​Kincardine okays draft 2025 budget with 7.13% tax-rate increase

After more than enough discussion and debate, Kincardine council has finally okayed its draft 2025 budget, with a 7.13-per-cent tax-rate increase.

That equates to a hike of $171.97 in the municipal portion of the tax bill based on the average residential assessment of $275,000. Once that is blended with the education tax and the Bruce County levy, the increase is 5.68 per cent or $239.16 on the average residential assessment.

Monday night (Feb. 24), council met for the final special meeting, and first approved the capital budget of $32-million; and later the $41-million operating budget.

While councillors had some lingering concerns about various capital projects, they moved ahead with the approval.

Councillor Rory Cavanagh suggested deferring the Station Beach boardwalk reconstruction at a cost of $750,000. He said there are two major projects already on the books for this year, and this extra one could leave staff stretched.

Chief administrative officer Jillene Bellchamber-Glazier said council could proceed with the project, desiring to understand it more fully before the work is done.

Councillor Jennifer Prenger questioned including further drawings for the "re-imagining" of Victoria Park in downtown Kincardine.

“If we haven’t approved the proposal, how do we move forward?” she said. “I thought we needed more work on the design and then it would be brought back to council. We’ve had vague wording before and been surprised by the process that was taken. We need a clear direction to staff here.”

Council agreed to leave $60,000 in the budget for upgrades to Victoria Park this year, and defer the reconstruction project to 2026.

With respect to the operating budget, treasurer Roxana Baumann said there were just a couple of items remaining for council to decide whether to leave in the budget or not, including hiring a manager of planning at a cost of $155,000; a purchasing and procurement position at a cost of $85,000; and an environmental services maintenance co-ordinator at a cost of $90,000 (not on the tax rate).

Councillor Amanda Steinhoff-Gray put forward a motion to hire the environmental services maintenance co-ordinator, and council agreed.

Councillor Bill Stewart made a motion to remove the purchasing and procurement position from the budget, and that was approved.

He then put forward a motion to remove the planning manager position as well, saying council needs a better job description before moving forward with it.

Bellchamber-Glazier said the planning manager would not be reviewing applications; that is done by Bruce County planning. The manager would be someone who is forward-thinking with respect to land-use planning, and would focus on what developers want and the municipality’s plans for growth.

Steinhoff-Gray said now is not a good time to hire someone for this position, given the concerns about a possible trade war with the United States and a decline in the economy.

Prenger agreed, saying with the tough economic times right now, the municipality should concentrate on what it needs, not what it wants. “Let’s focus on what we must have.”

Council approved Stewart’s motion to remove the planning manager position from the budget.

It then reversed an earlier decision to remove the Municipal Innovation Council contribution of $27,000, and agreed to put that money back into the budget.

In the final analysis, the tax-rate increase came in at 7.13 per cent, higher than last year’s increase of 6.86 per cent.

Stewart pointed out that council needs to be careful, given that most people have seen raises of only two per cent at their jobs. “We’ve increased taxes by 21 per cent over the past three years, which is much higher than the cost of living. I don’t support 7.13 per cent.”

He had suggested removing the Trails Master Plan, at a cost of $50,000, to be taken from the contingency reserve, and then putting that $50,000 into the budget to mitigate the tax hike. Council approved removing the plan from the budget, but did not support adding that $50,000 which would have reduced the tax-rate increase to under seven per cent.

Council approved the draft 2025 operating budget, as amended, and directed staff to bring forward a final budget bylaw at a future meeting.