Speed reductions paused by budget cut

During a six-hour budget meeting on Monday, councillors heard presentations from the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority (asking for a $3,978 increase over last year), Clearview Public Library, and public works, which includes roads, water and sewer servicing, development and engineering.
Facing increasing prices and other pandemic related financial pressures, staff attempted to reduce spending in order to bring down the initial proposed increase of 9.14 per cent.
At the start of the second budget session on Nov. 27, knowing the County of Simcoe had passed a budget with a two percent increase, councillors were presented a revised budget with an estimated 7.57 per cent increase in the Clearview portion of taxes (including funding for the OPP), and a 5.01 per cent increase in the overall amount of taxes collected by the municipality, factoring in the county portion, and education taxes which are estimated to go down.
By the end of Monday’s session, council had the overall increase down to 4.31 per cent, despite efforts to cut deeper.
With the caveat that he hates to arbitrarily throw out tax targets, Councillor Thom Paterson put forward a motion that council get the increase down to two per cent by looking for discretionary spending to cut, recognizing that it is a pandemic year and residents can’t take the added financial burden.
“I think it’s only fair,” said Paterson. “It looks like an expansion year. I believe firmly in what the staff is doing but I’m hoping that this council can look closely, with staff of course.”
The motion was supported by council but finding cuts that come from taxation proved difficult, when some spending is paid for through fees, development charges, reserves and borrowing and doesn’t come directly from taxation.
A presentation from deputy director of public works Dan Perreault revealed that Clearview is falling behind on resurfacing its paved roads to the tune of $30 million, and that the equipment reserve has taken a hit due to the replacement of a grader in 2020, and now has a deficit of $500,000. He is proposing to increase the equipment reserve from $190,000 to $290,000 in 2022.
Items deferred to future budget years include Centreline Road reconstruction from County Road 9 to Concession 7 ($1,680,000); Riverside Drive reconstruction from County Road 9 to 15/16 Sideroad ($1,500,000); Creemore Parking at Medical Centre ($48,000); the replacement of paver stones at the Village Green ($60,000); addressing draining issues in New Lowell and in Creemore relating to the “urbanization” of Mary Street.
Included in the budget is $460,000 for gravel resurfacing, and $100,000 for road line painting.
Council made an about face, to the frustration of Paterson, by removing a $50,000 line item for signs required to lower speed limits on Nottawasaga Concession 10 North near Duntroon, Riverside Drive/Concession 6 and Fairgrounds Road as previously approved by council. During a recent traffic workshop council supported reducing the speed limit on portions of those roads to 60 km/hr.
The item was pulled at the suggestion of Deputy Mayor Barry Burton, who was swayed by petitions, correspondence and a delegation of residents all opposed to lowering speed limits, saying he wants to hold off and seek further public input, possibly by conducting a survey.
Councillor Doug McKechnie opposed reversing the decision saying council has discussed the issue for a year and a half, and doesn’t want to fuel an issue that could pit one part of the community against another, saying it could become worse than the ATV issue.
Paterson objected vehemently saying a process has been followed going all the way back to when he first presented a public desire for speed reduction, which was then deferred in order to have a traffic study completed, and was ultimately supported by unanimous vote for the speed reduction.
“Let the record show that the only opposing vote… was to increase the reduction, not to lower it,” said Paterson referring to the 6th Concession. “I feel, very strong, that I have lived up to my obligation as a ward councillor in letting people know ahead of time where we are going, having been informed by some public opinion basically explaining to people when they first wanted an instant change back in 2019/2020 that we are not going to do it that way. We are going to get a comprehensive report so that we, council, make a decision based on road design… we didn’t make it lightly and we do understand the inconvenience for some people but we are talking about safety here.”
Paterson was also frustrated by a change in plans for the extra parking at Creemore Medical Centre, which was to be resurfaced and serve as parking for Gowan Park, which he hopes will be brought to a minus standard using gravel in the interim.
“… I’m looking for results. I’m tired of getting decisions from this council and then having them reversed,” he said.
“I know this is frustrating to no end. I also believe there is no right answer here so we have to make a decision and move on,” said Mayor Doug Measures. “My recommendation is that we are trying to keep the budget increase at a minimum and so, I’m very interested to hear what all members of council have to say about other budget items as well. While this one is a very hot topic it is only $50,000 when we are looking at a budget that is quite significant.”
Questions were raised about the role of the township to develop affordable housing and as a result of some finagling $150,000 of a $250,000 contribution to reserves was held, until after a workshop and further discussion with developers.
“I think it’s wrong to suggest that we’re not concerned about affordable housing for seniors… I think we need to be clear minded in terms of what we are funding,” said Paterson.
Burton initiated the affordable senior housing reserve for seniors. It was removed from last year’s budget, and he strongly supports building the reserve so that the township is poised for partnership opportunities.
“I think taking this money out now is letting our seniors down. We need to show our seniors they have our support,” said Burton. “There’s other places to cut the budget. This is not one of them.”
The council proposed draft budget will go to a public meeting on Dec. 13, before going back to council for further deliberation.