Budget and Finances

Budget

City Council approved the City of Peterborough 2019 Budget, including Operating and Capital Expenditures on Monday, January 28, 2019.

2019 Budget

Past budgets

2018 Approved budget

2017 Approved budget

2020 Budget process

We follow a specific process for establishing our operating and capital budgets each year, which includes multiple public meetings to hear about the priorities of our residents and reports to Council sitting as the Finance Committee. Here is the process we have planned for the 2020 Budget. We will post more information as the dates get close.

The results from the 2020 Budget survey on budget priorities will be included in the report to Council's committee meeting on June 10, 2019 before Council considers approving a budget guideline at its meeting on June 24, 2019.

2020 Preliminary Budget Guidelines

2020 Budget Guidelines: Roadshow and survey

Ahead of the setting of guidelines for the drafting of the 2020 Budget, City Staff worked with Finance Chair Councillor Dean Pappas, Finance Vice Chair Councillor Gary Baldwin as well as the Mayor and Ward Councillors to undertake a Budget Roadshow. The Budget Roadshow included a series of sessions, four drop-in style sessions and one more structured setting with organized group discussions, in each of the Wards. The sessions provided an opportunity for residents to talk with Council members and Finance staff about priorities for next year’s budget and to have conversations about the issues in our community. About 300 people attended these sessions.

Through the Budget Roadshow, residents were encouraged to fill out the 2020 Budget survey on priorities and issues. The 2020 Budget survey was open for approximately four weeks, from Monday, April 15 to Friday, May 10. It offered broad, high-level topics and questions as one way for residents to engage in the budget process at this early stage of drafting the budget. There were 996 responses to the survey – both online and through paper copies.

2020 Budget survey results (spreadsheet format, complete results with comments)

Notes from Town Ward budget meeting on April 25, 2019

Housing

More affordable housing exploring different models i.e., tiny homes, more portable rent subsidies identifying vacant city land for housing, made developers include affordable housing in new developments
Further investment in rent subsidies is highly recommended
Reduce barriers (zoning bylaws) to accessory unites throughout the whole city (not just downtown core)
Get rid of off-street parking minimums for both residential and commercial properties
New stricter enforcement of housing bylaws reporting rental properties and landlord/tenant relationships, particularly in regards to upkeep of student / student-oriented residences
Some better ways of creating safer housing for students (absentee landlords)
More affordable housing and a variety of tenure types - to do this need incentives for developers to do this consistently
Co-op housing needed here and more than just 3 projects we have

Economic development

Jobs that play living wage
City becomes a living wage employer and encourage suppliers and third-party contractors to do the same
Less precarious opportunities and more solid jobs
More engagement for start ups at City of Peterborough
Better support of social enterprise
More services for local business (or promotion of them) other than membership-based services
Competition sensitivity - push repeaters to other areas of town ward to help develop these neighbourhoods (e.g., limit of coffee shops, or green stores or art stores) because saturation hurts businesses
Adopt social procurement policy

Other

Increase development charges (Schedule 1 of Official Plan) in peripheral greenfield areas
Develop fees/taxes for large parking areas
Community fund from sale of PDI, keep as capital fund to support energy, local efficiency and innovation and climate change actions
Align development charges, credits, calculations with environmental elements in the development of the site (e.g. solar panels, energy efficiency)
Do a budget analysis through various lenses - equity, gender, sustainability, who does this benefit, local/regional vs global support/impact
City-led advocacy at the provincial level for issues like Basic Income
More infill of intensification efforts over greenfield development - Town Ward is the place for the intensification
Kitchen/compost pickup

Vision for the future

More boat slips at the little lake, big boats are bypassing the marina as it is full, so they don’t stop and spend money
Maintain democratic practice
Don’t get lured into trying to compete with sharply growing cities e.g., Milton and Barrie
Build around transit hub (spruce it up) make it something that town ward can be proud of
Add another campus downtown/town ward, good for business
HOV lanes - pedestrian days on some stress not just during events
Better integration of all transportation (water, 2-wheel, 2 leg, 4 wheel)
More green pathways around town

Parks/green space

Urban gardens, fruit trees, raspberry bushes maybe some community bee hives with the honey donated to community meal programs or food banks
Shift funds from local parks study to developing or explained master plans for key, large, natural parks
Greater support for Nourish’s work in the City and County’s 47 gardens
Continue to fund the local parks study and include planning for late natural areas - also be sure to finalize the Natural Heritage Strategy and ensure the Parks Master Plan takes into consideration the NHS
Encourage residents to use parks, green space
The downtown Jackson Creek area is in desperate need of green space and safe places for everyone to get out and enjoy the outdoors
Start planning for what could be done with churches now
Support the adoption of the new Parks and Open Space Master Plan and emphasize/support of equitable distribution of green spaces in all neighbourhoods (low and high income) = spatial equity
Support green walls and roofs on businesses in the downtown to help mitigate against air pollution
Support planting more native trees in the downtown core
Depave some of the parking lots and plant more trees
Support the effort to “open up” Jackson Creek in areas where it is “built over”

The arts

Individual artist grants (judged by actual artists)
Any new wall murals should be done by local artists
Street pianos on some parks along the water
Public art projects should be more varied than mural after mural - we don’t have many mural artists, but do we have a lot of poets!

Youth

Would recommend restructuring the Peterborough Youth Council to focus on better promotion of the group, meaningful involvement of the participating students in tangible projects, and with more direct communication with City Council/or connects youth services
Would further recommend investment in better promotion of youth services/supports directly to schools and locations with high youth populations, of awareness of youth services provided is often low
Need to be encouraged to participate - try visiting schools and classes to listen to them
More youth friendly spaces (or welcoming ones at least)
Youth friendly business
What about actually using the Youth Council as an advisory body and have them give youth recommendations on issues before Council - this group should be used more efficiently instead of planning parades
How could this group also brome more representative of al of our youth - include funds in the budget to do more youth engagement, especially to involve vulnerable youth in decision making

Ideas for Town Ward

Tear up all contracts to perform, dust moving, divert the money to provide taxi rides for people being discharged from emergency department midnight to 7 a.m. at PRHC.
Plant trees, insulate roots, install double glazing
Install whitefish yellow spectrum LED lightning
Support Mitsubishi outlander PHE vehicle
Fair trade and coffee and cocoa procurement contracts
Fix and maintain sidewalks, especially in Town Ward outside downtown, many are unsafe with people with visual impairments
Provide a location for a safe consumption site

Transportation

Transit route redesign/length adjustments would be recommended as current route designs were founded on having all busses arrive/leave at he same time, which rarely works out in practice and leads to large scale delays in the busses
Relying on ptbo transit twitter is an insufficient method of keeping aware of transit delays
Highly recommend expanding peak time service
Sunday transit service should be extended to math the Saturday schedule - it is exceptionally inconvenient having the last outbound Sunday transit trip occurs at 6:40
More frequent Go bus service, if this is do-able at the municipal level
Shift from hub and spoke system to grid routs for busses, more frequent service (with such infrequent service only those who have to use the bus will do so
Explore feasibility of electric busses
Consistent (sustained) funding to expand
Do an active transportation master plan so that walking and cycling routes are logically thought and consistently budgeted for
Ensure the sidewalk policy and strategic plan are consistently implemented and budgeted for adequately every year
Awesome complete street on George street, very overdue, find more places in the City to do this - there are extremely long stretches of Lansdowne Street that need safe places to cross
More cohesiveness among all forms - transit, cycling walking etc.
More transit service – 40-minute rotation is not helpful for employment or access to services
Work to reduce the stigma around those that do use transit
Liven up the hub, it’s seen as an eye sore
Youth pricing
Bike racks on busses
Keep busses going into 333 hedonics at right for safety until 11 - many seniors live there who are ill

Public engagement opportunities
Date	Engagement opportunity
Monday, April 15	Opening of public survey on budget priorities
Monday, April 15	Ward 1 Otonabee public meeting, Peterborough Sport and Wellness Centre, 775 Brealey Dr., 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Thursday, April 18	Ward 2 Monaghan public drop-in session, Clonsilla Fire Station 3, 839 Clonsilla Ave., 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Thursday, April 25	Ward 3 Town public drop-in session, Peterborough Public Library, 345 Aylmer St. N., 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Monday, April 29	Ward 5 Northcrest public drop-in session, Northcrest Community Centre, 100 Marina Blvd., 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Tuesday, May 7	Ward 4 Ashburnham public drop-in session, Peterborough Museum and Archives, 300 Hunter St. E., 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Friday, May 10	Closing of public survey on budget priorities
Wednesday, May 22	City Council, Finance Committee meeting to hear public delegations on the preliminary guideline for the 2020 Budget development
Monday, June 24	City Council to consider ratifying its Finance Committee’s decision on the guidelines for the creation of the 2020 Budget, opportunity for public delegations during the meeting
Wednesday, November 13	Public meeting to hear from the community on the draft 2020 Budget
Monday, December 9	Council considers final approval of the 2020 Budget, opportunity for public delegations

Budget document release and review by Finance Committee
Date	Budget activity
May 6	City Council, Finance Committee meeting, presentation of preliminary guideline for 2020 Budget development
Monday, June 10	City Council, Finance Committee meeting to consider recommendations to approve guidelines for the creation of the 2020 Budget
Monday, October 28	City Council, Finance Committee to receive draft 2020 Budget documents, which begins the official review of the draft documents, and draft Budget posted on our website
Monday, November 18 to Thursday, November 21	Council holds Finance Committee meetings each day to review and discuss the draft 2020 Budget documents

Consolidated financial reports

Annual Audited Financial Statements are compiled and released each year in November for the previous year. Please contact Financial Services for reports prior to 2015.

Financial reports

Public sector salary disclosure

The Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act, 1996, requires all public sector employees who receive more than $100,000 annually plus benefits must be reported publicly in the following year.

Public sector salary disclosure

Purchasing

The City of Peterborough abides by our Purchasing By-Law when we procure goods and services. Our bids and tenders process complies with this by-law.