MEET THE CANDIDATES: Neil Ellis

The mayor of Belleville is hoping for a second straight term as head of council after tomorrow’s election ballots are counted.

Appearing on CJBQ’s Lorne Brooker Show on Friday, Neil Ellis responded to a question about his promise four years ago that there would be no tax increases.

Ellis said that at the time he didn’t know about the previous mayor having just signed off on $2 million worth of raises for city employees.

“It was signed off on the day before we were sworn in and I said employees do deserve raises but some of them were in the $40,000 range and that really put a dent in the percentage.”

Ellis said that Belleville was and is growing fast and that the city hadn’t hired police officers or firefighters for years and hiring had to be done for public safety reasons and to meet provincial regulations.

When asked if he believed there was room to cut back in any city departments, Ellis said the staffing issue has been studied and studied again over the years.

“Every mayor has done a reorg (reorganization study) so when you go back to Mayor Panciuk it was economic development, when you go back Mayor Christopher, you go back to me, every department has been looked at over 10 years so you’re coming back to look at them again?   I mean we do look at budget but reorgs are expensive and I think right now we have the
best senior management team we’ve ever had.”

Ellis also said there has been a serious problem with municipalities’ share of the overall tax revenue pie.

“The whole tax system is broken Lorne.  We provide 66 per cent of the services around the area and we get around 10 cents on every tax dollar.  It’s got to be fixed.  Municipalities can’t afford to keep going with the downloads, whether it’s homelessness or mental health.  We just don’t have the funds.  We have user fees and we lose money on user fees and we have government grants.  Now we’ve been fortunate this last term getting lots of money from the government but that’s for infrastructure,  that’s not for your operating budget.”

At the end of the segment Ellis described some of the reasons voters should support him Monday.

“It’s about experience and institutional knowledge.  When you look at what we’ve been able to accomplish as a council.  We haven’t had dysfunctional councils over my three councils.  We’ve got  along, we’ve made decisions and moved this forward.”

Ellis pointed to The Bridge Hub, ongoing servicing work on new industrial land in the industrial park, and the Avonlough Pumping Station work as projects of note.  When the Avonlough project is done it will open up room for another 9,000 residents in Belleville.  Work is planned for upgrades to Meyers Pier as well.

Ellis said four years wasn’t enough to get all the work accomplished and highlighted the city’s hugely successful Physician Recruitment Program as his “pet project.”

In the last four years some 30 family doctors, specialists or nurse practitioners have been recruited through the program.

The entire interview is below.