying the rent and going to programs. So all of

02:33:02
that is built into this budget and uh I believe reflects the uh by and large the uh feedback that we’ve heard from community around what they’re looking for us to support with their tax dollars and our tax dollars. All right, seeing no further uh go ahead councelor Karns. Thank you. I think I had one minute left.

02:33:26
So I just wanted to respond to one of the comments. I just heard uh G and their their rate and I just wanted to say that G issued a a news release on November 23. Sorry, this is I think in response to your comments saying that other municipalities are worse or are also facing the same struggles. Um it’s showing actually that G uh confirm their budget with a tax levy impact of 3.36%.

02:33:50
So just wanted to clarify that for for friends in G uh that might be hearing differently from the earlier comments. Uh thank you. I uh believe I probably have some time left. I’ll clarify. Uh the city portion is 3.36. Uh the uh agency’s boards commission so the regional portion has not been built into that.

02:34:12
Uh that is coming in the new year and that is looking for an additional amount on top of that which would take it to eight. So if folks want the full uh picture, they have to account for those regional pieces as well. And that’s straight from a discussion with uh the mayor a couple of days ago. So uh both numbers, they’re a two-tier like we are.

02:34:31
And that’s why we try to uh tell folks what the full uh rate is all in, not just the city piece because there’s another component coming and that’s still to come for GE in the new year. All right. Uh seeing no further comments, I will uh turn it to the clerk for the recorded vote on the amendments and the debentures. Go ahead. So this is the vote for everything on the screen.

02:34:59
Councelor Galbra support. Councelor Karns do not support. Councelor Nissan support. Councelor Stolty support. Councelor Charman support. Councelor Bentya support. Mayor me Ward support. That’s six in favor and one opposed. And that does carry. Thank you everyone. Uh and as uh mentioned, I’ll be issuing the mayor’s decision uh to uh end the 10-day period for my review and not exercise the veto.

02:35:32
So later today hopefully uh we will get we’ll have a full budget locked and loaded for our staff. Uh we have no uh confidential items. Uh we have no rise and report. We do have a motion to receive and file information items from councelor Stolty. Seconded by councelor Charman uh to receive and file the information items having been considered by councel.

02:35:55
All those in favor? Any opposed? Seeing none, that does carry uh unanimously. We have a motion to approve the bylaws moved by councelor Bentania, seconded by councelor Galbrath to enact and pass the following bylaw which is introduced entitled and numbered as indicated below 92 2025 a bylaw to establish and impose certain 2026 rates and fees for services, activities, or the use of property.

02:36:28
And we do need a recorded vote on that. And I’ll turn it to the clerk for the recorded vote. Councelor Galbreth. Support. Councelor Karns. Support. Councelor Nissan. Support. Councelor Stoalty. Support. Councelor Charman. Support. Councelor Bentya. Support. May Ward support. That’s seven in favor. All right.

02:37:13
Uh, folks, we um have a notice of motion coming from councelor Stoalty. Go ahead. Thank you. So, just if I can clarify with the clerk, a notice of motion is merely a heads up. It’s not an opportunity for commentary or for debate. Correct. It does require a seconder. Correct. Um, and it is just a heads up. Then the debate, the comments, the questions will all come when the item comes forward.

02:37:37
the motion comes forward. Thank you. Um I believe councelor Charman was going to second. So we have a motion moved by councelor Stoalty, seconded by uh councelor Charman, a notice of motion, and I’ll turn it to you to explain. Go ahead. Thank you. I just wanted to speak really quickly.

02:37:49
It was actually a motion I was going to bring forward in November given um some commentary that went back and forth earlier in the fall, but I opted not to. But I think it’s prudent for all of us that I do it now. So, um, I can only assume that others, as well as myself, are frustrated by the unnecessary wrangling that we have to go through around commenting guidelines in our procedure bylaw.

02:38:06
Years ago, we agreed in principle on council to limit our commenting to 3 minutes each in order to be good stewards of our own and staff’s precious time in council chambers. And by that, we were able to make our council meetings and our committee meetings as efficient as possible. That guiding principle has worked well for three years.

02:38:22
Um, but recently, it’s been repeated. There’s we’ve had some repeated issues around the lack of clarity. I know that’s been frustrating for everyone involved. Um, so I’m going to be bringing forward a motion uh to hopefully uh get support to clarify and confirm a change in our actual procedural bylaw. Uh, and the change will be to amend our procedural bylaw to allow for a formal limit of two opportunities of up to three minutes each for committee council comments.

02:38:47
Thank you. All right. And there is no debate on notices of motion. So, we will turn to the confirmatory bylaw moved by councelor Karns, seconded by councelor Nissan to enact and pass bylaw 93 2025, a bylaw to confirm the proceedings of council at our meeting December 2nd, 2025 being read a first, second, and third time.

02:39:10
I’ll turn it to the clerk now for the recorded vote on that. Thank you. Councelor Galbrath, support. Councelor Karns, support. Councelor Nissan, support. Councelor Stoalty, support. Councelor Charman support. Councelor Bentovenia support. Mayor me Ward support. That’s seven in favor. And I now have a motion to avert uh ad ajourn. Moved by councelor Bentovenia.

02:39:33
Seconded by councelor Golrath. All those in favor? Show of hands. Any opposed? Seeing none that does carry. We are adjourned. Thanks everyone.