The Mississauga News: Low Canadian dollar costly for Mississauga budget
By Rachael Williams | November 30, 2015
 |
| Council Chambers at Mississauga City Hall. / Staff photo by Rob Beintema |
Felt predominantly in library services, the low Canadian dollar – now just $0.75 to the U.S. dollar – is having much more of an impact than budget committee members expected.
At Monday’s meeting, Mississauga’s library board presented its budget and business plan for next year, which included an increase of $427,000 to the collection materials budget to offset the impact of the U.S. exchange rate.
Fire and emergency services also took a hit of $5,000 for the purchase of parts from across the border.
This is in contrast to a November 23 budget presentation by CIBC economist Andrew Grantham, highlighting how Mississauga was “well-positioned” in the current national economic climate.
“You talk about the weaker dollar and the impact and potential there may be, but it’s having a huge impact on our own budget,” said Ward 9 councillor Pat Saito to Grantham.
According to city staff, 80 per cent of the library’s material comes from a U.S. publishing company. Only a small percentage of library material across Canada comes from local publishers.
“Through the tendering process we have established relationships with our vendors. Because of the size of the library system and size of expenditures, on some things we do receive discounts, but its not enough to offset the loss of buying power we would experience (if we waited until the dollar improved),” said Rose Vespa, director of library services.
Grantham said the impact to the budget, however, is minimal compared to the increase in business a low dollar brings in terms of foreign direct investment (FDI). Although the growth isn’t coming from the manufacturing sector as predicted, more jobs are being created in related services, such as research and development.
“Just because the goods aren’t here doesn’t mean we won’t get a lift… Our labour is skilled enough to do the background work into the design of certain things that are being manufactured. And that’s where we could have a boost,” Grantham explained to the budget committee.
Two-thirds of the city’s population has a post-secondary education. The city ranks third in the country in life sciences, finance, insurance and real estate, employing a combined 89,000 people, and it attracts foreign investment from nearly 1,300 multinational firms.
Its geographical location doesn’t hurt either; Home to Toronto Pearson Airport, the city offers non-stop service to 180 destinations in 60 countries around the globe.
Despite Grantham’s positive predictions, the city continues to struggle to pay its bills.
Mississauga’s debt currently sits at $110 million, with an additional $37 million to be issued in 2016.
“We can do better,” said Ward 2 councillor Karen Ras, who ran on a platform of fiscal conservatism.
“We continue to try and find efficiencies, but having said that, we haven’t done service reviews in a few years. So there might be opportunities to look at to reduce the budget,” she told The News.
Ras wants to look into whether or not the city needs to be in the golf business. It currently operates BraeBen and Lakeview courses, with $90,000 allocated for maintenance and $175,000 for golf cart replacement.
“Maybe this is something a golf course management company can look at.”
She also pointed to the overlap between Peel Region services and city-run services. For instance, Safe City Mississauga, a registered charity that works with Peel Regional Police and the city to deliver programs and awareness campaigns, receives funding from both the Region and the city.
“What can we do to minimize those overlaps and duplication of services to the taxpayer, (it) only has to do it once,” said Ras.
The budget comes with a 2.6 per cent overall tax hike for residents, or $121 added to a property tax bill for a house valued at $535,000.
From: The Mississauga News
No comments:
Post a Comment