Budget 2022: 'We don't have the ability to have a wish list'

Deputy Mayor Tanya Vrebosch, CFO Margaret Karpenko and their team have been hard at work behind closed doors on the City of North Bay's 2022 budget and are prepared to go public with their results, Monday.

Vrebosch, in her role as budget chief, says she is trying to help deliver "Cassellholme, the community centre, and as low as a levy as we can possibly get."

According to budget documents, the tax levy increase (before growth) included in the proposed 2022 Operating Budget is 5.89 per cent or $5,715,844. 

See the staff reports on the operating budget here and the capital budget here.

See the full 2022 recommended operating budget here and capital budget here.

In February, the 2021 budget passed with an overall levy increase of 3.38 per cent, up approximately $3.1 million from 2020 to nearly $97 million. 

Vrebosch favoured moving forward with important projects and resisting the urge to put the brakes on, although this proved difficult when it came to the City's involvement in big-ticket builds.

In defending the final budget, Vrebosch declared, "It's easy to say 'no' but it's harder to say 'yes.'"

The uncertainty over the Cassellholme redevelopment has already indefinitely put the community centre project on ice. As it is, Vrebosch is hoping Council and staff will wrap up talks in time to pass the budget in early 2022, with details of the financing and levy situation for Cassellholme included.

See related: City of North Bay could take over Cassellholme in latest proposal to move redevelopment forward

"We've got a lot of challenges and Cassellholme is one of them," advises Vrebosch. "There are other pressures. We haven't bounced back with revenues from parking, transit or facilities."

Vrebosch observes predictions the pandemic would not last to another budget season have proved to be incorrect and there are pressures on the budget due to "two years of not bouncing back." 

User fees are an essential revenue stream for the municipality, she says, and decreases have large-scale impacts. Council has been told this will not be the year to suggest sweeping service level enhancements. 

Potential service enhancements on the bubble include adding security for the downtown municipal parking garage, a one-day mattress drop-off, and funding for the Trees for Nipissing initiative.

After a few years of dipping into reserves to lower the levy, Vrebosch also says it's important not to leave the next council in dire financial straits.

"This is a no-wish list year. We don't have the ability to have a wish list," she says. 

Over $2.5 million in reserves was used to reduce the impact on the levy in the 2021 budget. Vrebosch says, "This translates to just under $4.5 million as it will take us four years to wean ourselves off of this artificial revenue."

The special committee meeting addressing the 2022 operating and capital budgets begins Monday at 5:15 p.m. and is available via the City of North Bay's live stream.