Jarvis: The Goldilocks Budget

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Not too little, not too much, just fine.

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A Goldilocks budget, as Windsor’s Inside Pulse host Daniel Ableser calls it.

1,100 Caesars Windsor employees laid off as the pandemic still cannot return to work. Stellantis is making a change. Inflation is 4.4 percent. COVID-19 infections are on the rise and there is a worrisome new variant.

This is not the time for a big tax increase.

But the city’s proposed 2022 budget is about much more than just the tax increase.

What’s up, like Coun. Rino Bortolin points out, Windsor’s many low-income families and those hardest hit by the pandemic? They need the services that fund our taxes.

What about investing in the city? We have spent much of the last two decades reducing debt and increasing reserves. Now is the time to build the city.

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Retaining and attracting talent is “the most critical factor” in diversifying and growing Windsor’s economy, concludes the Windsor Works economic development report. How do we do that? It is “inextricably linked” to the type of community we build, its quality of life.

Windsor has a low cost of living, the report acknowledges. But it ranks last among the five southern Ontario cities for attractiveness.

“The bottom line,” says the report, “is that people are willing to overlook the cost of living to live in areas with strong cultural attractions and a strong local economy.”

As Bortolin also pointed out, being fiscally conservative isn’t just about low taxes. It’s about the return on investment.

It cannot be said that this budget does not invest in the city.

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We are injecting an additional $ 5 million a year for six years to repair roads, sewers, and other infrastructure under the asset management plan. We are paying an additional $ 1.3 million a year for a new emergency shelter and supportive housing. We will spend an additional $ 588,000 on the new express bus from Tecumseh Mall to St. Clair College.

There is $ 26 million to improve the parks, including 32 new playgrounds, major projects at iconic sites like Sand Point Beach, Peace Fountain and Lanspeary Park, the construction of the Legacy Beacon that will house the restored 1918 streetcar and transform the fresh new Gateway Park.

And there’s $ 20 million over seven years to remodel the Adie Knox Herman Recreation Complex and $ 15.5 million over five years to remodel University Avenue. Remember the United Way’s call to overinvest in distressed neighborhoods? That’s what this is, says Ableser.

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But some important measurements have been left on the cutting room floor. The Council must do more to adapt to them.

The largest is the proposed 418X express bus route that crosses the city from Tecumseh Mall to Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, including service to the new Lancer Center at the University of Windsor.

The route is part of the 2020 transit master plan for dual service. The 418X, the budget says, is the “east-west backbone” and a “key building block” for other new routes.

Its operation will cost a million dollars net and will require six new buses, and a showdown is brewing over it.

It is not about “subsidizing” the buses. It’s about providing a basic service, transportation, so that everyone, including people who can’t afford a car, have access to schools, workplaces, doctor’s offices, and services. It’s about fairness and quality of life. Windsor already pays less capital for public transportation than any other comparable city in Ontario.

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“Improve urban mobility,” recommended Windsor Works, citing the city’s “limited public transportation.”

It’s also about the environment. Only in Windsor could there be a real battle over public transportation in 2021, weeks after the United Nations climate summit, as extreme weather sweeps through parts of British Columbia.

Transit has faced many challenges during the pandemic and lost half of its passengers. That’s all the more reason to invest in it to rebuild it better.

The council also approved another much-heralded plan for active transportation in 2019. That plan recommends hiring a coordinator and an engineer within two years. The engineer is the priority.

“Active transportation infrastructure is strongly tied to economically successful and highly desirable communities for well-educated and innovative people to live in,” the budget says.

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But three years after the plan was approved, the budget still recommends not hiring the engineer.

Windsor Works recommends a “dedicated delivery unit” to implement your plan. Why? Because “it will take a serious and concerted effort not only from the city, but also from Windsor’s institutions, businesses and individuals for many years to come.” Therefore, someone must make sure that it is done. But the budget recommends not hiring an additional planner to take the initiative.

The budget recommends charging the city $ 20 to exterminate rats in your yard.

The service has been free for most of the more than 20 years it has been offered. The city began charging $ 100 for him in 2016. Not surprisingly, that was a good year for rats. Now the city wants to charge a “more reasonable” $ 20. You better hope your neighbors are willing to pay.

It is nickel and dimmed.

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