Sudbury council votes to delay user fees bump

The start of 2015 in Sudbury won't be marked with the usual hike in city user fees.

Sudbury city council voted abruptly on Tuesday night to hold off on the increases to things like transit fares, dump fees and ski hill tickets until later.

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City councillor Robert Kirwan brought up the issue at the tail end of the meeting.

"Many people feel that user fees are a type of a tax," he said."We're going to freeze tax increases, but if we don't freeze user fees I think we're defeating that purpose."

The user fees are normally adjusted every Jan.1,but councilasked for a detailed staff report on the increases bythe end of January.

CouncillorDeb McIntosh isalso hoping to hear why the planned fees seem tofavourcar drivers over bus riders.

She asked, "Why parking is being frozen, yet transit is going up at 3 per cent?"

In the meantime, putting off the vote on user fee increases means less money going to the city, and stafftreasurers did warn council that the lost revenue will have to come from somewhere.