2020 Budget
Consultation has concluded
Thank you for engaging in the development of the City's 2020 Budget.
City Council approved the City's 2020 Budget on Thursday, January 30, 2020.
There was strong engagement throughout the process with hundreds of people attending the Budget Roadshow drop-in sessions in April-June 2019 on identifying community priorities, almost 1,000 responses to the 2020 Budget survey, more than 50 public delegations as well as many more people who showed up to attend the budget meetings before Council considered approving the budget documents.
The 2020 Budget includes $286.7 million in operating for providing services and maintaining infrastructure as well as $57.8 million in capital investments.
The all-inclusive (municipal, education, and sewer surcharge) property tax increase is 2.75% for 2020, which is $9.23 a month more than in 2019 for a residential property assessed at $260,000.
The budget is drafted with consideration to community priorities, legislated requirements for services and infrastructure, and expected service levels.
You can use Connect Peterborough to see previous budget reports and check out the "What we heard" overview on the budget priorities consultation.
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Who's listening
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Treasurer and Commissioner of Corporate and Legislative Services
City of Peterborough
I have not been able to find any funding to support the Climate Change emergency that was declared this fall. There needs to be a budget line for Climate Change! I am pleased to see that Ptbo GreenUp is to receive continued funding, since they do assist in that area. The following could also be considered:
1) More enforcement of the "no idling" bylaw (fines should be increased to $50 as well!) and a bylaw that allows no more drive throughs built in the city!!
2) Synchronize stop lights throughout the city so the idling at stoplights is minimized.
3) replace City gas-fueled vehicles with small EV vehicles
4) replace aging gas fuelled buses with E-buses (not diesel buses), particularly on major routes where there are a lot of stops.
5) build off road bike path/bridge to cross the Otonabee River (at the Riverview Zoo) and near the Naval Club to reduce carbon fuel emissions! Residents will walk or ride bikes to recreation areas instead of driving their vehicles, if there is a safe alternative.
Fiscal responsibility and transparency. The compilers of the city budget should actively seek opportunities to reduce costs and find efficiencies in order to be good stewards of the money contributed by the community.
Spend time and money on items that directly improve to the local community only. This should be the goal of City Council. It is a complex enough mandate that requires all of Council's attention. Bigger ideologically driven movements such as "Solving Climate Change" should be beyond the scope of Council as the attention, time and money is better spent on tangible projects that directly improve the lives of the citizens of Peterborough as opposed to expending our resources on issues where it is not clear that a clear positive impact can be made locally.
Fix the streets, especially those that *don't* need extensive drainage or sewer work. It's more bang for the buck, and makes people feel like their tax dollars aren't being entirely spent on others.
City residents are generally slow to appreciate the severity of the Climate Emergency. But awareness is increasing since the Budget Survey and its priorities conclusions. Since the Survey, Council has moved somewhat in the necessary prioritizing of the climate crisis by: 1) the Motion of 28 Jan 2019 embedding sustainability and climate change into day-t-day decision making, in Asset Management and potentially a statement in Staff Reports and 2) declaring a Climate Emergency. Council can step out in front to lead & educate citizenry and get their support on local climate action by giving priority to the 2 foregoing things in all Budget deliberations and calculations. We still have time to become a resilient community. The 'house is not yet burned down."