Sarnia's mayor believes city council will face tough decisions in deciding the budget for 2016.
One of the items will likely be an information technology service review which recommends a budget increase of half-a-million dollars and the addition of five staff members.
Mayor Mike Bradley says the tension lies between providing better services for the community while keeping costs low for the taxpayer.
"I think there's no question there's a need for significant IT upgrades in the city. We are running on a very old model and it's not serving the city well," he says. "We've got all these really good single projects, but when you accumulate them, the additional cost is huge on the taxpayer. So we're going to have to look at how we stage this so we are being fair to the taxpayer, but at the same time, we're offering a high level of service to the community."
City staff say while the budget impact is significant, so too is maintaining the status quo.
The proposed IT operating budget would increase to $1,264,874 with a reserve spending budget of $367,500.
