The idea of setting multi-year city budgets has been kicking around for a few years. Plans were in place to take the first step last year, but then the pandemic struck and caused it to be paused.
Those discussions are back on deck, with a policy in the works – pending council ratification of a committee of the whole decision made this week – with an upcoming council workshop intended to gather input, address concerns and explain the process, city treasurer Tara Baker told GuelphToday.
“There’s a lot of benefits that come with the efficiency of having a multi-year period solidified,” she said, noting it would allow staff to concentrate on implementing council’s strategic plan rather than crafting annual budgets. “It’s about efficiency and better utilization of current resources.”
They also give residents and businesses more information to use when planning for the future, Baker added, noting tax rates and user feels would be set for upcoming years, providing “confidence” in what those costs will be.
“A big part of business is knowing what to expect in terms of cost. If we can be out there with our long-term rates, I think that’s better for everyone.”
Though Guelph would be one of the first municipalities in Ontario to implement multi-year budgets, it would not be alone in this approach. The City of Waterloo has been using them since 2008 and the City of London began adopting them in 2016.
Since going that route, it has “saved an estimated 10,000 hours” of staff time in a four-year period, states a City of Waterloo 2020-2022 budget strategy report.
“Multi-year budgeting is the right way to go. It’s where a maturing city like Guelph needs to go,” said Mayor Cam Guthrie.
“Is this the right time to do a two-year one? Because of COVID, maybe not. Is this the right time to do a two-year one because it pushes us into the next election cycle and into the first year of potential new voices around the horseshoe? Maybe not. But that’s the discussion and debate that we’ll have.”
The council workshop is set for May 17, after which the policy will be created and presented to for consideration in June. That is, if council ratifies the budget plan approved by the committee of the whole earlier this week.
For the first go-round, Baker explained, the plan is to present council with a two-year budget this fall, covering 2022 and 2023. However, in future budgets could cover a four-year time span.
However, she noted if council decides during budget discussions that it is uncomfortable approving a two-year budget, it can be broken apart to include 2022 only, with the rest received as a forecast.
If the full multiple years were approved, the Ontario Municipal Act requires the budget to be confirmed by council during the second and subsequent years, giving council an opportunity to make necessary changes.
“This isn’t about doing the budget once and not looking at it again,” Baker said, referring to annual confirmations and quarterly budget update reports to council. “We would only open it up, change that rate, if something materially different was needed.”
For Guthrie, rules around what justifies reopening the budget will be key to gaining his support for this new approach.
“I want to make sure that there are mechanisms where, when unforeseen things happen, that authority always reverts back to council for the ultimate oversight and decision-making,” he said.
If the concept doesn’t fly this year, Baker said she’d bring it back for consideration in 2024.
“We would not be going to another multi-year period until after the next strategic plan is approved … in the new council,” she said. “We would never ask … the new council to pass a multi-year budget as their first thing. We need to give them time to set their new direction.”
There will be a municipal election in fall of 2022.
