Forget everything you know about how the budget process goes in the City of Timmins.

City CAO Dave Landers says they will be looking at it in a completely different way for 2018…one that won’t see the marathon of presentations from city departments.

Landers says while city council “skated back and forth” on percentages, increases and decreases compared to last year, the city is looking at the budget more with a “zero base.”

That means they’re not considering last year as a base but instead looking at each department individually.

“What makes sense and are there areas that we should be working in that we’re not,” he said.

“We’re going to attempt to be a little more comprehensive as we build out a budget. And then, however that lands, council will look at it and if they’re satisfied with where we’re going, they’ll give direction.”

He says the goal is to simplify the process and focus on essential services, taking community expectations into account.

Landers adds they’ll also look at issues within the municipality, such as an infrastructure deficit, problems with recruitment to the city and concerns surrounding the city’s long-term financial position.

A criticism in the city is how late the budget process rolls along.

For example, the 2017 budget wasn’t passed until early May—by a slim 4-3 vote for that matter.

One of the biggest changes people will notice is as mentioned, the number of presentations by city departments.

Landers says before, it possibly helped the public understand each individual department and their needs. But, it’s not exactly beneficial in the budget process and following the dotted lines.

He adds says one thing he noticed is how everything seemingly gets lumped in together in a way that “doesn’t make good sense and doesn’t contribute towards good decision-making.”

He says they want to pull the budget apart, alluding to each department as “building blocks.”

“The first part we want to tackle is what is city hall actually responsible for, what do we have budget control of, and what is part of the levy,” he said.

He later says the city expenditure budget will be looked at first and parts that don’t hit the tax levy.

Those things would be the airport, fleet management and parking, essentially “areas that pay for themselves.”

Next up would be the water and sewer rates, and then followed by the agencies, boards and commissions.

The latter—commonly described at city hall as the ABC’s—isn’t controlled by the city administration, but factors into the levy so decisions would have to be made.

Filed under: Local News