Ottawa city council approves 2022 budget directions
Ottawa city council has approved directions for next year’s budget, including a recommended three per cent increase to property taxes in 2022.
By a vote of 16 to 8, councillors agreed to the approach and timetable for consultation and consideration of the 2022 budget, which also calls for a 2.6 per cent increase to the city-wide levy, a three per cent increase to the Ottawa police services levy and a 4.5 per cent increase to the transit levy.
The police levy was a significant point of contention, with residents calling on the Ottawa police services board and the finance and economic development committee (FEDCo) to vote down the funding increase.
Councillors Shawn Menard and Catherine McKenney tried to introduce a motion to freeze the police budget to a zero per cent tax increase, which police services board chair Diane Deans said would result in layoffs.
“We’ve been told that a zero per cent increase, because 81 per cent of our budget is staffing costs, would result in layoffs of about 100 police service members,” she told council. “Of course, the last people that we’ve hired are the most diverse group we’ve ever hired, so they’re the racialized minorities, they’re the women—they’re the ones that would be leaving.”
The police services board had committed to freezing its 2022 budget at 2020 levels, and Deans said they are still committed to trying.
The motion was referred to budget consultation time later this year.
Sixteen councillors and the mayor voted in favour of the overall budget directions, though councillors Matt Luloff, Riley Brockington and Keith Egli chose to dissent to the increase to the police levy. Brockington also dissented to the increase to the transit levy.
The councillors who voted in favour are: Tierney, El-Chantiry, Luloff (with dissent), Gower, Dudas, Cloutier, Darouze, Sudds, Moffatt, Chiarelli, Brockington (with dissent), Egli (with dissent), Kitts, Hubley, Harder, and Watson.
The councillors who voted against are: Menard, King, McKenney, Deans, Leiper, Meehan, Fleury, and Kavanagh.
City staff say the 2022 budget will outline estimated post COVID-19 financial pressures, and include mitigation measures to cover possible funding and revenue shortfalls, including the use of city reserves, possible reductions in service levels and various additional mitigation measures.
If approved, a three per cent increase in property taxes would cost the average urban homeowner an estimated $119 more in 2022. Rural homeowners would see their tax bill go up by $91.
The 2022 draft budget will be tabled on Nov. 3.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.