Budget blowback

By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express

Deferred – the word could be blacklisted at city hall as the budget talks get underway this week as the proposed and deferred capital projects, made public on the city’s website, already have some councillors shaking their heads.

Those projects slated for the budget line include big ticket items such as the $315,000 demolition of the Lakefront West fieldhouse, the $300,000 expansion of free wireless Internet service at city facilities and $100,000 worth of renovations at city hall’s Rundle Tower. Added up, the proposed projects total nearly $23 million.

However, it is those projects slated for the shelf that have some councillors concerned, including $500,000 that was slated for downtown improvements under Plan20Twenty, or the $500,000 earmarked for Oshawa harbour improvements. All in all, the city is set to defer more than $27 million in projects.

Councillor Doug Sanders, who also sits on the Downtown BIA board, says he has concerns about the downtown deferrals and that he has plans to get them back on the table.

“I’m going to try and do something there because I don’t think all these projects should be deferred that long,” he says. “You’ve got to show the downtown that we’re investing in it.”

Sanders says the work doesn’t have to be big ticket items, and even the smallest improvements can help revitalize the city’s core.

Painting the purple light standards, replacing the city benches with more appropriate seating and tables, multi-container garbage pails and replacing the banners are only a few of the items on Sanders’ list.

“There are just little things. They all improve the appearance though,” he says. “I don’t think we’re going to overlook the downtown, but we’re going to have a discussion about the downtown.”

And discussion is exactly what Mayor John Henry says the budget talks are for – not ruling out any deferrals this early in the process.

“It makes for great debate, great conversations and we’ll have to see what happens,” the mayor says.

As for priorities in the downtown, Henry says the entire city is a priority.

“We’ve got projects throughout the city. Trying to find infrastructure dollars to chip away at some of the problems is always difficult,” he says.

And while funds for the downtown are a concern, Sanders says the harbour deferral is “the only one that really scares me.”

Last month, the city requested an extension on their deadline with the federal government to revitalize the harbour lands. No response has yet been received, but Sanders says the city should be planning ahead anyways.

“We don’t want to put it off, we’ve got to do something. Let’s put the money aside and get it done,” he says.

Before that can happen, Henry says the environmental work needs to be completed. In their last meeting before Christmas, councillor approved additional funding XCG consultants to continue their environmental testing on the harbour lands sight to meet provincial standards.

“My hope is to do it as quickly as possible to get the information we need to start the process and then meet our minimum obligations,” Henry says.

Another piece of the puzzle may also be missing. Also included as part of the documents made public on the city’s website is a capital projects forecast for every year to 2024. The city’s waterfront master plan isn’t slated for budget approval until 2017, at a cost of $150,000, despite being labelled a priority for 2015 by Mayor Henry last year.

The mayor said that none of the projections are set in stone, and there is always the possibility of moving items forward, but Oshawa must first get the extension from the federal government, he says.

“The first step is to get the extension. Once we get the extension, we know exactly where we are and what’s going on.”

Budget talks begin on Friday, Jan. 15 with presentations of the city’s internal department budgets. The meeting is set to begin at 9:30 a.m. in council chambers.