On Tuesday evening, Regional Councillor Tim Whalen had the thankless job to present the 2025 Niagara Budget to Thorold City Council.
As ThoroldToday reported back in December, the region has approved a 9.6 per cent tax increase in their annual budget.
During his presentation yesterday evening, Regional Councillor Whalen voiced his own opinion loud and clear.
“I would like it be known that this budget passed 19 to 10 at the regional level,” he told council members. “Mayor [Terry] Ugulini and myself voted against it. People are having a hard time surviving and budgets like this don’t make it any easier.”
Councillor Whalen explained that the province is partly to blame for the tax hike, because they're downloading a variety of responsibilities — such as planning and policing — to the lower levels of government without financial compensation.
“92 percent of this budget is mandated by upper levels of government,” Councillor Whalen said. “It is pushed down to the region. Looking at this, what can you cut? There’s no way we can get rid of policing, ambulance or long term care.”
Even though Thorold council members expressed sympathy for Councillor Whalen’s plight, they didn’t hold back in their criticism.
“I don’t want to get too much into a debate because I think this is atrocious,” said Councillor Henry D’Angela.
He believes that the tax hike — which is expected to amount between $178 and $251 on the average residential property bill, based on a 2016 MPAC assessment — will be much higher in Thorold because of all of the new builds.
“We’re being taxed heavily in Thorold based on this 9.6 per cent,” Councillor D’Angela said. “Look at your tax bill and you will see when it comes in next spring how much you’re getting. I anticipate a 500 to 600 dollar increase because my house is only 25 years old but it will be assessed more than what that is eight years ago.”
Another stumbling block for council members is that the tax increase does not necessarily equate to an increase in service levels.
“Our growth basically has us spend more, not less than you may think,” explained Councillor Anthony Longo, who sits on the region’s transit commission. “Because we’re growing, our percentage went higher than other municipalities with less growth, and our service remains exactly the same year after year.”
Councillors also wondered if the 13.2 per cent increase in the regional police budget will lead to more patrols in the streets.
“5.7 per cent of that increase was for community policing initiatives downloaded from the province with no money attached,” answered Mayor Terry Ugulini, who added that a speeding camera is scheduled to be installed on Collier Road from May until August.
Representatives from Niagara Transit and the NRPS will come to Thorold Council in the coming weeks to shed more light on their individual budgets.
Councillors worry Thorold will not be able to keep up with the increased work load for the lower levels of government.
“Our planning department struggles as it is,” said Councillor Tim O’Hare. “There’s such a dire shortage of planners. Now I’m worried again that our planners will be subject to even more work that they’ll be faced with, without any assistance.”
Thorold's Director of Development Services, Jason Simpson, said that the city should not expect any pro bono assistance from the region.
“If the region is going to be helping the municipalities they’ll be acting as a consultant and they’ll be charging consulting fees to the local municipalities,” he said. “It’s not a free service. We’re still trying to figure out how we’re going to adapt to this.”
Now it’s up to the city to finalize the 2025 Thorold City Budget, which is currently projecting a 4.99 per cent tax increase of their own.
“I sympathize with this council as you work through your 2025 budget deliberations as times are not easy and there are many influences and added pressures to try and keep the increases down to a minimum,” said Councillor Whalen.
The Thorold city budget deliberations kick off tonight at 6:30 p.m. in council chambers.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story stated that a speeding camera will be installed on Collier Road in August when in fact, the speeding camera will be installed from May until August. Changes were made to reflect this correction.