With Chatham-Kent budget deliberations quickly approaching, one of the most vital parts of the process is underway.
Municipal officials hosted the first community consultation on Wednesday afternoon, which included a summary of the draft budget as well as an opportunity for residents to ask their questions about the budget.
"Prior to administration putting together the budget, council put together a guideline for them to follow," said Mayor Darrin Canniff. "The guideline was inflation which turned out to be 6.85 per cent and then a capital levy which is spending in capital over and above what we spent the prior year."
The draft budget proposes a tax increase of 6.35 per cent for 2023.
For an average household assessed at $173,700 in Chatham-Kent, an increase of 6.35 per cent would equal an extra cost of $200 a year.
"That increase is broken down into four categories," said Councillor and Budget Chair Brock McGregor. "Maintaining existing services is 0.61 per cent ($19) of that increase, provincial funding reduction is 0.51 per cent ($16), the capital asset management plan is 3.65 per cent ($115) of that increase, and business cases recommended to council is 1.58 per cent ($50) of the increase."
The first question residents asked officials on Wednesday dealt with the format in which the budget information was presented this year as opposed to previous years.
According to Chief Financial Officer Gord Quinton, in previous years, the information was presented in a way that was often hard for everyone to follow along with.
This year, the budget committee put together a budget binder.
"It's a much more readable format and puts us on track with what other municipalities are doing in sort of the leading edge of budgeting," said Quinton.
As bills, groceries, and insurance prices continue to go up, one local homeowner wanted officials to justify raising taxes this year.
"There was lots of chaos in 2020, but eventually people started buying things and the supply chains weren't there to handle much of the needs of the world," said Quinton. "So prices have skyrocketed for everything for 2022 into 2023."
Even though prices are starting to trend down, costs for the municipality also went up, according to Quinton.
"A lot of our materials, for example, the cost of asphalt increased by 25 per cent, which means if we plan on paving 10 kilometres of roads, we can only pave seven or eight this year," said Quinton. "We do realize it is a hard budget and asking for six per cent and above will have an impact on resident's budgets, but it will be up to council to consider that as well."
Another question dealt with the explosion in Wheatley and whether or not it would have an impact on the proposed budget.
According to Quinton, the municipality is running a $5 million deficit for 2022, part of why there are no surplus funds to help offset this year's proposed budget.
"That said, there are no budgeted items in the draft budget for Wheatley in 2023," said Quinton. "We do expect to have significant costs continuing, some of those will be submitted to the province for assistance and for the parts the municipality will have to pick up, we'll have to have decisions by council when those reports come forward to fund them from reserves."
A second public meeting will be held online over Facebook and Youtube on Thursday night at 7 o’clock.
Deliberations, taking place in person at the Civic Centre, get underway next Wednesday.
