Costs are rising, and even municipalities like Penetanguishene need to find ways to get more for their dollar.
One of the first reports to arrive at the first committee of the whole recently for the new term of Penetanguishene’s council was a historical analysis of grants received between 2011 through 2022, as a continuation of the ongoing 2023 budget discussions.
The report from finance and corporate services highlighted that nearly $37 million in grants and subsidies had been achieved by the town over that period, averaging $3 million per year. Some of those monies are one-time amounts, while others are an ongoing contribution to the town’s finances, helping to reduce taxes or debts needed for infrastructure, programs and services.
Neighbouring municipality Tiny Township is on that list. Their arena contribution to operating funds was tallied at justunder $245,000 overall with a $25,500 contribution in 2022; initially at an annual contribution of $15,000 for several years, it bumped to nearly $19,000 in the middle before landing on approximately $26,000 for the past five years.
By contrast, the library contribution was roughly $60,000 in 2022 with a total of $670,000 over that time-frame. While the initial contribution was a little over $52,000 in 2011, a slow and jagged annual increase climbed by roughly $1,000 per year with slight rises and drops throughout.
Those numbers caught Mayor Doug Rawson’s eye, prompting him to bring it up for council and staff’s attention.
“It looks to me like we’re actually receiving less funds from the Township of Tiny in today’s dollars than we did either last year or the day before,” said Rawson in the meeting. “If I dig a little further, it looks like the municipality receives more funding from the Township of Tiny for our library – a little more than double – then we do for our arena.
“Why have there been less funds received for the arena now than we (had) in the past couple of years, what work has been done to understand this discrepancy, and what can we do to help bridge the gap here?
“This is a trouble and a concern for me, and I know the last time I had the pleasure to sit around this table a little more than four years ago it was something that I was quite passionate about. I don’t want to wait forever; I want to push this agenda pretty hard,” Rawson noted.
CAO Jeff Lees replied that grant funding was explored in previous years of council with an analysis sent to Tiny just as the COVID-19 pandemic occurred. He committed to Rawson to investigate the matter again, opting to use the analogy of moving a pot from the back burner to the front and turning up the heat.
That became a recurring theme as Rawson replied he wanted the burner turned on high heat in concern that Penetanguishene could miss out on the opportunity during Tiny’s budget discussions. Lees offered that council could pass a quality-of-life increase on the funding amount, but Rawson thankfully declined that suggestion.
“I’m not comfortable with a cost-of-living increase,” replied Rawson. “I’m of the feeling we’ve got to be close to that library line – at minimum – to start the conversation.”
As raised in the discussion, a 2019 request to Tiny for approximately $60,000 “exceeded the library ask, and then that was kicked back by Tiny’s council back to their staff, and that's where things sat and stalled,” said Lees.
While more back-and-forth continued between Rawson and Lees over how to initiate action on the item, cooler heads prevailed in Deputy Mayor Dan La Rose who was chair of the section, and Coun. Vadeboncoeur in pointing out that a meeting between the mayors and CAOs of the respective municipalities would get them all together to talk the matter out.
After some thought, Rawson pulled back on his insistence for immediate action, and the report was simply received as information.
Said Vadeboncoeur: “I think every municipality is under the same budget timeline so there is urgency here, but there is some time and I think it’s important to put a good position forward –”
“– rather than a hastily-made one,” finished La Rose. “I think it’d be prudent for us to wait.”
The 2011-2022 history of grants report, including Tiny Township arena and library contributions, can be located on the agenda page of the Town of Penetanguishene website.
The next budget discussion for Penetanguishene will be at a special committee of the whole meeting on December 21.
Meetings of Penetanguishene council are held on the second Wednesday of each month, and can be watched live on Rogers TV cable 53, or on the Rogers TV website.
Archives of regular meetings of council are located on the Town of Penetanguishene YouTube channel.
