Sudbury budget: council aims to 'create new culture' at city hall

After hours and hours of meetings, Sudbury city councillors have finished going through the 2015 budget page by page.

At the end of Wednesday night's meeting, a road map for how to achieve the promised tax freezewhile still investing in key projects started to materialize.

Councillors discussed adoptingmuch of staff's plan for the tax freeze, which includesa range of spending cuts and pulling millions of dollars from city reserve funds.

Ward 5 Coun. Robert Kirwanthen suggested making up those one-time dollars pulled out reserves by instructing staff to find $4.7 million over the coming year.

He suggested that a target of $2.3 million be set in payroll reductions, making it clear that there should be no layoffs, but that non-essential positions should be eliminated as employees leave or retire from the city.

Kirwan also proposed another target for staff to hit: $2.4 million in new revenue from citizens paying to use city services like transit, arenas and community halls. This would see more users paying existing user fees.

Kirwan said his proposal would help "create a new culture" at the City of Greater Sudbury.

"We're not just trying to do better, we have a target," he said."And our goal is to achieve that target and if we don't achieve that target, we have to answer as to why we haven't achieved that target."

But chief financial officer Lorella Hayes was skeptical.

"Because they're targets and they're not achieved yet, I'm expressing some caution to you in terms of spending those dollars before the targets are achieved."

Generating revenue

Other councillors followed Kirwan's lead, throwing out ideas for other new revenue streams.

Ward 11 Coun. Lynne Reynolds suggested staff be told to find $1 million worth of city property and buildings to sell this year. Ward 1 Coun. Mark Signoretticalled on staff to sell advertising for city parks and playgrounds with the target of raising $250,000.

Still, other councillors last night suggested new spending be considered. Ward 12 Coun.Joscelyne Landry-Altmann put $4 million for Flour Mill flood-proofing on the table. Mayor Brian Bigger said council should consider boosting arts funding by $100,000.

The long list of budget options will start to be narrowed down on Mar. 4, as councillors finally start to decide where tax dollars will go this year.

Bigger said that many of the ideas suggested by citizens at the annual budget consultation meetingdon't have to be ignored just because the council is aiming for a tax freeze.

"We have a responsibility to do some of these things, and we have the ability as council to rethink, refocus and rebalance," said Bigger, noting that infrastructure spending will likely not be cut below last year's levels, but that some of that money might be moved around to different projects.

Infrastructure and road projects planned for this summer

These are some highlights of the work planned for 2015, for the complete list click here.

• $2.284 million put aside for future construction of Maley Drive extension
• $3.46 million road work on Barrydowne Road between Westmount Road and The Kingsway
• $3 million for resurfacing of Moonlight Drive between TheKingswayand Bancroft Drive
• $2 million city's contribution to work on Crean Hill Road in Whitefish leading to new Victoria Mine (the rest of the bill is being picked up by mining company KGHM International)
• $1 million set aside this year for ElginGreenway, although exact cost of project or construction schedule is not yet known.
• $3.1 million for work on Municipal Road 15 in Blezard Valley
• $4.6 million in road work on Municipal Road 55 west of Lively
• $1 million for refurbishing of railway overpass on Municipal Road 55 in Copper Cliff

Projects planned for the coming years

• $6.2 million budgeted in 2016 for road work on Municipal Road 35 between Azilda and Chelmsford
• $10 million planned in 2017-18 to refurbish College Street railway underpass
• $3.4 million budgeted in 2016 to repave Lorne Street between MartindaleRoad and Logan Avenue
• $2.5 million in 2019 for ramps between Lorne Street and Big Nickel Road
• $500,000 budgeted every year starting in 2016 to shore up rock cuts along city roads