Council backs fund to maintain ponds

$620K expected to be spent maintaining city’s 28 stormwater retention ponds starting in 2018, with fund phased in over 10 years

A plan to spend $620,000 of the city’s budget next year on stormwater management was approved by councillors Monday night.

City staff say it’s not going to be a new tax: The idea is for the city to earmark exactly how much it will pay to manage stormwater in its usual budget.

Councillors voted to set aside the money in 2018 as way to fund repairs and maintenance of the city’s 28 stormwater retention ponds – many of which are in urgent need of attention.

Wayne Jackson, the city’s director of public works, said the province inspected one pond last year and found it in dire condition.

The province is starting to impose standards on the maintenance of these ponds, he told councillors – and yet there hasn’t been much money earmarked for this in the city’s budget for ponds lately.

Jackson said stormwater management is his number one priority for 2018.

City councillors heard a report from their consultant, Howard Chard of the firm XC Consulting.

He recommended collecting a bit more money every year for stormwater management, for the next decade.

The idea is to increase the amount of money the city puts aside for stormwater management, every year. Under the plan, the city could be collecting $6.2 million annually for stormwater management.

At that point, $17 of the tax bill of an average homeowner would go toward stormwater management.

Coun. Keith Riel said he didn’t like the idea. He kept referring to it as a “new tax”, even though Wayne Jackson, the city’s director of public works, told him it wouldn’t be an additional charge on the bill.

Even if you say you’re putting money aside in the budget for stormwater, Riel explained, it means council has to rearrange priorities in the budget – which can potentially reduce services or nix other construction projects.

“We’d be earmarking that money .... We have our hands tied,” he said. “I don’t care what you call it! It’s called a tax!”

Coun. Henry Clarke, the city’s budget chairman, said the idea of trying to find the money to fund stormwater management “scares the daylights” out of him.

But the city can’t ignore its responsibility to manage stormwater, he said – it’s a matter of public health, environmental sustainability and also provincial standards.

“This is the right thing to do,” Clarke said of setting aside the money. “I just don’t know how we’re going to pay for it.”

Mayor Daryl Bennett said the city will have new revenue streams in the future: There are plans for a new casino, for example, which would put money in the municipal coffers.

City treasurer Sandra Clancy also mentioned that council has voted to sell Peterborough Distribution Inc. (PDI) to Hydro One; there is expected to be dividends coming from that $105-million sale, once the money is reinvested.

Clancy said the idea is to use this money for capital projects – never as operating funds – so council could consider using these revenues for projects such as stormwater infrastructure.