Urban dwellers will see a property tax increase of 2.09 per cent. That works out to an additional $67 in municipal taxes, for a total of $3,283, on a property assessed at $314,500. Rural residents will see a smaller increase of 1.98 per cent, or $50 on average per bill.
Commercial property taxes will increase by 2.5 per cent, which works out to an additional $120, for a total of $4,910 on a property assessed at $264,070.
In total, the city expects to bring in $2.5 billion of revenues in 2013, said city treasurer Marian Simulik.
The draft budget proposes increasing spending on city infrastructure maintenance by $4.5 million. Additionally, $24 million is allocated for new bike lanes along Churchill Avenue as well as an east-west bikeway stretching from Vanier to Westboro.
There’s also $2 million set aside for design work for a new pedestrian bridge over the Rideau Canal connecting Fifth Avenue and Clegg Street.
Offsetting the new spending is an expected $8.8 million in savings arising from streamlining the operations of ServiceOttawa, which is the main entry point for residents to access many municipal services such as recreation facility bookings and paying parking fines. The city says it will offer residents more efficient ways of accessing permits, licensing and other services online.
A further $3.5 million will be saved by eliminating the equivalent of 139 full-time positions, including 100 at OC Transpo. That works out to $25,180 per position, and reports on Wednesday suggested some of those 139 jobs were already vacant and not costing the city any money.
The budget maintains a freeze on councillor and mayor’s office expenses.
Currently, Ottawa’s debt sits at about $1.5 billion, which will not be increased by this year’s budget, according to Ms. Simulik.
Ottawa has the second lowest debt per capita when compared to Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver, said Mr. Watson.
“The city of Ottawa is in good financial shape,” he said.
A budget for the water and wastewater rate and support services were not included in the tabled budget.
The entire city budget will go to council on Nov. 28 after public consultation and discussion by council committees.
Some other budget highlights include:
- $14 million of continued funding for council’s poverty and homelessness initiative;
- $5.5 million increase in the annual contribution to capital funding for infrastructure maintenance and renewal;
- $5 million increase for parks and recreation facilities across the city;
- $4.9 million in new money to improve safety and mobility with new traffic control signals, intersection control measures, pedestrian countdown and audible signals;
- $2.5 million for ongoing environmental remediation and greening of the city’s vehicle fleet;
- $2 million for accessibility retrofit work to existing buildings and parks;
- $1.76 million increase in operating and expansion budgets for libraries;
- $1 million for the review of the Official Plan and transportation master plan;
- Two per cent increase in funding for social service and health agencies, cultural, community and recreation.
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Jayme yes the issue is always people however, we Canadians have become too complacent and do not exercise our right to protest (without getting executed like people do in other countries). I can remember the protests for the Vietnam war (yep I was part of that protest). What happened? When enough people voice their opinion, change happens. Slowly at first but nevertheless; change. If we Canadians allow our elected officials to steamroll over us all of the time and not do anything they assume that collectively we are in agreement of what they are doing. Sure, there are some pet things on the list that, "people" like such as paths for running and parks full of dog poop. Again, let's do a study to see just how many people use these facilities or stuff every year. Does it warrant pumping millions into this type of infrasttucture besides just upkeep or not ? My guess is that just maintaing what we got is fine and at a couple of hundred thousand every year; not millions. Complacency is what it is all about. The Canadian population on the whole are lazy when it comes to exercising their rights. It is time to rise up and protest for a better deal and not one that costs each and every one of us the remainder of our disposable income to support stuff that we care very little about. You see Jayme, it is very easy to raise taxes, etc because the rules were made by these elected officals and not by us. Consequences of not following these rules carry dire consequences again not made by us but by them. As with many Canadians, I am not buying what they are selling any more. Our elected officials are costing me too much and it has to stop. If it were up to me, (well it is up to me), I demand that before this and any other government wants to make a financial decision, that they allow the people to vote or have a referendum on their proposals. The vote or referendum will have clear concise questions, and no tricks to confuse the issue as they have done in the past. Send out a form to each and every taxpayer.. note I said taxpayer as to what they want to fund this year. Let us select what we want to fund and then adjust accordingly. Everything else would be put on the back burner until the next year. Yes, only taxpayers are allowed to vote; we are the ones funding these things so we should be the only ones that are allowed to vote. This country need change..