At the budget meetings on January 25 and 26, staff presented to Council the details of the budget that they had come up with. The tax levy required for this budget would be 5.86% – this is after a growth amount of 1.5% due to an increased assessment. The total tax bill is also impacted by an increase of the County portion (6.0%) although the School board increase will be zero. You need to read the full presentation available in Resources below to see where the money will go but it was not only Councillors who were learning from the process, there were a good number of things that others can learn – many not really budget related. This report… Read complete articleFirst look at 2023 Budget

It’s a pity more people don’t provide their opinion on the Town’s budget.  On Monday, 23 January, the results of the online budget survey will be presented at a public Council meeting.  From 15 December to 4 January 2023, only 70 citizens bothered to air their thoughts on the budget. (For comparison, 6,757 voted in the last election.) At the same meeting, other inputs will be accepted: 1) Written and Oral budget submissions and 2) requests for community grants.  The agenda lists only one written submission – from Hope Bergeron once again asking that Transit revert to scheduled service – my report on 24 January will provide what Oral submissions were made.  The report on the Survey and Hope’s letter are… Read complete articleTaxpayer Input to 2023 budget

At Monday’s Council meeting, correspondence from Hope Bergeron generated discussion on Cobourg’s Transit system. Hope was unhappy with the on-demand system and wanted a return to a fixed route system.  She called the on-demand system “illogical and exclusionary”.  She accepted that it was needed while we had the Covid pandemic but now “life returns to normal”.  She said that she had written “two months ago in Nov 2022” which she said was not read out or acknowledged.  I could not find any online reference to that but I did find that she had written to Council on the same subject November 2021 although it was received as a community grant request.  Both of her hand-written letters are available below. A… Read complete articleMore Transit Discussion at Council

The Committee of the Whole Council meeting on 9 January was probably the shortest ever (less than an hour). The big item on the Agenda was a review of unfinished business from the previous term but Deputy Mayor Nicole Beatty moved that consideration of it be moved until after Council had met to create a new Strategic Plan. This would mean that action schedules and even “disposing” of actions could be set in line with Council priorities. Councillor Miriam Mutton wanted to discuss several items but in the end voted with other councillors to accept Nicole’s deferral.  She wondered about the Strategic planning session schedule (not yet set) and whether it would include the Governance review (No).  The dates for… Read complete articleShort Council Meeting