THUNDER BAY -- The time has come for the city to ask itself what it can do without Coun. Rebecca Johnson says.
Johnson said she's seen taxes increase by nearly 50 per cent since she became a councillor in 2003. With a proposed levy increase of 6.3 per cent this year when factoring in growth, council has to take a look at cutting services whether that comes from getting out of daycare, closing another golf course or somewhere else.
"Why do we have a zoo?" Johnson asked Tuesday as councillors met with city department heads to go over this year's proposed budget.
Johnson said questions like that need to be asked and answered when she sees line items like an extra $7,000 for veterinarians this year while people are having trouble getting enough to eat.
"It's not what you want anymore, it's what you can do without," she said.
As for shifting the tax hike onto industrial or commercial properties, Johnson said that's just not realistic.
"We're going to have businesses going out of business for this kind of an increase," she said.
"The revenue isn't there I mean when you really look at it we don not have the business growing in our community we don't have the industrial base anymore and if we do they're looking at how they can cut their taxes so we're not wining on that end at all," Johnson said.
Coun. Brian McKinnon said reassessment has eaten away at any growth the city saw this year but 5.68 per cent is still too high. Council will be presented with options on how to get that number down to around 3.99 per cent but he'd be happy to see it go a little further down to 3.5.
"I'm hoping at the end of the day we'll have a win-win situation," he said.
An avid golfer, McKinnon also brought up the city's two courses but is much more optimistic about their futures.
"I want to see these become an enterprise situation," he said.
