Can Region of Waterloo keep its 2024 budget to a 6% increase? Council looks to find out

Region of Waterloo councillors have voted in favour of a motion to ask staff to develop a 2024 budget that would see a six per cent tax increase.

A report presented to councillors on June 6 during a committee meeting said the budget would need to see a 10 per cent tax increase to maintain current levels of service. 

Doug Craig, who is the former mayor of Cambridge and now represents the city on regional council, brought forward the motion to ask staff to draft a budget that would see a six to eight per cent increase.

Craig said the report would serve to show council and the community just what would need to be cut in order to keep taxes low.

"If we came in with a 6 per cent [budget], I mean, that would be fairly devastating for a number of programs. But the public needs to see that and I think we, regional council, needs to get into a long dialogue on how we could reduce costs," Craig told CBC Kitchener-Waterloo's The Morning Edition this week.

Coun. Rob Deustchmann, who represents Kitchener, agreed council would benefit from knowing what exactly would need to get cut to keep the tax rate increase at six per cent.

During the committee meeting on June 6, Coun. Jim Erb of Waterloo had expressed concern about asking staff to make cuts, but Deutschmann said during Wednesday night's council meeting that it makes sense for staff to do this report. Any cuts would be up to council, he noted.

"It's not us deflecting any responsibilities on the staff, but it's using our professional staff to provide some insight for us to see what that sort of cut would look like so that we can then show the community, if the desire is to get a number that is considerably lower, [this] is the sort of thing it could be," Deutschmann said.

Deutschmann asked staff to not just consider service cuts, but also look at capital projects and reserve funds in their report.

Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic said 2024 "is going to be a tough budget" and it would be a good idea to have the region's "professional staff look at these issues."

"I think we do need to look at some real things that we might consider, both from a service point of view, but also from an administration and bureaucracy point of view, that may need to just rethink some of what we do," Vrbanovic said.

"Then let's have those strong, vibrant conversations, input from the community and then we'll make some decisions at budget time."

Council also approved a new process for budget talks this year. Council workshops will begin in September. There will be three public input sessions instead of two, and they'll begin earlier in the budget process. The first public input session is currently scheduled for Oct. 18.