With the City of Greater Sudbury’s 2023 budget deliberations beginning tonight, Sudbury.com dug deep into budget documents and prior coverage to weed out what readers might look for.
The city’s elected officials are tackling some big subjects, including adding more sworn members to Greater Sudbury Police Service, reducing GOVA Transit’s hours of operations, tackling the city’s degrading infrastructure and which, if any, of the 45 tabled business cases they will approve.
Per city council’s direction, the 2023 budget has been limited to a 3.7-per-cent tax levy impact, which required city administration to cut $17.8 million from the base budget.
Any changes city council opts to make will alter the levy unless they find alternative funding sources, such as city reserves, which already lag behind the provincial average, or debt, which has ballooned to approximately $355 million last year from $18.98 million in 2014.
A 4.8-per-cent water/wastewater rate increase has also been proposed, which is in line with the city’s long-term financial plan.
Budget deliberations begin at 4 p.m. today, when the city’s elected officials will gather at Tom Davies Square to kick off the first in a series of finance and administration committee meetings.
The following are some of the key things they’re expected to debate, and some of the potentially tough decisions they’re slated to make.
Boost in police and library budgets
Prior to budget deliberations, Greater Sudbury city council asked service partners to limit their budget increases to no greater than 3.7 per cent.
Not all of them followed this guideline.
The Greater Sudbury Police Services Board tabled a budget with a 5.66-per-cent increase, Public Health Sudbury and Districts wants a 3.17-per-cent boost in municipal funding, while the Greater Sudbury Public Library board is looking at a 7.4-per-cent jump in funds.
Conservation Sudbury has pared their original 7.2-per-cent budget increase down to 3.7 per cent, according to Ward 4 Coun. Pauline Fortin, who is on the Conservation Sudbury board. They’re presenting their final budget proposal on Feb. 15.
The Greater Sudbury police board unanimously approved their 5.66-per-cent hike last month, after paring it down from the 6.7-per-cent jump initially proposed.
The budget includes hiring 10 additional sworn members in 2023 as part of a three-year effort to bolster their ranks by 24.
The approved budget would also allow for the hiring of two special constables this year to work the GSPS front desk, which will free up two officers to work the front line on patrol. An additional two are planned for next year.
The Citizens on Patrol program was also greenlit to return on a limited basis, at a budgeted expense of $54,642 in 2023.
In response to the proposed police budget, Black Lives Matter Sudbury came out to “firmly denounce” the financial boost in a statement provided to Sudbury.com.
Rather than more police officers, they said, “Sudbury needs social services that will respond to the needs of its population with community care.”
They called on city council to reject the proposed budget and fund a “town hall meeting to be led by those most affected by policing in order to craft and finance a community-based and accountable plan to keep community members safe.”
City council members have little say in the police budget, but can declare yea or nay regarding this year’s new total of $72.7 million, which they can send back to the board for further consideration. In the event they can’t come to an agreement, the budget will be sent to the Ontario Civilian Police Commission for a final decision.
The proposed Greater Sudbury Public Library budget is $9.93 million, which is a 6.7-per-cent increase from 2022 and would require a 7.4-per-cent jump in the library’s City of Greater Sudbury operating grant due to an anticipated freeze in provincial funding and three-per-cent reduction of other revenue.
The budget increase responds mainly to fixed costs, though it also factors in the hiring of a full-time administrative co-ordinator to support the library board, CEO and managers. The one-member boost would bring them back to the staffing level of 50-full-time equivalent positions they held in 2019.
Tackling the infrastructure deficit
Tackling the city’s infrastructure deficit has carried over from previous years, as it is anticipated to continue doing for some time yet.
The city’s annual spending gap has continued hovering around the $100-million mark, which is the amount of additional spending would be required to maintain its assets in their current state. Last year, it was calculated that a 33-per-cent tax levy increase would be required to fill the gap.
As it stands, infrastructure is on the road toward degradation. City roads, currently in an overall “fair” condition are expected to slip to “poor” by approximately 2030.
The 2023 roads budget includes $50.6 million worth of “capital investments in road construction and repair to maintain the city’s transportation network.”
This is an almost 20-per-cent drop from the $62.6-million roads budget in 2022, though the city’s roads budget, and the capital budget it’s contained in, varies from year-to-year.
The 2023 capital budget is tentatively set at $154.6 million — a $50-million drop from last year’s $204.6 million.
City administrators noted the annual capital budget ranges from year to year due in part to external funding sources and larger projects, but that the city’s contribution has been steadily increasing in recent years, with 2023 no exception.
Still short of filling the city’s infrastructure gap, city administrators have recommended an additional 1.5-per-cent tax levy increase on top of the 3.7-per-cent jump, in the form of an annual “accelerated capital renewal levy.” If approved, the levy would result in a compounding effect of $76 million in five years and $290 million in 10 years, all toward the city’s aging infrastructure.
Business cases for service level increases
A total of 45 business cases have been approved by city council to come up for debate during this year’s budget deliberations.
If deliberations follow the same format as the city employed last year, each individual business case will be debated by city council in the coming weeks.
Of the business cases (which begin appearing on Page 235 of the proposed budget document), one is for user fee changes, six are for community grants, 30 are for service level increases and eight are for service level reductions.
None of the 45 business cases have been baked into the proposed budget, so, if approved, each business case would alter the 2023 tax levy away from the 3.7 per cent currently proposed.
The $7.79-million in business cases proposing service level increases include some notable wants from city council and administration.
Among business cases with the greatest 2023 budget impact is a complete capital repair to the Onaping Falls Community Centre, which would tack $1.29 million onto next year’s budget and equate to a 0.41-per-cent levy increase.
Ward 3 Coun. Gerry Montpellier advocated for this business case’s inclusion, which came in reaction to various areas of the building showing its age. Earlier this year, a water leak was repaired by the city after Montpellier drew attention to it through city council and local media.
Some other business cases include:
- Reconstruct Fielding Road with water and wastewater improvements ($1-million tax impact in 2023, followed by subsequent year impacts for a $45-million project)
- Invest in additional full-time ambulances ($1.4 million annual tax impact)
- Proceed with detailed design of the Employment Land Strategy ($891,000 annual tax impact
- Implement mattress diversion program ($425,000 annual tax impact)
- Enhance security services for Greater Sudbury Housing Corporation ($354,000 annual tax impact)
- Implement hot in-place recycled asphalt road rehabilitation program ($300,000 tax impact in 2023, followed by a $2.7 million impact in 2024)
The Sudbury Multicultural and Folk Arts Association is proposed to receive a $100,000 operating grant per year, while a $50,787 boost to the Place des Arts operating grant has also been proposed.
Not all service level increases carry a cost, with a proposed automated speed enforcement program slated to bring in a net $43,667 in 2023, followed by $412,000 once fully implemented in 2024. This program is anticipated to include two mobile units being redeployed three times per year and 20,000 offences being captured per year.
GOVA Transit service level reductions
Although most of this year’s 45 business cases propose service level increases, eight propose reductions.
Perhaps most notable are proposed reductions in GOVA Transit hours, including eliminating seldom-used routest, reducing conventional public transit after 11 p.m.
Conventional GOVA Transit service currently operates seven days per week, between 6 a.m. and 12 a.m., with all final trips departing the Downtown Transit Hub by midnight.
The proposed service level reduction would have the final bus depart downtown at 11 p.m. for an annual net cost savings of $736,000 once fully implemented. Approximately 80 people daily would be affected by this change (the city’s average system-wide ridership after 11 p.m.), and the change would reduce service by 10,800 transit hours annually.
Service level reductions also call for the elimination of Route 22, Route 23 and Route 4, reducing transit service hours at the Downtown Transit Kiosk and Downtown Transit Hub.
If all eight service level reductions were approved, the city would cut an expenditure of $1.35 million in 2023 and almost $2 million when fully implemented next year.
Other relevant information for 2023 budget talks
City council plans on debating the 2023 budget during a series of meetings stretching until approximately March 7, when they’re expected but not obligated to approve a final budget.
A 2023 property tax policy is expected to be approved on May 16, which outlines how the approved budget affects taxation.
A schedule of meetings can be found on the city’s website by clicking here, and all public meetings can be attended in-person or viewed online.
The full proposed 2023 budget document can be found by clicking here, while other municipal resources surrounding the budget can be accessed here. This includes two budget information session livestream videos and a list of questions and answers posed by the public and city council.
Sudbury.com will be covering budget deliberations as they unfold.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
