Council trims capital budget for next decade to keep taxes down

Barrie councillors have postponed an estimated $252 million in capital spending until after 2031 to help strengthen the city’s fiscal future.

“By slowing down capital spending, we will incur less debt and that in turn can help keep taxes down,” said Mayor Jeff Lehman. “It also helps reduce pressure on taxes because the operating costs of the new infrastructure — think of the costs associated with running a rec centre, for example — are spread out further.” 

Final approval of these decisions will be considered by city council at its Dec. 6 meeting, the same night the 2022 operating and capital budget — which sets property taxes and service levels — is scheduled for approval. 

At a special general committee meeting Saturday, councillors trimmed the capital budget by deferring both infrastructure and facility building during the next decade.

On infrastructure projects, councillors delayed the Big Bay Point Road expansion; the Lockhart Road expansion and trunk watermain, from Saunders to Huronia roads; the McKay pump station and new interchange at Highway 400; the Salem Road new transmission watermain and road expansion; the Salem Road reservoir and pumping station; and the Salem Road watermain, trunk sanitary sewer and expansion from Veterans Drive to Saunders Road, plus transportation safety and pavement work.

“It’s not going to have any impacts on additional phases (of development) and obviously if something changes miraculously, we have the ability to pivot if need be,” Coun. Gary Harvey said about postponing infrastructure worth $162.5 million.

The remainder of the capital postponements had to do with facilities.

The Hewitt’s community centre and library, a $116-million project, would be left as is — to be financed and built between 2023 and 2026. The Allandale Recreation Centre renovation and expansion, pegged at $35 million, will happen between 2024 and 2030, but with the 2028 and 2029 expenditures reversed.

“This helps the tax capital reserve (fund),” Lehman said of the Allandale timing change.

The Salem community centre and library, a $104-million project, would be backloaded from 2028 to 2031 instead of 2026 until 2028, although the land would still be purchased in 2026.

The $29.3-million second phase of the Barrie Simcoe Emergency Campus, training facilities for city police and firefighters, would be delayed from 2027-28 until 2030 to 2031.

The $10-million, 10-acre sports field and park space, as well as Barrie’s fifth permanent fire station, in the Salem area would now be developed 2027-30 instead of 2025-26. The specific site has not been identified, however.

The Dorian Parker Centre renovation and rebuild will get its $40,000 for new washrooms next year, but the remaining $3.17 million would be spent in 2027-29, not 2023-25.

Staff would also be directed to bring forward an updated development charge background study and related bylaw in 2023, and a proposed new community benefit charge. Development charges are designed to recover the capital costs associated with residential and non-residential (commercial, industrial, institutional) growth within a municipality.

Councillors also made some decisions on how to improve conditions to speed development in Barrie.

Coun. Keenan Aylwin’s motion that city staff report back to planning committee on managing extension requests to existing planning approvals, such as conditions of site-plan approval and draft plan of subdivision approvals, was approved.

Councillors also considered a number of measures designed to shore up Barrie's long-range financial plan and update its fiscal policy framework.

Consideration would be given to revising the phasing requirements in the Official Plan for the Salem and Hewitt’s secondary plan areas to ensure future phases are not unreasonably developed before areas where capacity currently exists.

Also, traditional front-ending agreements or credit agreements with longer payback periods be required for any capital works in phases two and three of the Salem and Hewitt’s secondary plan areas.

Beginning in 2023, the contribution to the dedicated infrastructure renewal fund to the tax capital reserve be increased to one per cent, helping to pay to replace and renew Barrie’s roads, pipes and buildings.

Also on the agenda was the allocation of Barrie Hydro Holdings dividends. A motion that beginning in 2023, 50 per cent of it would be allocated to the tax capital reserves, and the other half to the city’s reinvestment reserve, was defeated. The division remains 20 per cent for the tax capital reserve, 80 per cent for the reinvestment reserve.

The city’s long-range financial plan has not included consideration of the financial impact of significant funding requests from Georgian College, Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH), and the YMCA.

RVH recently announced plans to expand its existing Georgian Drive hospital in Barrie, now called the north campus, during a 10-year period and develop a new south campus in Innisfil to meet local demands and ongoing population growth. The south campus would be built on 83 acres at the southwest corner of Yonge Street and Innisfil Beach Road.

The estimated total cost of these two projects is roughly $2.5 billion, or $500 million for the south campus and $2 billion to expand RVH in Barrie. 

There is precedence for the city paying for health-care facilities in Barrie. The city contributed $24.3 million to the original build of RVH, between 1989 and 1994, as well as $52.5 million for an expanded RVH between 2009 and 2013.