Let the axe swinging begin.
Chatham-Kent council will begin deliberations tonight on the 2021 budget. All councillors will get a chance to weigh in on where the money should be saved, and where the money should be spent.
Mayor Darrin Canniff says it’s not all about coming in at a zero per cent increase because that doesn’t allow for growth.
“The base budget was nearly 0%, if we kept doing what we were doing without adding anything on, we’d be 0.3%,” Canniff says. “A big piece is infrastructure, we’re adding over 2% in infrastructure spending, for roads, bridges, growth, things like that.”
As they begin the session that gets underway tonight at 6 pm, the proposed increase is 3.96%.
Canniff says he expects that will come down, but hopes people realize you have to spend money to improve the community as a whole.
“It’s imperative we invest to ensure that we have facilities to allow for the housing boom that’s going on, for all the apartments being built, the businesses wanting to come here, we have to be ready for that. We’re going to be investing in homelessness, we’re going to invest in transit, various things like that. That’s the debate council will have over the next few days, how much of this investing we want to do.”
Deliberations will be held tonight and tomorrow, with more sessions scheduled for next week. All of the meetings are being held online and will be broadcast on YourTV and the YourTV YouTube channel.
