The city committees tasked with finding savings in Windsor's 2025 operating budget will begin the process of finding ways to slash an estimated 12.9 percent tax hike next week.
Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens announced Tuesday that the 2025 preliminary budget estimates, without reductions, would result in a tax increase of 12.9 percent.
The city is pointing to extraordinary budgetary pressures for the estimated increase, driven primarily by factors outside of the corporation's control, including contractual obligations, legislated requirements, and inflationary pressures.
Those factors alone make up 6.33 percent, or $30,691,270, of the estimated $62,578,206 increase to the budget.
Another 2.09 percent, or $10,130,501, comes from other contractual and increased costs to the city from the agencies, boards, commissions, and committees.
Dilkens has appointed the ten members of council to three different committees to examine particular areas of city operations in the search for operational and service-level savings.
Ward 10 Councillor Jim Morrison will serve as chair of the economic development and engineering committee and his committee will begin meeting Tuesday, Sept. 24.
Morrison says they need to find some changes.
"It's not just savings, right? We can look at revenue sources too. I talked to councillor Agostino who I was on a conference last week with him, he's got some great ideas for revenue," he says. "You can balance it that was too. So we will look at both sides of the equation to get to where we feel comfortable."
"Wages are going up, repairs to anything we do are going up, so don't expect that everything can be delivered with no cost at budget time,' she says.
Gignac says they're experiecing downloading from both levels of government and her committee will be asking what municiplaities are required to provide and what services are not mandatory.
"Things are shifting within Canada all together. Municipalities are under an extreme amount of pressure in terms of what people expect. They want a safe, clean affordable city. What do you want? That's the question," she says.
Each committee will work alongside city commissioners and submit recommendations to administration for consideration.
On September 11, the Dilkens announced a corporate hiring freeze for all permanent full-time positions at the City of Windsor ahead of the budget process.
The mayor must present the proposed budget by Feb. 1, 2025, under Ontario's Strong Mayor Powers, at which point council will have 30 days to review and make any recommendations for change.
The 2024 budget was passed with a 3.91 percent property tax increase; however, the tax rate was increased to 4.61 percent in May 2024 after the mayor reopened the budget as $3.2 million more in spending was approved to support the Strengthen the Core—Downtown Windsor Revitalization plan.
Committee One - Corporate and Community Services:
- Councillor Jo-Anne Gignac (Chair)
- Councillor Renaldo Agostino
- Councillor Mark McKenzie
- Councillor Kieran McKenzie
Committee Two - Economic Development and Engineering:
- Councillor Jim Morrison (Chair)
- Councillor Gary Kaschak
- Councillor Fred Francis
Committee Three - Finance and Social Services:
- Councillor Fabio Costante (Chair)
- Councillor Ed Sleiman
- Councillor Angelo Marignani