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Council approves 2.25 per cent residential property tax increase for 2021 (updated)

Started the night at 3.52 per cent
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By taking from reserves and pushing off phased-in operating expenses of future projects, city council brought the 2021 residential property tax increase down to 2.25 per cent on Tuesday evening.

Taxpayers started the day facing a 3.52 per cent jump.

"That's incredible," Mayor Cam Guthrie said of the end result, at the close of a seven-hour meeting and a weeks-long public process. “It’s a tough year.”

The $463 million budget was approved 10-3, with councillors Phil Allt, Bob Bell and Christine Billings opposed.

More than half of the increase, about 1.2 per cent, is attributable to outside boards and committees council has no control over, noted Guthrie, such as the police, library and public health budgets, among others.

To achieve the 2.25 per cent levy bump, council froze non-union and council compensation at 2020 levels (valued at $831,800), took $1.4 million from the tax rate operating contingency reserve to provide funding for a number of one-time initiatives, upped the hourly parking rate at city lots, and more.

Hourly parking fees at city facilities in downtown are set to rise from $2.25 to $2.50, with a flat fee for Saturdays increasing from $2 to $3. Combined, they're expected to increase revenue by $144,000.

“The reality is we’re still putting a lot of money on the tax base,” said Coun. Mark MacKinnon, calling for council to “move the needle” in reducing the taxpayer subsidy on parking. “Rest of I don’t want to subsidize that any longer than we need to.”

A motion to increase the monthly parking rates failed, as did a follow-up motion which sought a smaller increase. As a result, they’re set to rise by two per cent.

Council agreed to push off a $750,000 contribution to Guelph General Hospital – an annual commitment that began in 2020 and is expected to run for five years.

“This has been run by the hospital and they have said it would be fine,” explained Guthrie ahead of the vote on that matter, explaining the hospital’s fiscal year runs April to March, so they simply need the payment by the end of March in order to stay on track.

The tax rate operating contingency reserve was tapped to provide the Guelph Neighbourhood Support Coalition with a one-time funding increase of $170,000 (they’d asked for $220,000 ongoing), cover “up to” $150,000 for criminal background checks for volunteers in 2021, pitch in $300,000 toward a comprehensive service review, provide $91,000 to the Welcoming Streets initiative and $61,200 for an Addiction Court support worker, provide $465,300 to The Elliott Community (they requested $502,800), and cut the cost of business licences in half ($166,000).

Several councillors expressed concern about how much they cumulatively agreed to take from reserves. 

“I think we’re putting ourselves at greater risk every time we’re doing that tonight,” commented Coun. Leanne Caron. “We have depleted our reserves.”

Council took a $500,000 contribution to a reserve fund for renewable energy projects, aimed at helping the city meet its commitment of having its facilities and other assets operate on 100 per cent renewable energy by 2050, off the tax base and pulled it from a redevelopment incentives reserve.

“I think we will have a lot to answer for if we keep punting this down the road,” Allt said when the proposal was to scrap 2021 funding altogether. “We are losing a level of trust that the community has in us.”

“We are actually preventing future costs,” Coun. Rodrigo Goller added of the renewable energy projects.

That reserve was also used to offset a 0.39 tax increase associated with the redevelopment of the Baker Street parking lot into a mixed use area that includes a new central library.

On that note, council opted to pull $300,000 of phase-in anticipated operating costs for the new library, though $225,000 of the phase-in remains for 2021.

“We’ll have more information in two years than we do right now,” Coun. Dominique O’Rourke said in proposing the reduction. “We would have a better idea what the real (operating) numbers are.”

As it is, the new library’s operating budget isn’t known but was built into the draft 2021 budget to be phased in so as not to implement a large tax increase the year it opens.


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Richard Vivian

About the Author: Richard Vivian

Richard Vivian is an award-winning journalist and longtime Guelph resident. He joined the GuelphToday team as assistant editor in 2020, largely covering municipal matters and general assignment duties
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