Chatham-Kent’s proposed tax increase for 2025 has been slightly lowered to 5.11 per cent following the municipality’s first night of budget talks.
Members of Chatham-Kent Council kicked off deliberations for the 2024-2027 multi-year budget on Tuesday looking at administration’s draft budget for 2025, which included an initial projected tax increase of 5.96 per cent. This was slightly above the provincial average for proposed municipal tax increases, however, Chatham-Kent was below proposed increases for Windsor and London, which were 6.06 per cent and 7.40 per cent respectively.
In a successful motion brought forward by Ward 2 Councillor Anthony Ceccacci, the budget committee was able to reduce the proposed increase by electing to extend the length of time between laying gravel on gravel roads from an average of every three years to an average of every four years.
A resulting $1 million in savings from the change will now be allocated to the Gravel Road Conversion program to increase the number of gravel roads that are converted to paved roads each year. Another $650,000 in savings was also earmarked to reduce the tax burden for 2025.
Despite a lengthy discussion, council also ultimately decided to retain a service cut in the draft budget to eliminate the application of dust suppression on gravel roads, which was recommended by administration. In a motion, Ward 5 Councillor Carmen McGregor requested that the service be readded to the budget at an annual cost of $1.398 million. However, it was defeated 11-7.
As well, an additional $1,044,731 in savings was found by removing the remaining 2025 tax-funded lifecycle inflation from the budget.
In a late update to the draft budget, administration also included an amendment to allocate $85,000 from the base budget annually to fund the Chatham-Kent Family Physician Recruitment and Retention Task Force. A reallocation of money from the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund ensured there was no impact on the proposed levy increase.
The Budget Committee will meet again for the second night of deliberations on Wednesday at 6 p.m. Talks will continue on Thursday and, if needed, further deliberations will take place on December 3 and 4.