Council today had a long session to review the 2021 budget – and it’s not yet finished.  It will continue tomorrow, Friday.  There were long sessions on the Fire Department and Police and some other smaller departments but each year, one group of decisions gets attention out of proportion to the amount of money involved – and that’s the Community Grants.  In the last few years the total awarded to those who applied has been limited to $50k but this year is unusual and most Councillors were keen to keep the increase to a minimum.  Councillor Adam Bureau worked with Deputy Mayor Suzanne Séguin to decide on recommended awards but before he could get going, Councillor Brian Darling moved to… Read complete articleCommunity Grants for 2021

Unlike many corporate five year plans which gather dust, Cobourg’s four year Strategic Plan is actively used to direct Staff.  Each staff memo to Council references the relevant action in the Strategic Plan and once a year the CAO is asked to provide an update on progress.  So at the next Committee of the Whole meeting (C.O.W. on January 25), CAO Tracey Vaughan will present the update for 2020 – that is, what got done in 2020 and what remains to be done.  See the links below for the full report – 21 pages – plus a cover memo complete with a summary.  This post will try to extract highlights – those items that I think are of most interest…. Read complete articleCAO report on Progress with Strategic Plan

As promised, CAO Tracey Vaughan has now issued a report on what actions the Town should be taking to implement the recent report by KPMG on how the Town could save money.  Tracey’s report is included in the agenda for the next Committee of the Whole meeting on January 25.  First she says that KPMG notes that two-thirds of the Town’s operating costs and 71% of the municipal levy requirement relate to services that are considered to be either mandatory or essential in nature. While discretionary services account for $6.9 million in annual taxation revenue, $6.6 million of that amount are discretionary services that are traditionally delivered by municipalities of similar size.  She accepts that Councillors do not want to… Read complete articleImproving Town’s Efficiency

One of the more expensive and contentious budget items is the high cost of Cobourg’s Transit System.  Service is limited – not all areas are covered and there’s a one hour interval between buses.  Further, buses are larger than would be reasonably required for usual ridership counts.  The operating budget for 2021 is $1.3M and ridership is expected to be about the same as for 2020 which was 52,000.  That’s an average of 142 per day – and split over 2 buses that’s about 7 per one hour trip.  In addition, the accessible Transit service (Wheels) had much fewer users.  Subsidies from upper levels of Government reduced the net cost to the Town to $943K which is 3.7% of the… Read complete articleMore on Micro-Transit Trial

At last Monday’s Committee of the Whole Council meeting, Sean-Michael Stephen, manager at Watson and Associates Economists Ltd., presented his report containing recommendations for rates for water and waste water (that is “sewer”) for the next 5 years as well as a forecast to 2030.  Although there were questions from Councillors, the recommendations were approved and will be formally put in place at next Monday’s regular Council meeting.  Over the last 5 years, rates have increased by 5.3% per year and will increase by 5.9% per year over the next 5 years.  The increases are needed to fund the “long term capital needs of the systems by 2030, providing for the sustainable replacement of infrastructure and ongoing operation and maintenance… Read complete articleWater Charges to Increase

At the Committee of the Whole meeting on Monday, Cobourg Council voted to start collecting parking fees downtown once the Provincial lockdown is over – currently scheduled for January 23.  They also voted to start collecting Transit fares and resume normal hours January 26.  With free parking, staff have observed that many spaces that would otherwise be used by shoppers are likely occupied by “people who have continued to work in the downtown area or are residents of the residential units above the many storefronts”.  Although parking is free, other restrictions are still being enforced – these include tickets for parking in “no-parking” areas or in front of Fire Hydrants etc.  For Transit, a significant issue is the continued closure… Read complete articleParking and Transit back to normal – almost