Archive

Deputy mayor cries foul over Orangeville’s CVC levy

December 14, 2023   ·   0 Comments

By JAMES MATTHEWS, LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE REPORTER

Orangeville’s proposed 2024 contribution to the Credit Valley Conservation Authority is almost four per cent more than this year.

Quentin Hanchard, the CVC’s CAO, provided a breakdown of revenue and expenses when Orangeville’s council met on Dec. 11.

Orangeville’s 2024 share is proposed to be $326,851, an increase of 3.59 per cent over 2023. The total funding request for Orangeville amounts to an increase of $11,321 in 2024 over 2023.

“We certainly worked very hard in 2023 moving into 2024 to try to keep that percent change down,” he said.

Orangeville’s apportionment is the third greatest on a list of seven municipalities and regions. Orangeville is behind the Region of Halton in second with a $711,330 apportionment. Region of Peel is the highest contributor at $27,776,694.

“We’re happy to come in between three and four per cent (levy change) for all of our partners,” Hanchard said.

He said the majority of the CVC’s funding comes from municipal partners.

Indeed, the province kicks in a paltry 0.2 per cent of the authority’s revenue. Even user fees generate 12 per cent to pay for programming and amenities.

The authority’s greatest expenditure is salaries and benefits for personnel. That’s 69 per cent of the purse.

Deputy Mayor Todd Taylor enquired about the mechanics of working through the financial breakdowns for municipal and regional partners.

“You show the overall growth … as a percentage,” Taylor said. “Orangeville’s population hasn’t grown, yet you’ve got us disproportionately higher than what the other rates are.

“What’s the rationale for that and how did you come up with these percentages?”

Taylor said Orangeville is essentially of “flat to low growth.” But nearby Erin, for example, has a significantly lower apportionment yet is growing at a higher rate.

“I would’ve thought those percentages would be different,” he said.

“Those percentages may change in the years to come,” Hanchard said. “For municipalities like Erin that are growing fast, you’ll see that current value assessment increase in the years to come. And with that, they’ll be paying a greater portion of the overall levy.”

The three to four per cent change is a cost of living and inflationary pressure.

“It’s at the staff level, but it’s also really in terms of the expenditures for our conservation areas as well,” Hanchard said.

Remember, the lion’s share of the CVC’s spending is staff salaries and benefits.

“We feel we’ve actually done quite a good job at being able to contain the cost to the percentage you see, which is the three to four per cent range,” he said. “It’s actually required us to do a fair bit of trimming on our side to make that work.”

“I still don’t grasp why we would be more this year,” Taylor said. “We should be at the average or below based on what’s happening.”

Hanchard said much of the authority’s budget apportionments are determined according to percentages from the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation.

“That is data that MPAC gives to the Ministry of Forestry and Natural Resources and then they pass that on to us and say this is the percentage you guys pay out,” he said.

“We then take that as the ratio that we need to apply, that’s being prescribed for us, and we apply it to each of our municipal partners.”

Readers Comments (0)