“That was an election budget”
Those are the words of Prince George Chamber of Commerce CEO Todd Corrigall following city council’s decision to only raise taxes by 3% – less than half of the 6.55% hike that was being mulled over.
Despite the lower increase, Corrigall believes city council could have made the tax increase even more digestible but didn’t cash in on the opportunity.
“Four councillors were looking for opportunities to bring that number down further over a longer-term and five councillors were not engaged in that discussion and were not in favour of that occurring.”
Corrigall added the city didn’t take enough time to go over the budget landscape.
“Realistically, I think this process should have started in September and should have carried over since then and the really hard discussions should have happened in December. I feel like this process was way too short and did not involve enough strategic feedback.”
Over $3 million from the Safe Restart Fund was needed to bring it to 3%.
Several adjustments were made by the city to a number of departments including:
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- $450,000 was cut from the Road Rehabilitation budget
- $200,000 was cut from the Snow Control budget
- $82,000 was cut from Economic Development
- $150,000 was cut from Human Resources
- $60,000 was added for a Fire and Rescue consultant
- $15,000 was added to the Ice Oval for a Capital fund and maintenance
However, no cuts or enhancements were made to the RCMP, but Superintendent Shaun Wright will be back during the February 7th Council meeting to bring more information to the table.
Corrigall was happy to see the RCMP budget left untouched – stating an 800-thousand enhancement to bylaw services would not have solved our current social issues.
“They don’t have that enforcement side, they don’t operate Car 60 or the Downtown Safety Unit. These are two programs that are assisting businesses and residents on the front lines and we need to be finding better opportunities for that.”