Windsor city council is getting ready to discuss 2018 budget priorities.
Next Tuesday, council will be asked to approve the budget process and timelines. In an administration report, it asks city departments to reduce their 2017 budget by 10%.
Councillor Irek Kusmierczyk says with raising costs it will be difficult to hold the line on taxes. He says he would like deliberations spread across a couple of days.
"You recall last year and previous years, we were deliberating the budget on budget night up until about two o'clock in the morning," says Kusmierczyk. "In my opinion that's no way to deliberate over hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayers budget and so I'd like to see that process spread over a couple of days. Residents don't want to see parks that are over grown. They don't want to see roads that are not paved, that are potholed. They want to see a city that's clean and has a certain standard so we want to make sure that we don't see any decrease in the quality of service in the city, that's our priority."
Councillors are expected to get the draft budget on November 17.
It will be released to the public on November 20 with deliberations beginning the week of December 11.
Windsor city councillor Irek Kusmierczyk attends a public information meeting at Eastwood Public School regarding an accommodation review of public schools in the Forest Glade area. Photo taken February 8, 2017. (Photo by Ricardo Veneza)