
October 17, 2024 · 0 Comments
By JAMES MATTHEWS
It’s time the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority took a hard look at its spending.
That was the sentiment expressed by Mono Mayor John Creelman when council discussed the conservation authority’s 2025 draft budget.
Mono’s proposed 2025 operational levy contribution is $128,496.49. The capital asset levy will be $7,389.41. This represents a $135,885.90 total contribution for next year.
Doug Hevenor, the organization’s CEO, said in a letter to Fred Simpson, the town’s clerk, that the NVCA worked diligently to address the impacts of inflation and subsequent pricing increases to minimize the impact to member municipalities.
The 2025 draft budget also includes the addition of two new positions at the NVCA. One new person will work in flood forecasting and warning, while the other will be in a contracted engineering technologist position.
“The contract position is being brought in to assist with the backlog in our engineering department with plan review as more and more time imperative projects are moving forward,” Hevenor wrote.
He said flood forecasting and warning, which has had just one employee for 20 years, needs to be supplemented because of the increasing severity of storms, climate change, and the NVCA’s aging infrastructure.
“There was a push by a couple of councillors to add people to the planning department which raised the budget by, I think, $200,000,” said Councillor Ralph Manktelow, the town’s representative on the NVCA board.
Even though the change was approved by the board, Manktelow said he voted against it.
He acknowledged that the amount of work by the planning department is high. An additional stress is the demand to provide timely reporting.
“Although I felt that we shouldn’t be adding these two (positions), I can understand the arguments for increasing the staffing,” he said. “The fees are supposed to cover the expenses and I’m not sure how well they match up.”
“I suspect they don’t,” Creelman said.
“Are they looking at ways to provide their service at a more efficient and effective level and reduce their costs?” Coun. Elaine Capes said. “Not obviously when they increase (the budget) by $200,000. It’s like there’s no limit.”
She said there’s needs to be a benchmark of a basic service level and a cost for it. Anything else a member municipality wants, they pay for it.
“I just don’t see that flexibility,” Capes said.
“I think this is probably true of all conservation authorities, but I really think they really need to take a hard look at their fees,” Creelman said. “We’re subsidizing the conservation authority when, in fact, they should be operating on a cost-recovery basis.”
Manktelow said he is but a single vote on the NVCA board.
“Do they have such things as recorded votes so your opposition could be memorialized?” Creelman asked Manktelow.
And then: “It might be time to send them a message,” Creelman said.
Manktelow said he would convey council’s dismay at the draft budget increase.
Hopefully, Creelman said, some other Dufferin County municipalities will support Mono in communicating dissatisfaction about the spending.
“We’ll communicate council’s concern about the rising rate and that’s this is unacceptable for our citizens,” Capes said.