Work continues to find savings in Sudbury's 2020 budget

City councillors in Greater Sudbury spent Wednesday night trying to find savings in the 2020 municipal budget.

The Finance Committee didn't get very far in its agenda on day two of its deliberations.

That's because councillors were proposing ideas or asking questions about pockets of money that could possibly reduce a proposed tax increase. That currently sits at 3.55 per cent.

Sudbury Mayor Brian Bigger made a motion to reconsider the police services budget.

That budget had been approved on Tuesday.

Bigger stated that within the police budget is $500,000 in contributions from the municipality that would go to either renovations or a new police building in the near future.

"There is a headquarters project that is conceptualized and moving forward and/or a renovation. Neither of the renovation or the headquarter's project actually has been approved by council," Bigger said.

"The $500,000 that would be a contribution to capital in a capital account for police would go into a bank account and earn interest."

Councillor Geoff McCausland agreed with the mayor that the money would be better spent now.

"There's the balancing of whether we have a sudden impact on people's taxes and whether we have money sit and we're charging it to people just to sit in a bank account," he said.

The finance committee can't make amendments to the police budget, it can only send it back to that board.

"This would be a proposal to the police board that it would be greatly appreciated even to defer that increase of 500,000 which directly impacts our operating dollars on this tax levy," Bigger said.

Councillor René Lapierre, one of city council's representatives on the police services board, said he would take the conversation back to that board.

"It will be dependent on the board, but I'm happy to share with the board the concerns raised by council. And that the number looking forward is $500,000," Lapierre said.

The Greater Sudbury Police Services board can consider the request, but it doesn't have to comply.

If the $500,000 comes out of the municipal budget it would put the proposed tax levy at 3.3 per cent.

However, the finalized municipal budget is pending until the police board returns a decision to the finance committee.

$1-million freed up for projects

Another proposal to find savings from within the 2020 budget came from city councillor Mark Signoretti.

He proposed moving $460,000 from capital to operating funds. This would provide money to finance or lease seven snow plow trucks.

The city had been considering buying five snow plow trucks for $1.4 million.

The remaining $1 million will remain in capital funds and would then be freed up for other projects, yet to be determined.

"If we have newer equipment on the road it will save us in fuel economy, emissions, repairs and maintenance, so those costs I my opinion will outweigh the cost of the interest borrowing," Signoretti said.

"And it will allow us to free up — one time —  $1 million for capital monies."

The suggestion was approved by the finance committee. The change did not alter the proposed tax levy.

Reducing travel expenses for city staff?

Councillor René Lapierre proposed reducing travel expenses for city staff by $150,000. There's $750,000 in the budget for staff travel.

"We're all trying to work hard to try to minimize the impact to our residents and we're all trying to squeeze where we can," he said.

"I would like to propose that we direct staff to find — in whichever way, but specifically in the staff travel budget."

Sudbury's CAO Ed Archer explained that city staff travel for professional training required for their certification process.

"Given our location the courses that would be required for those staff are typically offered in other communities," he said.

Archer also mentioned that sometimes municipal staff travel to meet with government officials, or peers from other communities.

"We regularly network with our peers and through that networking we learn about practices they've developed or policies they've created that lead to service improvements or cost savings," Archer added.

Looking for big savings

During the discussion, councillor Robert Kirwan was concerned that cutting even this small amount could have repercussions for professional development.

"For us just to make a quick decision to reduce it by $150,000 without looking at the implications, I hope that we would...let's look for big numbers as opposed to all these little numbers, because sometimes the littlest number has the major impact," he said.

That was also supported by Signoretti.

"Tonight we did a great move for a million dollars. Let's look at savings like that not $6 or $7,000 or smaller ones," he said.

Lapierre's motion has been deferred until Thursday to allow city staff to provide further information. Sudbury's 2020 budget deliberations continue Thursday.

Further alternative deliberation dates could be scheduled in December or even into January, if needed.

The proposed tax levy remains at 3.55 per cent, but could change once the 2020 budget is finalized. 

The city's proposed operating budget for 2020 is $614.9 million, that's $21 million more than the $593 million spent in the 2019 operating budget.