By Karen Wolfe

The 2023 budget negotiations started on January 24, 2023 with a proposed rate hike of 6.83 per cent.

Surprisingly, Council members did not see fit to remove one nickel from a long list of expenses…instead they added a few thousand dollars to the bottom line which pushed the rate increase even higher to 6.89 per cent.

This increase translates into an estimated property tax increase of $163.88 for a home (not waterfront) assessed at $448,115.

It also represents the highest property tax hike in five years.

The other rate increase separate from the town-wide increase is the water and wastewater budget. Town of Georgina residents who depend on the town water and sewer system will see an additional increase of 5.84 per cent in their water bills.

Over the two days of deliberation, very little if any time was spent debating the operating budget of $66,336.970 which includes just over $11 million that will be tucked into reserves.

Council also approved the recommendation to hire 13 new staff members at a cost of over $1 million. This increased expense was added to the other operational cost drivers such as collective agreements and other contractual price increases.

Anyone hoping the line items in various departments would demonstrate some operational savings to compensate for the staffing increases, would be disappointed.

Nothing was removed from the operations budgets submitted by any of the Town’s departments.

“This budget was developed with a clear focus on improving service delivery, managing growth and delivering services more effectively and efficiently.”

Mayor Margaret Quirk

“Georgina’s financial strategies continue to evolve in order to address the most recent economic instabilities and legislative changes. High inflation has had a significant
impact on the Town’s operating costs. In addition, infrastructure delivery costs have significantly increased and are expected to remain high in 2023 due to rising commodity and energy prices.”

Deputy CAO and Treasurer Rob Wheater

Some of the larger new capital projects approved by council include $4 million in road work (pavement management); a fleet replacement program costing $2.4 million; a building condition assessment project costing $1.2 million; tree removal at a cost of $2.5 million and two IT solutions for corporate and planning departments costing just over $1 million.

Ultimately, the Town got everything they asked for, plus some.

For instance, an approved new replacement Civic Centre reserve fund was set up that will see two per cent of infrastructure tax dollars added in 2023 plus $1,960,000 added in 2024 and every year thereafter until 2037.

This fund will also receive money from a capital reserve account which represents savings that have been historically held for facility repairs and replacement.

The corporate capital reserve fund will also have funds transferred there.

All of this financial manoeuvring is part of a funding strategy designed to pay for the proposed $50 million new Civic Centre without borrowing from outside sources.

Sitting before council on that first day was a resolution to approve the new 44,000 sq. ft., $50 million Civic Centre.

But some of the new council members thought it prudent to delay the passing of the resolution for a month to give residents an opportunity to have a say on the cost and the size of the project–both of which had doubled since it was last discussed in the summer of 2022.

At that time the size was 21,200 sq. ft. with an estimated cost of $25.7 million.

Mike Anderson
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