Ottawa city council is pumping an additional $2 million into a special reserve fund for winter maintenance cost overruns.
And because the annual snow-clearing budget has been blown year after year, councillors also called on city officials to review winter operations, which have already run up an $11 million deficit this year. Last year’s deficit was $15 million.
Council approved the measure Wednesday during a three-hour meeting during which they passed the 2015 budget in a unanimous vote. There were no major revisions to the $3.073 billion spending plan presented by staff last month.
The brutal 2015 winter had crews and equipment out on city streets and sidewalks on 33 days in January and February — basically, every other day, said city treasurer Marian Simulik.
Extreme cold required crews to use more salt and grit on streets and sidewalks, she said.
Luc Gagné, manager of roads services with Ottawa’s Public Works Department, briefed members of the media on the city’s winter storm tactics at a demonstration at the Conroy Yard last Dec. 9.
Public works general manager Kevin Wylie is reviewing service standards and will report back on the degree to which such standards are being met or exceeded “with an idea towards reducing the overall expenditures to try to bring it in line with the budget,” Simulik told reporters after the meeting.
It’s too late to apply his findings this year, but they could be applied next year and might uncover whether there is an issue with the department’s base funding, she said.
With the additional $2 million — which came from additional tax revenues related to growth — the reserve now stands at $4.1 million.
The roads service branch has a $96-million budget this year, which includes winter operations. Spending at the end of February 2015 had already totalled $37.4 million, which is $11 million ahead of where it is expected to be, Simulik said.
During the meeting, councillors also approved a motion that would allow them to use cash-in-lieu of parkland funds for bridge financing to advance otherwise eligible projects slated for later in this term of council. Essentially, a councillor could use cash-in-lieu dollars to accelerate work in a neighbourhood park and be reimbursed down the road, in the year the park renewal was initially scheduled.
In keeping with a pledge Mayor Jim Watson made during last fall’s municipal election campaign, the residential tax-rate increase for both urban and rural homeowners will be kept to two per cent; the commercial rate increase will be 1.37 per cent.
The 2015 budget caps the water and sewer rate increase at six per cent, which translates into an extra $48 per year for each household. The household fee for garbage will remain unchanged at $82 this year.
The city will end a four-year freeze on increases to its recreation fees, recommending a two-per-cent increase this year. The move will generate roughly $400,000 more per year once the increased fees are fully implemented.
OC Transpo fares will increase by an average of 2.5 per cent.
The passage of the budget also commits the city to spending $400,000 on a new exit strategy for gang members.
The money won’t translate into more officers on the street, but Ottawa police say it could help fill a gap.
Crime Prevention Ottawa has been working on pulling together resources and partners, such as police and the John Howard Society, and will roll out a plan that the public can see soon, said Bay Coun. Mark Taylor.
“There’s a lot of full-court press to try and get this out there as quickly as possible,” he said.
Taylor chaired Wednesday’s meeting. He was appointed deputy mayor last fall and filled in for Watson, who is still recovering from a pelvic fracture following a snowmobile accident.
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