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Rising costs in Orangeville

November 28, 2024   ·   0 Comments

Thank you for reporting on the council meeting item where Orangeville resident James Jackson raised concerns as a taxpayer regarding the massively escalating planning costs for a new fire station.

I appreciate council is looking at options to decrease costs, however, it is well known that projected costs and contract costing for the public purse money projects is never the final reality. Even if council were able to reduce this highly inflated cost proposition down by an enormous 30 per cent it would still be an exposure of well over $22 million. All in, the actual cost would be higher than that. 

In the same edition of your paper was another notice of $125 million to be spent over the next decade on water system infrastructure which will result in a minimum 15% increase to this line item for every resident. When I moved here 25 years ago water and sewage was included in taxes. Since then, my taxes have quadrupled, PLUS water and sewage charges have been downloaded to my hydro billing. This line item has also increase far beyond rates of inflation year after year.

Orangeville is in the midst of ATTEMPTING to bring down what was the HIGHEST policing cost in Ontario. We should all be warned, from indications from other communities that have gone through the process, when the next round of OPP contracts come due, costs will actually skyrocket, resulting in millions of dollars in increased costs. 

Finally, citizens have had to pick up the price tag for what was, in hindsight, an apparent underwhelming build of the Alder Street rec recreation complex resulting in $20 million overspend. 

This, along with the recently reported poor state Tony Rose rec centre is in as well as having picked up the full cost of all the transit ridership, etc. The list goes on.

I have appreciated the openness and visibility this council has provided to the citizenry, and know it is tough for council to serve all parties all the time, however, as an Orangeville citizen paying among the highest property tax in Ontario, I support Mr Jacksons’ claim that we simply cannot keep going to the tax trough to get all these projects added to the ongoing roads, parks, staffing increased costs, etc. 

Regards,

Jim Smith

Orangeville

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