Budget 2024: A thoughtful, responsible approach to delivering Service Excellence
Mayor Steven Del Duca issued the following statement after tonight’s Special Committee of the Whole (Budget) meeting:
“Tonight, we formally begin our deliberations relating to the 2024 Budget for the City of Vaughan – a budget that, I believe, represents a thoughtful, responsible approach to delivering Service Excellence for our community; a budget that takes into account the ongoing affordability crisis that is impacting households in every corner of our city; and a budget that charts a path that will enable the achievement of our Council-approved priorities, while acknowledging and preparing for the challenges that we will face in the years ahead.
“For those who are veterans of our City’s budget process, I know that this year’s presentation looks a little bit different. On July 1 of this year, the provincial government extended ‘strong mayor’ powers to the Heads of Council from 26 municipalities, including Vaughan. As part of this new responsibility, the affected mayors were assigned the authority to develop annual operating and capital budgets for their respective municipalities. And one of the first directions I gave under this new authority was to ask our City staff to work with me to put our 2024 Budget together.
“As the old saying goes, if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. And, as you know, our staff have a stellar, award-winning track record of delivering successive City budgets that are forward-looking, fiscally sound and the envy of many other municipalities. I can confirm that our team here at Vaughan stepped up to the plate, as they do every year, and I want to thank our City Manager, Nick Spensieri, our Deputy City Manager of Corporate Services, City Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer, Michael Coroneos, and our Director of Financial Planning and Development Finance, Michael Marchetti, for their tireless work to get us to this point. As well, I want to thank every other member of staff, across all departments, for fully understanding that the Budget exercise is an all-hands-on-deck moment for us on an annual basis. Your collective passion, energy and discipline are incredible to witness, and I know that our residents are grateful to all of you.
“I am pleased to present to Members of Council and our community a balanced operating budget that rests on a foundation of fiscal prudence and continues our practice of keeping property taxes low for residents and local businesses. The proposed property tax-supported operating budget for 2024 is $377.4 million.
“This includes an increase in our property tax levy of 3 per cent, which amounts to less than five dollars more per month for the average assessed home in our community. As I mentioned previously, we understand fully that many in our city are struggling as they work hard to make ends meet. With prices for everything from housing to groceries to fuel going up rapidly, we worked extra hard to ensure that our proposed increase was modest relative to many other comparable municipalities across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.
“For example, between taxes and levies, the proposed increase in Burlington is 4.99 per cent; in Mississauga, it’s 5.34 per cent, and, in Milton, it’s 9.5 per cent. Closer to home here in York Region, it’s at 6.26 per cent in Richmond Hill and 7.1 per cent in East Gwillimbury. I share this not to be critical of those communities because every municipality faces unique challenges. I share it simply to illustrate to our residents that we have been incredibly diligent on their behalf and have literally stretched every dollar to make the critical investments in the world-class services that our community expects and deserves: clean and beautiful parks for our families to enjoy, popular recreation programs, for the young and the young-at-heart, at beautiful community centres across the city and equipment, training and resources for our brave front-line firefighters who keep us safe.
“Of note, in the 2024 Budget, we are proposing to invest nearly $14 million in the City’s first-rate snow removal, windrow clearing and winter maintenance efforts.
“In addition to the exceptional services that we propose to fund in the 2024 Budget, I also want to confirm that we will continue to invest in our physical assets, which are essential in order to build housing, develop complete communities and keep our people and our goods moving more effectively.
“Replacing water mains, improving catch basins, upgrading intersections and creating more bike paths might not sound incredibly compelling, but I can assure you that these kinds of projects, and many others like them, provide the basis for so much else, and they are essential for sustaining a strong quality of life.
“I know that these have also been long-standing priorities of Vaughan Council, and the 2024 Budget proposes to continue with a responsible approach to steady improvement.
“I do want to specifically highlight investments that are targeted at what is the most challenging issue facing Vaughan – traffic gridlock. The 2022 Citizen and Business surveys confirmed what many of us knew intuitively – our residents and entrepreneurs want us to make fighting traffic gridlock our primary focus as a city-building priority. On this issue, we are in a challenging situation because we have to simultaneously catch up to the growth that’s already occurred in our neighbourhoods while we keep up with what’s to come.
“For example, a forecast by York Region suggests that by 2051, Vaughan’s population will increase by more than 66 per cent to 570,000. And when you envision all of the new people who will eventually settle in Council-approved secondary plan areas like the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre, Weston Road and Highway 7, Yonge Street and Steeles Avenue, Vaughan Mills and the Promenade Centre – well, the numbers are potentially staggering. Gridlock on our roads robs us of that most precious and finite commodity – time. Time that would be far better spent with loved ones. And that same gridlock hurts our competitiveness and hinders our efforts to lure more investment and more jobs to our city. We can no longer afford to kick this ball further down the field and hope that a future generation of leaders will fix it.
“We have to step up now. We have to focus our energy and our resources now. We have to have honest conversations here in this chamber and with other levels of government, now. And we have to summon the courage to make it clear to those who intend to build the housing that we desperately need that we are all in this together because they have an obligation to help us get this right. Producing tens of thousands of new units of housing while undermining our quality of life and our local economy is not a future for my young daughters that I am prepared to accept.
“So, how do we tackle this challenge successfully? We do it methodically and with purpose. And we never stop planning and building, year over year, one project after another.
“This past April, I introduced a Member’s Resolution detailing a Nine Point Action Plan to Fight Traffic Gridlock over the next 10 years that Council unanimously approved. Work is already underway for two critical projects contained in that Action Plan, with more than $75 million being invested to extend Kirby Road from Dufferin Street to Bathurst Street and more than $30 million dedicated toward the Canada Drive-America Avenue Bridge over Highway 400 north of Major Mackenzie Drive. Budget 2024 also includes $2.27 million for the preliminary design to widen the Canadian Pacific Railway Bridge that crosses Highway 7 between Islington Avenue and Kipling Avenue. And projects like extending Bass Pro Mills Drive from Highway 400 to Weston Road remain prioritized in our 2025-2026 financial plan.
“In addition, you will see that our 2024-2026 capital plan proposes to invest more than $173 million in Transportation and Mobility, making it crystal clear that we are determined to deliver for our residents because we know that explosive growth is coming.
“And speaking of that growth, it is important for me to highlight that Budget 2024 proposes the creation of a new reserve fund that we are obligated to establish to specifically deal with the slightly more than $59 million that we are to receive from the federal government via the Housing Accelerator Fund. These monies will start to flow in 2023 and will ultimately be delivered in four equal installments. It is proposed that these funds be used for eligible Council-approved growth-related capital projects. In other words, capital projects that align with the eligibility criteria established by the federal government and that help to enable the building of more housing.
“A good example, which is highlighted in the Special Committee of the Whole Budget Report from earlier this year, is the Black Creek Renewal Project, which, when completed, will directly support the building of thousands of new housing units in the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre. Investing Housing Accelerator Funding in capital projects such as this one will reduce the pressure on both our property tax base, our debt levels and our stormwater reserves. It is proposed that all projects eligible for this funding will be brought forward to Council for approval either through in-year reports or future budget submissions.
“I also want to spend a moment or two focusing on our fiscal future.
“Earlier, I mentioned that this year’s Budget sets our City up for continued success within a stable and prudent fiscal framework. But it would be irresponsible to not acknowledge that we could soon be called upon to make some tougher choices. We know from the Long-Range Fiscal Plan that was presented to Council in December 2022 that our current tax rates are insufficient to fund long-term obligations. Furthermore, that plan also highlighted that we are on track to realize an infrastructure funding gap of between $1.8 billion and $2 billion over the next 20 years. And this year’s Budget Report quantifies the financial impact of provincial legislation on Development Charge collections to date.
“The idea that tax rates and debt levels can remain low forever while the appetite for more services, amenities and facilities only grows is not a sustainable or realistic option. It is laudable that we have done everything possible in Budget 2024 to soften the blow for our residents during the toughest affordability crisis in decades. We owe it to them to continue to exercise discipline in all of our decision-making and to remember in particular that some of the amenities we have historically loved to deliver most include a financial obligation that goes well beyond bricks and mortar. And we owe it to future generations to make the difficult decisions when necessary to ensure that they will be able to live, work and raise their families in a community that is as special in 50 or 100 years as it is today.
“Notwithstanding the obstacles we may face in this regard, I have profound faith and confidence in our people, who represent our greatest strength and our strongest motivation. As a community, we have the demonstrated capacity to meet the moment, to come together and to overcome any challenge. And this is the very definition of the Vaughan Advantage.
“I want to thank my Council Colleagues for their consideration of Budget 2024 and sincerely hope they will support it and the work we have ahead of us to ensure that Vaughan continues to live up to its potential.”
