City to focus on development in 2020/2021
Summerside will try to increase revenues in the face of sharply rising costs of providing services, as it looks to balance its $53 million 2020/2021 budget introduced Monday.
In her budget speech, deputy mayor Norma McColeman revealed that the city's costs have gone up by nearly 13 per cent over the past five years, while revenues have remained relatively consistent.
That being said, the city is projecting a balanced budget - but it's focusing on development to help it get there, rather than the more direct route of raising the municipal tax rates.
"We are taking steps to elevate our commercial and residential tax base to counter the effects of these rising costs," said McColeman.
Summerside's property tax and electric rates will not increase this year but the water and sewer rate will rise by one per cent and the ice surface and pool user fees at Credit Union Place will go up by three per cent.
One of the city’s largest budget items for this year will be $10 million towards the next stages of the Summerside Eco-Business Park. Preliminary site work on the park, which will be located off Greenwood Drive, was completed last year.
Summerside’s current industrial park has been full for years and the Eco-Business Park is intended to provide a new, environmentally conscious, space for industries to establish in the city.
In addition to trying to grow the city’s economic base, council is also trying to move two of its high-profile projects forward.
Summerside’s primary fire station on Foundry Street is more than 60 years old and is badly showing its age. Council has said an in-depth review will be conducted this year as a first step to determine whether the building can be salvaged by extensive renovations, or if they should focus their attention on building new.
The budget also contains more than $200,000 to help advance the realignment of the Pope Road extension, which has been a difficult intersection to navigate since its construction.
Following McColeman’s speech, most councillors spoke in support of the budget document, though two did highlight some concerns.
Ward 5 Coun. Greg Campbell noted that the budget process “might be getting a little too political.”
He cautioned his fellow councillors that they should be heeding the advice of their department heads more often when it comes to spending decisions, instead of posturing to score funding wins for their wards.
“I hope it doesn’t go too far that way because every citizen should be treated the same. I thought my ward was a little cheated. But live and learn, I’ll have the sleeves rolled up for next year.”
Ward 4 Coun. Cory Snow echoed some of Campbell’s comments but overall was supportive of the initiatives announced. Snow was the only councillor to vote against the city’s 2019/2020 budget, saying at the time that he did so in protest of some decisions associated with last year’s ditch infilling program.
“I think this year has somewhat improved,” said Snow.
“But I still find ... that at times we’re getting recommendation and direction from our professionals, who we pay a lot of money to ... to give us advice on stuff that needs to be done, critical infrastructure, (but) that sometimes gets overlooked by some to get those political points that they need for certain projects or things they’d like to see done.”
Mayor Basil Stewart said he was happy overall with how this year’s budget turned out, though he noted it is always a difficult process to sift through all the requests council receives and it is impossible to please everyone.
“The list is pretty long,” said Stewart. “But I’m very pleased council worked together. It wasn’t always easy. But at the end of the day, that’s the way it worked out and we’re pretty fortunate here.”
Residents have until later this month to provide their councillors with feedback on the budget. Council will vote whether to adopt the document as is or make changes at an upcoming meeting.