DBIA hopes to convince council not to freeze levy

The Downtown Business Improvement Area is expected to speak up on Monday before city council votes a final time to freeze the levy the DBIA can charge its members next year.

During city budget talks in November, councillors voted to stop the DBIA from carrying out its plan to increase the levy by two per cent.

The DBIA board had voted to collect $310,800 in levies, in 2018 (up from $304,700 in 2017 - a difference of $6,100).

But during budget talks, councillors said no: they voted to freeze those levies at the 2017 level.

The decision wasn’t final though. Council still needs to vote a final time on Monday to adopt its 2018 budget.

Before that final vote, people can try to convince council to change its mind.

Brad Collyer, accountant and partner at McColl Turner, is the treasurer of the DBIA board; he’s expected to speak to council Monday about the levies.

During budget talks, Coun. Diane Therrien spoke out against the move (she sits on the DBIA board).

“I don’t agree with this - I feel like it’s punitive,” Therrien said. “It’s not a lot of money (the increase of $6,100), and they do a lot of work; they’re doing more events downtown than ever before.”

But Coun. Keith Riel had suggested freezing the levies, saying he didn’t think the DBIA has been forthcoming about how it plans to spend its money.

Although DBIA representatives gave a presentation to council during budget talks, Riel said he didn’t get enough detail about how they will use their money to promote and beautify the downtown.

Levies aren’t the only source of funding, for the DBIA.

The board will receive money from the city for street-cleaning, in 2018 ($96,400, the same sum as 2017) and in-kind services such as street closures for festivals ($27,500, again the same sum as 2017).

Councillors didn’t want to change those rates; the DBIA will still get that.

Meanwhile the DBIA is also about to start receiving $150,000 a year, for the next 20 years, to make up for the fact that council didn’t consider the downtown as a potential location for the casino (the building is under construction now on Crawford Dr.).

To make up for the loss of business downtown, the city is compensating the DBIA; in exchange, the DBIA dropped its appeal before the Ontario Municipal Board over the casino location.

Those $150,000 payments will begin in 2018 and will come on top of the levies and funding for streetcleaning and in-kind services.

The DBIA board voted earlier this fall on how it will likely spend that $150,000 in 2018: the downtown will likely get increased security, for example, a new mural and perhaps new holiday lights.