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No tax increases for Carbonear in Budget 2022

By Patrick Newhook/December 23, 2021

Tuesday, December 21, 2021 was budget say for the Town of Carbonear. This is the towns first budget since the last municipal election.

Presented by Councilor Chris O’Grady, the town showed a balanced budget for 2022 with no new taxes either. The town is projecting that revenues and expenditures will total $8,585,357.00.

Carbonear will also be in a surplus due to COVID-19 delaying expenditures that were budgeted for 2021. This surplus will be used for work and expenditures planned for 2021, but will now be completed in 2022.

“we are projecting matching revenues and expenditures totaling $8,585,357. We are very

pleased to announce that this balanced budget will be attained without any increases in the tax rates,” said Councilor O’Grady.

Right now, COVID-19 has impacted Carbonear like all municipalities across Newfoundland and Labrador. Councilor O’Grady started the speech by saying that while the town was able to get capital projects off the ground, residential and business development was not as successful. O’Grady still claimed that he is confident that this will

“As we all know, our town like all municipalities continues to be challenged by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. While considerable capital works projects were completed in our town in 2021, residential and business development was slower than anticipated,” said O’Grady.

The Town Council is optimistic about Carbonear’s growth opportunities. This belief is echoed throughout the budget.

Out of all departments, Transportation Services is one of the largest with an estimated expenditure of $2,354,358.00 for 2022. The budget also outlines that there will be $600,00 for asphalt and $60,00 for curb and sidewalk replacement equipment.

“For councilors who are still fresh off an election campaign, we know the condition and maintenance of the town’s roads continues to be one of the main priorities of the residents of Carbonear,” said O’Grady.

“To make a town an attractive place to live you have to invest strongly in capital projects like water and sewer and pavement,” said O’Grady.

Another large expenditure is recreation facilities and cultural services. With a budget of $1, 269,706.00, some of this will include repairs and improvements to the community pool, and upgrades to the softball facilities. Councilor O’Grady claimed that these types of updates are needed.

“A tournament of this caliber will require some upgrades to our softball facilities including electronic scoreboards, fence protection, stone and sand, an infield groomer and a multipurpose utility vehicle, all of which will cost approximately $75,000 in total,” said O’Grady.

The Budget also spoke on environmental issues. Environmental health getting $733,900 to help make Carbonear more environmentally conscious. Energy efficiency was a big concern.

The town is also investing money into how to reduce Waste Water, which it identified as a large pollution source. The town is also investing money into studies about how to best go about this.

“the town has committed to begin the process of studying our wastewater systems with the goal of reducing our waste. We have budgeted an amount of $150,000 to complete this study,” said O’Grady.

Carbonear has seen growth over the years and is try to keep this momentum going, and one way it plans on doing that is by investing money into planning and development to attract new businesses into the area. The 2022 budget for this is $304,242.00.

“Council and staff will continue to investigate additional ways to attract more business to our town to help grow our tax base. Our budget allocation for Planning and Development for 2022 is $304,242,” O’Grady said. “This budget includes new funds for promotional material, festivals, advertising, brochures and accessibility improvements in the amount of $46,400,”

There were 370 development permits issued by the town in 2021. The budget lists these as four for residential home starts. Sixteen new business permits, 9 commercial and 7 home based.

“In 2021, a total of 370 development permits were issued by the Town. These permits have an estimated development value of $10,219,839,” said O’Grady.

Heading into 2022, Councilor O’Grady claimed that the town was deficit free and that the town is continuing to do well.

After Councilor O’Grady finished the budget speech, the council took it to vote.

The Town of Carbonear passed budget 2022 unanimously.

““We continue to be deficit free and our Debt Servicing Ratio is 12 % which is unchanged from last year and well below the 30% threshold set by the Department of Municipal and Provincial Affairs,” said O’Grady. “Carbonear continues to be an economically vibrant community. To continue to develop and improve our Town is a challenge and requires prudent fiscal management,”

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