Belleville residential taxes drop for 2020

The good news for Belleville taxpayers – a drop in municipal taxes for 2020.

City council met in the council chambers on Monday, after months of virtual meetings, to debate the operating budget.

It approved the final figure that gave the four residential ratepayers categories the tax rates at minus .21% to minus .02%.

Director of Finance Carol Hinze reported that the financial impact of COVID-19 on the city finances is $2.1 million, which is being paid for through reserve funds.

Mayor Mitch Panciuk tells Quinte News, “The fact that we waited so long to set our budget really gave us the advantage of being able to see the trends and see a reduction expenses but I think the full credit for this has to go to staff. They have been from the outset of this whole crisis very cooperative. We’re one of the few municipalities that did not declare a municipal emergency. I state that because we didn’t have to. We didn’t have any concerns about service levels. We didn’t have any concerns about having to supercede our collective agreements. Our Associations and our employees have cooperated phenomonally well throughout this. They put us in a position where we could see some savings that we required, take advantage of the growth of 2019 and be able to offer people a negative tax increase in 2020.

Panciiuk noted a number of things have been deferred.

Council but $350,000 in encouraging housing construction, down from $1.5 million indicated at the Housing Summit last year.

Water rates

There will be no increase in water rates.

Panciuk adds, “Waste water and water are one of those things that are user pay. So that means whatever our costs are we must pass those on to the users. and it’s based on how much you consume. So every year we up-tech to repair the system, and grow the system, it’s got to be born by the people that use it…This year because of the work of our staff we’re in a position where we can not increase it. Some people are going to pay higher bills because they’re using more water , the rates have not changed this year and I think that’s another big accomplishment.”

Covering COVID-19 costs

Belleville expects to eventually get some provincial and federal money to help with the COVID-19 costs. Panciuk says,”It’s virtually a certainty that we will get some assistance from the upper levels of government…Ontario and the federal government, as far as I understand, have come to an agreement. They know what we want. It’s just some other provinces are negotiating and dealing with it. It’s politics. It’s national-provincial politics in Canada between constitutional rights and duties. Some provinces don’t want to have any conditions about the funding from the federal government.”

However, there are now funding costs with some of the moves the city had to make totalling about $740,000, meaning the cost to the city was actually closer to $3.4 million.

Panciuk suggested that based on the Federation of Canadian Municipalities request for $10 billion from the federal government, Belleville’s estimated share of that would be about $3.4 million.

Councillor Ryan Williams is expected to introduce a motion at the next regular council meeting on July 13 regarding the funding.

Police Services Board

Police Chief Ron Gignac appeared before council to speak to the Police Services budget which included a 6% increase

Gignac pointed out the large number of calls regarding mental health issues that add to the cost.

Panciiuk told Quinte News, “I think that the isolation that some are feeling has caused mental health issues, increased mental health issues, and so there’s more demand for their services in some ways…I know there are some people who would like to see us to redirect funds from Belleville Police Service budget but under provincial laws we cannot do that. And we cannot take money from the police service board budget and put it into provincially run programs which deal with a lot of health and safety.

“We’ve been advocating for many years. Not just me but mayors before me about the need for have more flexibility. I think the chief recognized that today. Hopefully something good comes out of COVID-19 situation in that the province recognizes in the same way you cant have part-time assistants at nursing homes. They’ve moved them to full-time. This is also a problem. Police Service Board budgets require only police to respond to these (mental health) calls. In 2019 they answered a total of 24,200 calls.”