2025 tax supported operating deficit of $19,743 be allocated to or funded from the City’s reserve and reserve funds as follows: Transfer $123,772 to the Library…

2:44:34reframe this uh slightly um uh through you chair Caron to uh staff uh with regards to the operating

2:44:42budget i'm i'm looking at um employee expenses salaries etc you made statement that this is

2:44:49approximately or less than 50 percent of our of our total cost and i'm wondering if um this is higher

2:44:57or lower than similar um similar municipalities and are we seeing a trend whether this is increasing

2:45:04decreasing or static thank you there we go uh through the chair to councillor Allt so the

2:45:18overall that percentage of our operating budget the comprised capital was relatively close to our um

2:45:26sorry the actuals were relatively close to budget that's about 50 percent of our operating budget

2:45:30that is for staffing um a big part that's that's because our services are delivered by our staff

2:45:38and so the two biggest parts are transfers to capital uh for the capital work uh for the assets

2:45:44that deliver services and then the staffing complement and so in terms of finding uh detailed

2:45:50numbers about increases or decreases as a percentage of the overall budgeted expenditures i don't have

2:45:56that handy in front of me but would be happy to pull that together and get back to you sure thank you

2:46:01very much uh just ballpark are we able to assess whether we are uh similar to our comparator municipalities

2:46:12it's thanks uh through the chair i haven't got any uh detailed data on that in front of me but i think

2:46:19that that is a relatively um fair assessment i can get back to you again on that lovely thank you um

2:46:27i'll ask you the next one about that privately i believe that this is operating but it actually

2:46:38relates to a deficit and that's the on ontario building code deficit which uh i noted and uh

2:46:46it strikes me that this and the dc reserve fund are for all intents and purposes um concerns that

2:46:56in some senses are beyond our control because of changes to ontario legislation am i correct

2:47:05through the chair so they're they're both related to growth and development and the pace of that in

2:47:10the community and so that o bc deficit is is driven largely by revenue offset by some savings in the

2:47:18on the expending side um the development charge collections again driven by slow development

2:47:25economic environment um in our community and following up it's going to be the same that i

2:47:30asked with regards to uh costs of uh of labor employees um it strikes me that this is likely

2:47:38a trend that we are seeing right across the province with with slow building uh occurring

2:47:43would i be correct in that assumption through the chair yes you are thank you very much um

2:47:49then i'm going to make it really really quick a court surplus i i know that i thought that was kind

2:47:55of lovely with one exception i i uh i know that we were promised promise that uh that court services

2:48:03would be revenue neutral are we revenue neutral or um is this a blessing or is this just getting

2:48:10us up to neutral through the chair um i believe it is budgeted to be revenue neutral and so i

2:48:18think you could classify it as a blessing and if miss newland has anything to add about that um

2:48:24or dcao bryan would be happy to hear from them through the chair um i would just add that yes it is

2:48:39budgeted to be net neutral as uh miss oduyre had mentioned and through towards the end of the year

2:48:45we did receive some larger fine payments which was um not part of our year end forecast thank you

2:48:53and the last thing which uh relates to both the capital and to operating is the debt ratio and

2:49:00the standards and poor raising us from the low risk threshold um does that is that cause for

2:49:07alarm it's it's a fraction of a percentage but nonetheless uh these are things that uh

2:49:13carry a lot of weight publicly um are we going to hear more about this and do we have concern

2:49:19um through the chair i think that is something that we've been talking about this this uh strategic

2:49:25taking on of more debt to move forward our capital program and the potential associated impacts on

2:49:32the credit rating so that debt categorization is one element of a very broad credit rating

2:49:39it could have an impact on it it depends about all the other factors and how s and p is looking at

2:49:44them together um as a group of factors so it is certainly possible and we want to be up front

2:49:49with council about that possibility um it's something we've been talking about if you look at the

2:49:54other factor that 2.6 percent um of own source revenue um that is the legislative factor and the

2:50:01maximum's 25 percent so we have a lot of debt capacity from that perspective um but you're

2:50:07balancing that all the time with that ensuring that we get the best access to the best rates and that

2:50:13affordability of our debt program as well which is largely driven or contributed to from the s and p

2:50:20rating i'm just going to quickly follow up on that because when i was raising the question about our

2:50:26our development charges and uh the disappointment in in new bills within the city does that have an

2:50:33impact on our um credit rating because it increases our uh our our debt that we are carrying and is

2:50:42that directly related to changes in legislation and also the the climate for building through the

2:50:49chair so we haven't uh suggested taking on additional debt beyond that uh 50 million ish per year average

2:50:57um which might be issued at different times as you saw we issued more than that in in uh 25 will

2:51:02issue less than that in 26 um but so that could be a conversation that we have to have through

2:51:09future budget processes as we continue to see this pressure on dc collections and and moving

2:51:14forward our capital program but at this time we haven't gone toward that additional additional

2:51:21recommendation for debt beyond the current strategy thank you just quick comment thank you very very

2:51:26much for a very thorough and transparent report thanks i don't see any other questions any oh

2:51:33councillor kate anyone else want to be on the speaker's list councillor thank you through you

2:51:39madam chair i also had a question about the court services i was just wondering if um our move to

2:51:46have tickets uh in those kinds of disputes moved to a separate outside of the court process if that

2:51:53has had any um effect on that in terms of being able to get those things through quicklier through

2:52:04the chair i'm going to see if dc i o brian can comment i think that just came into effect this year

2:52:11yeah through you uh chair Caron to um to councillor Caton yeah yes we do foresee that that will

2:52:17have an impact uh the move to administrative um uh monetary penalty system is is uh just on the cusp

2:52:24of being implemented now um and so we do anticipate that will be the case but we don't have i think

2:52:29concrete data at this point that would point to the specifics about the uh in regards to that

2:52:33but it's something that we're uh we're hopeful we'll do exactly that it'll lighten the burden

2:52:38on the court system while also hopefully expediting the processes that you outlined great thank you

2:52:45saying no further questions i'd like to ask for a mover councillor Allt uh seconded by councillor

2:52:52richardson and this is just on 14.1.1 the operating budget monitoring report

2:52:59i'll call the vote is there anyone against the three recommendations seeing none that is carried

2:53:05let's move on to point two which is the capital budget monitoring report any questions of staff

2:53:11on capital seeing none i'll look for a motion councillor richardson and mayor guthrie and

2:53:19we'll call that vote anyone opposed to section two you're in capital budget seeing none okay on

2:53:28to point three which is the long-term financial statements reserves and debt any questions on

2:53:32this item seeing none i'll ask for a motion mayor guthrie and uh councillor hauser call the vote

2:53:42anyone against these three recommendations okay those carried unanimous on all three thank you to

2:53:48staff again a comprehensive report one of the most uh comprehensive we receive each year but you're

2:53:53in financial monitoring monitoring is something that we look forward to uh it does keep us

2:54:01accountable and contributes to the overall health of our city and our financial credit rating

2:54:08and it's good to have that information publicly available for anyone who needs it we are going

2:54:13to move on to item 14.2 which is election voting methods in the year 2030 and this is an item brought

2:54:21forward by councillor Caton so uh councillor Caton i am going to turn the floor over to you.

2:54:31Thank you if the clerks could um please bring up my motion so uh i am moving that for the

2:54:402030 municipal and school board election the city clerk be directed to consider and prioritize

2:54:45voting methods which would enable voters to independently mark a ballot at home and that

2:54:49the city clerk report back to city council on the outcomes of this direction as a part of the 2030

2:54:55municipal and school board election voting methods report scheduled to go before city council in

2:54:592028 and i don't have a a seconder lined up so the floor is open for anyone who'd like to second

2:55:09councillor richardson okay thank you for your comments yeah yeah so i'm gonna frame why i've

2:55:17got it out here yep uh so i really appreciated that council had moved forward with the online voting

2:55:24and it's very unfortunate we weren't able to find any vendors that met our security standards

2:55:30um i know that council really wanted to ensure that there was a next level of accessibility we

2:55:38heard all of the feedback from the aac on issues with the communities having independently verifiable

2:55:48voting methods from their homes in terms of different disabilities that were uh vision related

2:55:55and and i think that because we weren't able to find a vendor and now we don't have enough time

2:56:02to kind of implement a secondary method that i would just like to pull it out and just refer to it

2:56:09to fill that accessibility gap so that we're we're not in this place in the next election

2:56:15and i know staff do their very best to accommodate everyone and we've got a fantastic team that

2:56:22really does their best to meet all of the individual like individual accessibility needs but we still

2:56:27have this one gap so i'd like to make sure that we've got something in place for the next election

2:56:33and uh be less pres prescriptive about what that method is so that we can ensure that those

2:56:40needs are being met thanks thank you um any member of council have any questions for the mover

2:56:48councillor Allt thank you very much chair Caron it's only one question i i don't want to

2:56:55sound like i'm uh being nitpicking but i'm wondering what you mean by the term prioritize and the

2:57:01reason for that is it sounds like you are putting at home voting ahead of voting at a um a voting center

2:57:14voting center is already covered so i'm trying to fill a gap so right now this is the

2:57:21missing piece in the accessibility package that we have um as i think you'll remember that there

2:57:27was the remote accessible vote from home where folks could um who were blind could have a ballot

2:57:33filled out on their computer and that is this same kind of technology that using your home

2:57:41computer if you have a screen reader or those kinds of accessibility needs that fits that need

2:57:49and so there are different areas where certain folks they've got latex allergies they've got

2:57:55severe chemicals and cities they can't vote externally and they can't use the paper ballots

2:58:02and do the vote by mail because they are blind they can't independently vote so there's there's

2:58:08just different use cases that aren't completely covered by the uh the group of options that we

2:58:14have now and i just want to make sure that we've got that availability for for everyone to vote

2:58:21without assistance so they have their private vote thank you very much um i don't have any other

2:58:27concern my concern was that you were suggesting that home voting would be a higher priority and