Last week, your local Chamber of Commerce brought together our local business and political leaders, Mayor Jeff Leal and Jasbir Raina, the Chief Administrative officer (CAO). This was the second annual Mayor's Breakfast, with a packed house at the Peterborough Golf and Country Club. This meeting covered important municipal matters, from increasing development charges and tax rates to physician recruitment and MAT tax.
With this meeting expected to be heated, Leal and Raina dove into the reasoning behind the proposed budget cuts. As you may know, last week, the city council proposed to cut funding by 25 per cent for various community organizations rather than raising our tax rates. A week later, council rejected most of the proposed budget cuts. Leal brought up how instead of applying budget cuts, he asked the "big three” to reassess their budget asks. These organizations were the Police Services Board, Peterborough County-City Paramedics, and Peterborough Public Health. Rather than raising our tax rates, Leal wants to make this budget work by asking the three organizations to reassess their funding requests.
Raina referred to his experience in Mississauga, where he learned the ropes of accurate municipal budgeting. He reasoned that a municipality must operate with a large tax base. Raina mentioned that "municipalities cannot function and expect to grow with smaller tax bases, specifically Band-Aid budgets." Raina pointed to the many completed roads and ongoing projects adequately funded through tax increases.
Leal also touched on cross-border servicing and physician recruitment. With little industrial land left in Peterborough, this is a big concern if we seek to grow our industrial sector locally. Leal went over how the city has proposed to work with other municipalities in cross-border servicing, where industrial lands would be co-managed. This would benefit the city and the neighboring municipality and bring more businesses and employment to our area. On a physician recruitment note, Peterborough currently has 32,000 people without a doctor, which is a complex situation. Leal touched on this complexity in the city's plan to help bring in more family physicians. The "Bring Them Home" campaign would seek to bring back overseas Peterborian medical students in Ireland to practice at home in Peterborough.
The next elephant in the room was the proposal to increase development charges. One audience member asked how the city expects to spur development with these high increases. Raina responded to this comment, saying, “Every house added to the city is putting pressure on the community, and in accommodating this growth, the community must bear the costs.” Although this makes it seem that development charges are necessary to accommodate growth, many developers are still concerned with this cost increase as it will make it more expensive to build and will pass on to the consumer, as one audience member pointed out. On a side note, the Chamber will address the proposed high increases in development charges with our local Peterborough and Kawarthas Home Builders Association.
The next hot topic was our Municipal Accommodation Tax (MAT), implemented in 2019, in which 50 per cent of its revenue will fund a new city-managed tourism entity. An audience member asked about the city's plan for this. Raina highlighted that the MAT tax would strictly reinvest in tourism development, and the work to establish the city's tourism entity is still a novel proposal and a work in progress. Raina also mentioned the progress in the MAT tax funding projects, such as the new arena, and how this MAT tax can continue to rejuvenate downtown.
Moving on to successful city initiatives, Leal showcased the recent success of the city's green waste initiative. Members of the audience were pleased to hear about creating a plan to expand green waste to businesses. This green waste initiative helped the city see great benefits in reducing landfill use and extending its life. Leal also mentioned that the plan to provide green waste management services could occur in the next calendar year.
This Q&A was jam-packed with sensitive but necessary discussions regarding taxpayer increases and operating challenges. This was a great opportunity for businesses to voice their concerns and have our public servants and mayor hear them. Having this dialogue in uncertain times amidst proposed tax increases is refreshing to see. This Q&A provided much-needed insight into the city's rationale for the following calendar year. This breakfast closed off with remarks from Leal and Raina expressing that to build Peterborough, it will take a unified approach. While true, this unified approach should not come at the expense of our local businesses. We hope our city can hear these concerns addressed at our Mayor's Breakfast and that next year's proposed plans reflect the feedback they received.
