When it comes to preparing the 2012 budget, Centre Wellington Mayor Joanne Ross-Zuj has outlined a number of challenges council will face.
Prior to budget deliberations and just after hearing a half dozen delegations make their case for inclusion, Ross-Zuj said the federal government is ?basically closing the vault.?
She was referring to stimulus spending of the past few years that government is now halting.
But, she said, municipalities will at least have a voice at the federal level. The Federation of Canadian Municipalities will be part of the talks on spending with the federal government.
She said the federal municipal problem is how to deal with $123 billion in infrastructure shortfalls and required repairs. She expects this year to be ?a year of talks? with the federal government and ?not cheques.?
She added, though, the municipality should ?be ready? to act if money starts flowing again in the next few years.
Ross-Zuj also talked about the Don Drummond report to the provincial government that is calling for huge cutbacks as a means to get provincial spending and a huge deficit under control.
Drummond offered many draconian solutions and cuts to spending, and Ross-Zuj said, ?It doesn?t look good.?
The township has already felt the pinch as the province cut Centre Wellington?s Ontario Municipal Partnership fund grant by $110,000 – and that was before Drummond?s report was released. That was a 10 per cent reduction.
Drummond offered over 360 recommendations to the province to save money, and the mayor said she is unsure how many of them will be implemented by the provincial government. She noted the Grand River Raceway is a target, with suggested cuts to its share of slots profits.
That will be important to Centre Wellington and Wellington County, both of whom share slots profits.
Finally, she said,Wellington County took a look at the provincial uploading of services and decided to reduce its tax increases. She said that will give lower tier municipalities more room to operate in their budgets ?to address needs.?
She said, ?We must provide value to our taxpayers. We know we can?t provide all the needs. How do we balance all the requests and all the needs??
She said it is ?a huge goal.?
Ross-Zuj said to councillors, ?I wish everyone well … I know you will have sleepless nights.?
Finance committee chairman Fred Morris admitted ?all levels of government are struggling with the budgets.?
He said the goal is to follow the fundamentals and determine needs with limited resources. ?We have more needs than we have revenue? and that will force council to determine its priorities.?
He said of the draft prepared by staff, ?Let us work together to improve this budget, not denounce it.?
Chief administrative officer Michael Wood said the provincial goal of cutting the $16 billion a year deficit will be ?a heck of a challenge,? particularly since no party talked about spending cuts during last fall?s provincial election. ?It?s going to be one heck of a challenge,? he said. ?It?s going to be a political battle the likes of which we?ve never seen before.? He said of the provincial budget coming in March, ?I don?t think it?s going to be a pretty sight.?
Wood noted former Premier Mike Harris once faced cuts with a $7 billion budget, but compared to that, current Premier Dalton McGuinty is facing cuts that make that look like ?pocket change.?
For the municipality, Wood said it means the ?underlying message is to continue to be creative and innovative in what services we provide.?
He concluded township staff have proved capable in doing that over the years.
