By John Francis
The Municipality of Northern Bruce Peninsula recently concluded a gruelling budget process, arriving at a final set of numbers that will satisfy — pretty much nobody.
Taxes are going up 8.28% and the overall budget is going up 10.21%.
According to a Statistics Canada press release in February 2024, “The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 2.9% on a year-over-year basis in January, following a 3.4% gain in December.”
Our resident tax scolds will be outraged by the tax increases. They will argue that the Consumer Price Index increases should be the upper boundary for municipal budget discussions.
Some who follow municipal governance closely are concerned that this budget leaves large gaps in the funding of our infrastructure and services.
The municipal roads budget got a big boost this year, but it was nowhere near enough to cover the increase in costs the department faces for materials and services. The roads budget will probably need an equally large boost again next year just to get its head above water. If we actually want improvements, it will take another large boost beyond that.
Then there’s infrastructure. The Meeting Agenda for our Council’s Feb 5 Special Budget Meeting included a list of 84 “built” assets the municipality owns or is responsible for.
A few of them have been built in the current century — Lion’s Head lighthouse, the Ferndale information centre, some recycling buildings and washrooms and a couple of sand domes.
But there is also a daunting list of 19th century buildings — the Rotary Hall in Lion’s Head, the SS#2 Schoolhouse/Museum in Tobermory, the two pioneer cabins at that museum and Tobermory Library. All of these require or will require significant investments to keep them serviceable but every one of them is different and presents unique challenges. For challenges, read “long hours of staff time figuring out how to solve problems and estimating budgets”.
The rest of the 84 built infrastructure items date from the 20th century; many of them were built between 1945 and 1975, a 30-year period in which the populations of Ontario and Canada doubled. Almost by definition, they do not meet modern building and safety codes, which means every repair, renovation or improvement is complicated. Once again — long hours of staff time figuring out how to solve problems and estimating budgets.
Our municipal “built infrastructure” — our buildings and facilities — are becoming increasingly inadequate as our population increases. We don’t just need to fix the decrepit buildings we already have, we need to build new ones. A lot of them.
We desperately need a replacement for the Friendship Club building in Lion’s Head — it is used almost daily but it is a money pit. You could probably spend a quarter million just figuring out whether or not the walls could support the new roof it needs. Nobody remembers what’s under that panelling.
The Meeting Place building in Tobermory is also used almost daily. It needs a six-figure repair to its roof and HVAC systems. But if we make those repairs it will still be a clumsy, temporary building long past its designed lifespan.
Repairs and renovations to buildings have become much more expensive in recent years. Partly it’s the cost of materials. Partly it’s the new building codes. Partly it’s that wages have gone up across Canada. Partly it’s that dramatic local increases in the cost of housing have driven local wage costs up by more than the national average — nobody here can afford to work for minimum wage anymore because the cost of living is too high.
The costs of running our municipality have gone up a lot more than 10.21%. Somehow staff and Council will find a way to spread that money around so that nothing actually falls down or washes out.
But even the 1% of the budget that will go into capital reserves doesn’t begin to address what is needed.
In concentrating on all the trees, we lost sight of the forest.
There is nothing in the budget to address the desperate need for a water system in Tobermory. (Guesstimate — $60 million).
There is nothing in the budget to replace the (decrepit) Friendship Club, the undersize library or the logistical problems at the arena (a new complex solving these problems and a few more would be around $25 million.)
There is nothing in the budget to get Lion’s Head municipal water to Ferndale. (I dunno — $10 million maybe?)
There is nothing in the budget to address the need for a sewage system in Lion’s Head. And so forth.
Add it all up, it comes to somewhere over $100 million. Amortize a hundred million at 5% over 25 years and the payments are around $6 million per year.
We send $8 million a year to Bruce County and don’t get much back.
Hmmm.
