Oakville Approves 2019 Proposed Budgets

This may come as sad, but not uncommon, news for some Oakville residents.

The 2019 operating and capital budgets have been unanimously approved by the Oakville town council. 

This may come as sad, but not uncommon, news for some Oakville residents.

The 2019 operating and capital budgets have been unanimously approved by the Oakville town council. 

This means taxes will be increasing.

However, in a recent press release, Budget Chair Town and Regional Councillor Tom Adams noted that residents will only see a 1.99 per cent increase to the town’s portion of the total tax bill.

This, according to the release, is well under inflation in the Toronto area of 2.5 per cent.

The overall property tax increase will only be 1.53 per cent.

This is a result of the blending of the previously approved regional increase of 1.9 per cent and the expected educational tax levy impact.

All of these factors make up the total of what a homeowner pays.

The press release notes that, “The increase would mean that residential property taxes would increase by $11.72 per $100,000 of assessment or that the owner of a home assessed at $800,000 would pay an additional $93.75 per year or $1.80 per week.”

These increases were addressed by Oakville Mayor Rob Burton.

“Our 11-year trend of ever-smaller tax increases comes because we switched 11 years ago to performance-based program budgeting (PB2), like the world’s leading corporations,” Burton said in the release.

“Our staff has delivered continuous improvement in efficiencies even as we have doubled our community facilities and seen our population grow while being required by the Province to subsidize 25 per cent of the costs of growth. It is estimated that 10 per cent of our total property tax burden goes to pay those costs of growth and provide developers with healthier profits.”

The 2019 operating budget comes in at $337.3 million operating budget and will go towards a wide range of programs and services such as the maintenance of roads and community facilities, fire services, transit, parks and trails, recreation and culture, senior services, and libraries. 

Funding for the Trafalgar Park Community Centre, along with the Sixteen Mile Branch library and final phase of the Municipal Enforcement Strategy are a few specific program enhancements that the operating budget will go towards.

The 2019 capital budget comes in at $116.3 million and will go towards funding that will support new facilities, transportation, infrastructure renewal and other elements related to growth. Some of the capital projects for 2019 are listed below.

* Southeast Community Centre – $22.5 million

* Downtown Lakeshore Reconstruction – $10.8 million

* Road Resurfacing and Preservation Program – $9.6 million

* Fire Station #8 – $5.1 million

* Transit bus replacements – $3.6 million

* Kerr Street Widening and Grade Separation – $3.4 million

* River Oaks – Replace Slab B Ice Rink – $3.1 million

* Speers Road – GO Station west of 3rd Line to 4th Line – $3.0 million

* North Oakville Neighgourhood Park – $2.9 million

* Emerald Ash Borer Management Program – $2.5 million

“Once again, we are addressing the needs of our community while providing the lowest overall property tax increase below the rate of inflation,” long-time Budget Committee Chair and Ward 6 Councillor Tom Adams said, said in the release. 

“Thank you to our residents, community leaders, partners and agencies who shared valuable input with Council.”

This budget has been deemed to be efficient and affordable.

What do you think of the approved budget?