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It’s been almost three weeks since the City passed its 3-year operating budget and now that the dust has settled, some people have asked: if affordable housing is such a priority for City Council, why did we leave affordable housing projects unfunded? While the main thrust of these budget deliberations was restraint on spending, a related… Read More
After five days of discussion over sixty-plus amendments, this year’s City Council budget debate could be characterized as a difficult, yet productive journey. When we began these discussions last Friday, there were $58 million in unfunded initiatives and a 4.9% proposed property tax increase before Council. At the same time, we’d heard loud and clear… Read More
We are now deep into budget discussions for the City’s 2016-2018 Operating Budget and there are still difficult decisions ahead over which initiatives to fund and which ones we can reduce to get closer to a reasonable tax increase. This year – as in the past – police funding draws a significant amount of attention. On… Read More
This year’s three-year Operating Budget binder is exactly 734 pages long, and over the past week I’ve been over it numerous times looking for ways to reduce what Council is asking you to contribute to building, running, and fixing our City. When planning for this budget started, we were the fastest growing city in the… Read More
If you’ve been following the volley of ads leading up to next week’s federal election, the topic of our economy has been front and centre. When Canada’s Big City Mayors get together, it’s the topic of our conversation too – mainly because strong cities are the backbone of a strong economy. Here’s why: imagine a… Read More