Despite a world-wide and dangerous pandemic, the City of Belleville has a solid financial foundation and is poised for even more robust growth in the future.
The future is bright.
That was the theme of Wednesday’s State of the City address by the mayor of Belleville Mitch Panciuk.
Panciuk was speaking to members of the Belleville Chamber of Commerce at The Grand in the city’s west end.
The mayor first congratulated city staff, businesses, health care organizations, and residents themselves for handling the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic so well.
Panciuk was proud that the city was able to avoid mass layoffs of municipal employees and wholesale service shutdowns.
Special thanks was offered to the Hastings Prince Edward District Health Unit and its staff who were able to organize clinics of all kinds and managed to administer 105,000 doses of vaccine at the Quinte Sports and Wellness Centre.
Another focus of the address was the city’s finances over the past since council’s term began in 2019.
Combined capital and operating spending has grown by over 52% and the capital budget alone has grown by 48% in four years.
This year’s capital budget sits at a record $87.2 million, however, the mayor stressed that property taxes had only increased an average of 1.39% in each year since 2019 and that percentage was for the highest residential rate in urban Belleville. All other areas saw lower increases.
Panciuk says that accomplishment came from wise recommendations and decisions by staff and council.
“We took resources and invested in people and infrastructure and it’s paying off today. That growth is keeping tax increases down.”
And Belleville is certainly growing. The last census showed the city’s population growth at 8.6%, the highest of any municipality in Eastern Ontario.
The mayor says the city and the Quinte area is on everyone’s radar.
“You don’t get picked fourth best place in the country by Maclean’s Magazine for no reason and when people read that they say, ‘Hey I want to go there!’ We have a lot going right for us and our future is bright.”
Another record was set in this term of city council. There has been $406 million in construction investment since 2019 and Panciuk expects that to rise to over half a billion dollars by this fall.
This year alone, 118 residential units are under construction with 1,494 close to finishing the approvals process.
The mayor listed an impressive list of both municipal and private projects that have been completed or are in process and ended by saying Belleville has excellent prospects for the years ahead.
“While we may not be perfect, we are perfectly positioned for the future opportunities before us.”
See the mayor’s entire address here:
