Black River-Matheson – The 2007 Budget and our dollars

Council has been working for many weeks with our Treasurer in planning the 2007 budget. This year the activity is a bit more complicated and time consuming than prior years for a number of reasons such as:   Four Councillors and I are new and as a result we are taking more time in analyzing details.   We are looking at every line of expense to see where we can save money to ensure that we can finance our essential services to an acceptable level. This is made that much tougher this year because of such things as: Provincial Government increased downloading of social services costs (particularly for the Ontario Disability Support Program – ODSP), increased OPP policing costs, increased costs for water management to name but a few, plus an urgent need to increase the amount we must save and put aside for replacement of our aging infrastructure and capital assets.      We must consider and factor into our budget some of the Consultants recommendations arising from the Operations Review. These recommendations are extremely important to sustain the long-term financial viability of our Township, meaning, in straight English, if we don’t make some of the recommended changes, we will be in big trouble down the road! 

A number of minor cost-saving steps were taken early in January to control costs. For example I asked that membership on Regional Boards such as the Cochrane and District Social Services Administration Board (DSSAB) and the Porcupine Health Unit (PHU) be added to the list of meetings for which Council would not have to pay any remuneration. This has saved the Township somewhere between $140 to $250 per month. Additionally Council changed the By-law to remove the Mayor’s monthly car allowance of $311.50 for travel within municipal boundaries to straight mileage. For the first three months of 2007 this has saved the Township $536.52. Combined with the removal of the DSSAB & PHU Board allowance, this equates to a saving of approx. $225 each month or $2700 for the year. Not that much, but in a small municipality like ours, every dollar counts. 

Although we have not finished our budget deliberations, some decisions have been made such as we have considerably reduced most training where it involves traveling significant distances out of our region. We have reduced allowances for the Mayor and each Councillor. We have cut back significantly on attendance at conferences and seminars by everyone. Attendance at some conferences is mandatory, but a significant number have been cancelled. 

Some major reductions in spending are still being debated but overall most of the work has been done. The net result will likely be a tax increase, but one that we hope all taxpayers will realize is unavoidable and the best we can do without jeopardizing 2007 delivery of Township services and our longer-term future.

Water, Sewer and landfill (the dumps) rates have all gone up. I think everyone understands that the water rates are set to totally recover the full cost of maintaining our water supplies. Additional equipment had to be bought this year for our water treatment plants in case of emergencies. We must also increase the amount we have to set aside for our water reserve fund to replace some of our aging distribution network. By law, no community is allowed to support the cost of providing water to residents by transferring money from elsewhere such as from reserves or from any other municipal funding source. The Provincial Government concept is a “user pay” one.  We are fortunate our rates have only gone up by 8% as some of our neighbouring communities have had an increase as high as 20%. 

The sewer rates have also gone up slightly to help in putting aside money into a reserve fund to pay for replacement of aging infrastructure.  

The landfill rates have also gone up because our landfill locations are filling up at least twice as fast as originally estimated. For example, the Matheson dump’s trench was dug approximately two years ago assuming it would last for five years. It is already almost full and another trench needs to be dug at significant cost. This is another reason why we must seriously think about increasing our recycling program. We need to be reducing the amount of trash we throw away and do more recycling. This issue must be looked at again. 

Costs are going up everywhere and we have not increased our tax base for 2007. But there is some good news on the horizon because of a number of new industries that will be establishing themselves in our Township but this will not help us for the year 2007. It will help in 2008 and beyond. 

Regards, Mike Milinkovich

 

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