Still light ahead as town moves into 2023, says CBS councillors
By Craig Westcott/December 30, 2022
The auguries may portend a hard year ahead for municipalities because of rising interest rates and inflation, but members of Conception Bay South council say there are still good things on the horizon.
Councillors were given a chance to have a go around on the subject after Deputy Mayor Andrea Gosse presented the Town’s $39.7 million budget on December 20. It sees an upward tick in the residential mil rate by 0.15 mils and a $20 hike in water and sewer taxes.
“I think everyone is going to have a little bit to say about different parts of the budget, but these were really tough decisions,” said Gosse. “And we’re still the lowest mil rate in this area. We kept things (expenses) as low as we possibly could. Inflation has been a huge factor… But there are some good things too, and as we get along to each one, we’ll hear some of the highlights.”
Ward 3 councillor Gerard Tilley agreed with that assessment.
“I guess I’m one of the senior folks when it comes to the budget process here on council,” said Tilley. “This has been one of the most challenging budgets that I’ve ever been involved in.”
Tilley said if council hadn’t increased the mil rate, it would have had to look at making cuts to core services.
“Whether we lay blame on the war in Ukraine, Covid, or inflation, these are tough times and it’s unfortunate we’ve got to pass some of these rises onto the community, but I think it’s going to be better in the long run,” Tilley said. “We do have some positive outlook for 2023. Our new library is scheduled to be opened early in the new year. Our new community park (in Long Pond) is scheduled to open early in the new year, and as the deputy mayor alluded to in her budget speech, there are extensions (coming) to our water and sewer services, and sidewalks, so I’m pretty pumped for what’s going to happen in 2023.”
Councillor-at-large Rex Hillier thanked Gosse for guiding the budget preparation and the town’s senior staff for their hard work.
“As the deputy mayor alluded to, in the past five years we’ve reduced spending year after year, but obviously that could only go on so long,” Hillier pointed out. “Our staff, meantime, predicted that come 2023 increased revenue would allow us more flexibility in spending. And they were right on in that we do have a significant increase in revenue. But as councillor Tilley said, they’re only so good. They couldn’t predict a pandemic, they couldn’t predict a war in Europe, and they couldn’t predict high inflation and high interest rates, and those are the things we’re struggling with to bring in this balanced budget. Without all of those things we would have had a good year of doing some of the things we really want to do around town. But as a result of these influences, we’ve got to hold the line. But it’s not all doom and gloom.”
Hillier said he is looking forward to the opening of the new library in a couple of weeks, right at the start of the Town’s 50th anniversary of incorporation celebrations.
“Another one that is great to see getting started, and I won’t go into it in great detail, is the final phase of our T’railway through Seal Cove,” Hillier added. “’ll leave it at that because I know councillor (Melissa) Hardy is in that area and would like to speak to that in some detail.”
Councillor-at-large Christine Butler said she too is looking forward to seeing the “big set of scissors” cut the ribbon on the new library.
“Down the road too we’re going to be looking for a new regional community centre and that’s going to be a work in progress,” said Butler. “That’s something that’s down the road, but certainly on the radar for the town.”
Councillor-at-large Paul Connors said crafting the budget in such challenging times presented council with a great opportunity to “take a deep dive” into the programs and services it delivers.
The increasing cost of services that the Town buys from other providers, namely use of the Robin Hood Bay Landfill and water from Bay Bulls Big Pond, had a significant impact on the budget, he pointed out.
“So, for me, this budget was about maintaining the programs and services that we currently deliver,” Connors said. “I did not want to decrease the essential services that our residents are used to. But I also wanted to cautiously look to the future. The economy will rebound, we will be in better shape, maybe in 2023, or 2024, but we will be in better shape. We are in a good financial position, it’s just that all these factors have come into play at this time.”
Connors also assured “responsible ATV users” that the Town is continuing to move ahead with plans to extend the trail in the west end of CBS.
“We have the trail identified, the application is at Crown Lands, so we’re working through that process and we’re getting good feedback,” he noted. “We may have to do some rezoning, but that is something that is in the process and the Town is committed to, and we will be working on that in 2023 for sure.”
Ward 1 councillor Shelley Moores said she is excited about the Town’s coming 50th anniversary celebrations, and other events.
And like Hillier suggested, Ward 4 councillor Melissa Hardy took the chance to salute the Town’s plans to complete the linear walking trail in Seal Cove, officially known as Phase 4.
“I can’t tell you how delighted I am that all my colleagues are very supportive in the completion of the T’railway development by allocating the funds in the 2023 budget towards the replacement of the trestle at Seal Cove Pond,” Hardy said. “It’s certainly something a lot of the residents have been advocating for. Also the upgrades to the final 3.2 kms of the former railbed in Seal Cove. It’s very likely that it is going to start next year, but it is going to be a multi-year project.”
The final word was left to Mayor Darrin Bent, who had a colourful way of describing the budget deliberations. “It’s been a few weeks where we’ve talked about stuff that we sometimes didn’t want to talk about,” he admitted. “We started out understanding that this is a tough year for everybody.”
As a result, staff presented reasonable funding requests for council’s consideration, Bent said.
Some things were considered untouchable, such as 24/7 snowclearing, and the Town’s recreation programs and facilities, he added.
“Coming out of Covid after two years, we need to make sure these facilities are open and available to our residents,” Bent said. “We weighed all of those things and at the end of the day we came up with a budget which I believe maintains all of our core services… These are the things that people expect. Unfortunately, because of the cost of fuel, and the cost of supplies, they’ve all gone up in very big ways in some cases, and we had to find ways to make it work so that we didn’t pass all of that along… We’ve cut back on some of the things that we have been doing, but none of it affects our core services, and none of it affects our programming.”
The increase of 0.15 of a mil along with the hike of $20 in water and sewer tax will mean that a resident who owns a $300,000 home will pay an additional $5.40 a month in taxes next year, Bent explained.
He said he is very proud to be able tell residents in Seal Cove that the Town hasn’t forgotten about them and is stepping up to complete the T’railway and provide other services, including the ATV trail.
“We know that everybody at home is looking at the money that they have, that they’re making choices in the supermarket they never made before, they’re not necessarily filling up the car anymore, they’re doing the best they can,” said the mayor. “So, we decided to do the same ting. We took a hard look at everything that we were spending money on, we decided to put some stuff off so that we could limit the hit, and that’s what we’ve done. We understand that it’s not ideal. But what I can say for the future is that over the past year we have grown our revenue in this town by over $2 million. That’s exactly what we started out to do. And if there hadn’t been this strife around the world, this horrific invasion that has affected our global economy over the past year, we would have been in an absolutely different position today. We’re going to keep staying the course on that plan, keep moving forward with the things we’re doing, keep growing the town the way we are. That money will keep coming and at some point, that (war) will stop, these interest rates will level off and the inflation rate will come down.”