Owen Sound Committee - Corporate Services Meeting Transcript — May 7, 2026

00:00:10 Speaker 01: Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the Corporate Services Committee.

00:00:15 Speaker 01: Today is May the seventh, twenty twenty-six, and it is five thirty p.m.

00:00:19 Speaker 01: And I call the meeting to order.

00:00:23 Speaker 01: But before that, all members except Member Neil are present today, and I have Councillor Dodd joining us for.

00:00:32 Speaker 01: Councillor Dodd, joining us virtually.

00:00:33 Speaker 01: At number two, we have calls for additional business. Anyone? Seeing none.

00:00:41 Speaker 01: At number three, declarations of interests. Anyone on my right? Anyone on my left? None.

00:00:46 Speaker 01: At four, we have confirmation of the minutes.

00:00:50 Speaker 01: At four a, minutes of the Corporate Services Committee meeting held on April nine, twenty twenty six.

00:00:56 Speaker 01: Could I have a mover for that? Okay.

00:00:58 Speaker 01: I have member Franklin move that, and this time I remembered. All in favor? It is carried unanimously.

00:01:10 Speaker 01: At number five, we have deputations and presentations.

00:01:14 Speaker 01: There are no deputations or presentations as of this evening.

00:01:19 Speaker 01: At number six, we have public forum.

00:01:21 Speaker 01: I do not see any members of the public here, unless we have something.

00:01:25 Speaker 01: That Christina, you may have.

00:01:28 Speaker 01: Seeing none, we move to number seven, which is correspondents deceived, for which direction is required.

00:01:35 Speaker 01: There are no correspondence items being presented for considerations this evening.

00:01:41 Speaker 01: At number eight, reports of the city staff.

00:01:44 Speaker 01: Eight A, we start with accounting.

00:01:47 Speaker 01: At eight A one, we have report CR twenty six zero four three from the director of corporate services, regarding two thousand twenty six t.

00:02:14 Speaker 02: Regarding two thousand and twenty-six T one financial update, I'll pass it over to the director. Thank you, Madam Chair.

00:02:24 Speaker 02: So we typically provide three milestone financial reports through the year.

00:02:25 Speaker 02: One that we call the T one update that captures the first four months.

00:02:27 Speaker 02: T two would be to the end of August, and then our year-end report that usually comes in March would capture up to year end.

00:02:29 Speaker 02: So this is sort of our first financial. update that we bring of the year.

00:02:31 Speaker 02: It focuses on operating, and I've walked through some of the main drivers that we're seeing that are causing variances in our financials up to this point.

00:02:55 Speaker 02: I will say the T one financial update is very much a forecast, and even like in capital, there's a lot of invoices that have not yet been received and paid.

00:03:04 Speaker 02: And when you're giving financial information, it's almost like a historical report because until that invoice is paid, I don't see it in our financials,

00:03:06 Speaker 02: and so it's difficult for me to report it back to you.

00:03:08 Speaker 02: So that said, the way that I generate this report every year is it is intended to forecast through to year end, so what our year end position would be.

00:03:31 Speaker 02: And the way I typically do that is I take our actual expenditures for the first four months, and then for the next eight months,

00:03:41 Speaker 02: I use last year's actuals as like a guideline or a forecast, and I'll augment that with our actual wage data and any known amendments.

00:03:42 Speaker 02: But that so right now I'm working with four months of real data and four months of actuals and eight months of estimates.

00:03:44 Speaker 02: So you can sort of put that caveat to anything that I say today, as far as how accurate it will be by year end.

00:03:46 Speaker 02: I will say that as of right now, there are no indications that we would have a significant surplus or deficit. with respect to budget,

00:03:52 Speaker 02: and that's even though we do have some very large swings in certain areas, we're always over or under budget across every department.

00:04:00 Speaker 02: No, but no department comes in right on budget.

00:04:01 Speaker 02: So where we have significant overages, we often have a significant surplus somewhere else.

00:04:08 Speaker 02: The biggest one this year and any year, our financials are heavily informed by the weather, and so certainly the winter control experience. has a big impact on our financials,

00:04:20 Speaker 02: and this year we're tracking to be about five hundred thousand dollars over budget with our winter control operations.

00:04:27 Speaker 02: It seems like a lot, however, it's less severe than it was last year, and we'll see how that evolves over the coming months.

00:04:34 Speaker 02: But I think winter's over, so really, what will decide where we end up at year end is what November and December look like with respect to winter this year.

00:04:43 Speaker 02: Another big financial impact is going to be the wet spring. that we've had, and I can't necessarily quantify that just yet because a lot of these expenses have not yet been posted.

00:04:53 Speaker 02: You can imagine there's a lot of additional maintenance that goes along with high runoff, and we've seen reports of damage done at Harrison Park trails that have been washed out,

00:05:04 Speaker 02: and additional remediation work that has to be done as a result of the wet spring.

00:05:08 Speaker 02: So we know those costs are coming; they just haven't necessarily materialized.

00:05:12 Speaker 02: And depending what happens with the rest of the summer?

00:05:15 Speaker 02: A wet season could impact revenue generation, for example, our campground bookings.

00:05:21 Speaker 02: It can impact the cost of hauling leachate from our landfill, as it's more wet, it generates more leachate, which means we have to ship more leachate out of there,

00:05:30 Speaker 02: as well as just those general cleanup costs that I talked about.

00:05:35 Speaker 02: We do know that we've got the fire award, and that's going to be paid out in May,

00:05:39 Speaker 02: and so we did have enough accrued to fully cover the. cost of the retro payments going back to two thousand and eighteen, however,

00:05:47 Speaker 02: there are still some current year impact to wages and benefits that aren't necessarily part of that retro.

00:05:52 Speaker 02: They relate to this year, and they're going to put pressure on this year's budget.

00:05:56 Speaker 02: Around one hundred thousand dollars is my expectation. offsetting those, we have gapping and organizational capacity generated from having temporary vacancies.

00:06:06 Speaker 02: When a position becomes vacant, either permanently or temporarily, there's often a period of time. before we fill it, and so that creates savings in our budget.

00:06:17 Speaker 02: The sort of offset of that is when you have fewer staff.

00:06:21 Speaker 02: We have those operating constraints that like make it difficult to get the work done.

00:06:26 Speaker 02: And so there's a pro.

00:06:28 Speaker 02: There's a pro and cons to having those types of savings, but certainly they will help help to offset the negative pressures that we're having from the snow and the fire arbitration.

00:06:40 Speaker 02: Some. revenue trends and positive variances.

00:06:42 Speaker 02: We are continuing to see increases in our facility booking revenues at the Bayshore and the Rec Center, as well as our sports fields in the summer.

00:06:51 Speaker 02: Transit riderships look good so far this year, and building permit and control revenues are expected to meet or exceed budget based on our current activity levels.

00:07:01 Speaker 02: And I can see that our planning application fees are up.

00:07:04 Speaker 02: Almost, we've achieved our current year budget and revenues already at this point.

00:07:07 Speaker 02: So that's a good indicator.

00:07:09 Speaker 02: So that's a good indication that that growth-related revenue is coming.

00:07:15 Speaker 02: As I say in most financial reports, although I sort of keep their bottom line in mind when coming up with my forecast, I haven't done an analysis of police services.

00:07:24 Speaker 02: And we hear from them through their police board minutes how police services is doing with respect to budget.

00:07:31 Speaker 02: But overall, I am not concerned that we are currently in a significant variance from from our budget. from from our budgeted operating costs this year, and I'm happy to take any questions.

00:07:43 Speaker 02: Otherwise, you can look forward to another update in around September or October. Thank you, Miss Allen.

00:07:52 Speaker 02: Now I'll open the floor for any questions.

00:07:55 Speaker 02: Looking to my right, go ahead. Through you, Chair. The staffing vacancies.

00:08:03 Speaker 02: I'm just wondering if the, especially the prolonged ones, if they're more attributed Longed ones, if they're more attributed to recruitment challenges or more so on the operational side of things. Thank you.

00:08:13 Speaker 02: That's a great question and probably one that I haven't really dug into, other than to identify that there are savings there.

00:08:21 Speaker 02: The why I haven't had that said.

00:08:24 Speaker 02: This committee does receive a report from Human Resources on our.

00:08:28 Speaker 02: We call them metrics, but they talk about recruitment, how long positions are vacant for, and and whether. we're seeing issues with finding candidates, or if it's more along the lines of temporary, short-term disability, those sorts of things.

00:08:41 Speaker 02: So I might have to say pause, but that report does come to this committee during the year. Any other questions? Go ahead, Councilmember.

00:08:52 Speaker 03: Thank you, through your chair.

00:08:53 Speaker 03: Just back to the winter control because it has been two winters in a row that have been heavy on the books.

00:09:00 Speaker 03: I know that you like to keep things like steady over time. because there will be fluctuations in both ways.

00:09:05 Speaker 03: But at what point do we look at maybe starting with a higher base budget for winter control?

00:09:12 Speaker 02: Through you, so we did increase it this year quite significantly, in fact.

00:09:15 Speaker 02: And what we do is we look at the last, the average of the last four or five years, and adjust that.

00:09:20 Speaker 02: It's really the materials and supplies.

00:09:22 Speaker 02: So the salt and sand is where our cost is.

00:09:25 Speaker 02: A little bit of it would be related to overtime, and a little bit would be related to the equipment fuel usage. and things like that,

00:09:32 Speaker 02: but salt and sand are our main driver for winter control costs, because if it's staff time, and they're working on winter control,

00:09:39 Speaker 02: it just means that they can't be working on something else unless it's overtime.

00:09:43 Speaker 02: So there's no incremental cost associated with that.

00:09:45 Speaker 02: So we do adjust the materials to reflect the last four or five years' average every year.

00:09:52 Speaker 02: And despite that, we did that this year; it's still over budget.

00:09:56 Speaker 02: But you'll recall what was now three years ago.

00:10:00 Speaker 02: We basically had no winter at all.

00:10:04 Speaker 02: There was very, very little snow.

00:10:06 Speaker 02: So, a cycle like that can really throw that average off. But that's the point.

00:10:10 Speaker 02: We don't want to react to those extremes.

00:10:12 Speaker 02: Two years in a row.

00:10:13 Speaker 02: Maybe by year three, we'll start to think, "Ooh, this might be a new norm."

00:10:16 Speaker 02: But we could very well have a very mild winter coming up. We'll see.

00:10:22 Speaker 02: Any other questions this side? None. Go ahead.

00:10:29 Speaker 02: Just building on to the the winter related thing, so how sensitive is the current the city's current position in terms of additional weather related pressures through you, like with respect to winter?

00:10:52 Speaker 02: Well, I anticipate like my forecast anticipates that November and December will look like November and December did last year.

00:10:58 Speaker 02: So as long as it's consistent with that sort of historical average, my forecast accounts for that.

00:11:04 Speaker 02: But if we have a massive winter storm, and we usually do have one big one in November or December, but let's just say we have three of them,

00:11:11 Speaker 02: that would probably push this forecast out even further.

00:11:43 Speaker 04: So the five hundred zero overage anticipates a similar winter in November and December to what we had last year. I have.

00:11:52 Speaker 04: Councillor Mutton, and then I'll come to Councillor Dodd. Through you, Chair.

00:11:54 Speaker 04: We know gas prices have gone up.

00:11:55 Speaker 02: Are you anticipating a significant impact, or have we been tracking the impact so far with the current situation that we're facing with elevated gas pricing? Through you, Madam Chair. It is actually interesting.

00:11:57 Speaker 02: So I haven't looked into it, but just on a total value, our actual gas costs have are either the same or less than they were last year.

00:12:08 Speaker 02: So while we may be paying more per liter, we're probably using our equipment a little bit less, and so it's staying relatively stable. Councilor Dodd. Thank you, Madam Chair.

00:12:19 Speaker 05: And maybe the director could just highlight on the tax stabilization reserve. that the city does have for some of those variances that have been brought up at committee.

00:12:31 Speaker 02: Yeah, so we do every year.

00:12:33 Speaker 02: If we have a surplus, we put those money aside into a tax stabilization reserve.

00:12:37 Speaker 02: It's not dedicated to any one particular service, but if we were to have a particularly harsh winter, we would be able to draw from that reserve.

00:12:45 Speaker 02: And so the goal is to have a stable budget, but know that sometimes we'll have surpluses and sometimes. we'll have deficits,

00:12:52 Speaker 02: and we use that reserve to offset it in order to avoid having volatile tax rate increases. Any other questions?

00:13:10 Speaker 03: I will just move the recommendation in the report to receive for information. Thank you, Councilor Mitterbecher.

00:13:16 Speaker 03: So the recommendation is in front. of us, so all in favour, and it is carried unanimously.

00:13:26 Speaker 01: At eight B, we have taxes and revenue.

00:13:30 Speaker 01: Eight B one, there is report CR twenty six zero four four from the deputy treasurer regarding tax billing and collection policy. Thank you, Madam Chair.

00:13:42 Speaker 06: So the tax billing and collection policy is reviewed every five years to align. with current legislation, best practices, support efficient tax administration, and continuous improvement in customer service,

00:13:54 Speaker 06: the revised policy provides a more comprehensive and detailed framework for billing and collection practices.

00:14:00 Speaker 06: And the updated policy improves transparency, consistency, and how tax billing collections are administered.

00:14:06 Speaker 06: Amending the tax policy bylaw to reference Policy AF zero two zero will enhance clarity, consistency in the administration of preauthorized tax payments.

00:14:16 Speaker 06: Authorized tax payments for final billing.

00:14:19 Speaker 06: The COVID nineteen pandemic and subsequent staffing changes delayed the formal review of the former policy, the current policy FS one nine.

00:14:28 Speaker 06: During this period, more flexible and informal collection practices were implemented to better support ratepayers.

00:14:35 Speaker 06: We kind of changed it up a bit through COVID, as everybody else did with everything else.

00:14:40 Speaker 06: So just getting back into reviewing and redoing. the policy, some key elements of this policy comprehensive property tax collection processes, including payment methods, preauthorized payment plans, application for payments, interest penalty administration,

00:14:58 Speaker 06: and measures necessary for the effective enforcement of tax collection.

00:15:02 Speaker 06: From a ratepayer perspective, the policy enhances transparency, accountability in the city's billing and collection practices.

00:15:09 Speaker 06: It establishes clear expectations for service delivery and improves access. to information.

00:15:18 Speaker 06: With the implementation of virtual city hall, right, ratepayers can now easily access tax and water account information, including account balances, previously previously issued bills, the ability to make payments by credit card, and more, basically from anywhere.

00:15:32 Speaker 06: Right, going onto virtual city hall.

00:15:34 Speaker 06: So this increased accessibility provides greater flexibility for ratepayers.

00:15:38 Speaker 06: It reduces the need for routine counter and telephone inquiries. the new tax billing policy and collection policy will take effect immediately upon approval and enact of enabling the bylaw.

00:15:52 Speaker 06: The staff recommendation is to adopt the tax billing policy that we've now introduced AF zero two zero.

00:15:58 Speaker 06: We need to also repeal tax collection policy FS one nine, and amend bylaw number twenty two thousand and twenty six dash zero four one, which is the tax. 41,

00:16:11 Speaker 06: which is the tax policy bylaw respecting the method of preauthorized tax payments for final billing, to reference our new policy. That's all I got. Thank you. Perfect.

00:16:20 Speaker 06: Thank you for the overview. And any questions? Go ahead, Councilor Martin. Through you, Chair.

00:16:30 Speaker 04: I'm wondering if you could walk us through around the tax arrears and how we are proceeding. There is no doubt.

00:16:39 Speaker 04: There is increased financial challenges for many people, businesses as well as homeowners around paying taxes, home ownership surviving,

00:16:55 Speaker 04: and and I'm wondering if you could just walk us through the process to give us an idea on what happens when people start to meet those financial challenges. Thank you. Certainly.

00:17:07 Speaker 02: So, our goal with any account is to reduce that balance over time, and there are certain milestones that we follow with respect to the tax registration process.

00:17:21 Speaker 02: Once an account becomes two years in arrears, three years in arrears, and ultimately may be registered for tax sale.

00:17:28 Speaker 02: However, I'm going to say between ninety and one hundred percent of the accounts that are eligible. at one point in time by working with those accounts and setting up payment plans.

00:17:42 Speaker 02: We're able to bring them back within the non-registration window without having to go to that full process of registering going to tax sale.

00:17:52 Speaker 02: Now it's not always the case, and in some cases we do get there.

00:17:57 Speaker 02: But compared to where we start each year with that process towards the number of properties that make it to that finish line, I would say. in many cases,

00:18:06 Speaker 02: it's 100% of the properties that we're able to work with.

00:18:10 Speaker 02: The one thing that we did do in this policy is create more formalized, I want to say, eligibility requirements for payment plans.

00:18:21 Speaker 02: When we would enact a payment plan, how many years it would cover, and those sorts of things, and what we do in the in the instance that there is a default in those payment. plans,

00:18:33 Speaker 02: so that we make sure that we're treating everybody the same, and we can defend our practices if someone is looking for treatment that's outside of what we would offer.

00:18:42 Speaker 02: It is now documented very explicitly in this policy, and we're able to follow it, and defend our decisions. Any other questions? Thank you.

00:18:57 Speaker 03: Just following up on that, I know that there was one. particular business or corporation that owned a bunch of properties that was in significant arrears.

00:19:07 Speaker 03: Have those properties been dealt with at this point, and the taxes paid?

00:19:12 Speaker 02: Because I can't discuss specific properties here, I'm not exactly sure I know which one you would be referring to.

00:19:20 Speaker 02: However, what generally happens when a property owner has multiple properties in arrears is, once they sell one property, they use those. proceeds to pay them down.

00:19:32 Speaker 02: And any time a property sells, the city has that priority lien status, so we get our tax dollars first before the the property owner gets any proceeds from their sale.

00:19:43 Speaker 02: And that's all handled by the lawyer through that statement of sale.

00:19:48 Speaker 02: I guess, so we always do collect those funds.

00:19:50 Speaker 02: So, as of right now, I'm not aware of any properties that were. like there's nothing that we've sort of held off on, so I should think that if you're referring to a large property,

00:20:05 Speaker 02: they probably did manage to sell one and then use those to pay down some of their other balances owing.

00:20:11 Speaker 02: If it's the property I'm thinking of.

00:20:14 Speaker 02: Okay, I didn't know if I was able to identify them, so I didn't.

00:20:17 Speaker 03: So, so in I know that in your other updates, like financial updates, you've talked about. more, more, more people having, you know, issues with tax arrears.

00:20:33 Speaker 03: Where do we sit right now, as far as like, is there a percentage of how many properties of our assessment base are in arrears?

00:20:40 Speaker 03: Do you have those sorts of numbers?

00:20:45 Speaker 02: The last time I would have checked, that would have been as of December thirty one st, and that will most definitely have changed.

00:20:51 Speaker 02: And I just sorry, I don't have that updated figure for you,

00:20:55 Speaker 02: but I. can say anecdotally that our property tax collection staff have been very proud of the work that's been done to bring those balances down,

00:21:06 Speaker 02: and the number of properties that have either gone onto payment plans or paid off their balances in full have improved.

00:21:11 Speaker 02: So I think we're seeing it trend in a good direction as of right now.

00:21:17 Speaker 03: And just one other thing, more of a housekeeping item.

00:21:21 Speaker 03: It was referenced in here on.

00:21:24 Speaker 03: Reference in here on preauthorized payment plans, it says that there was a ten tax policy where they could make ten, but it's obsolete.

00:21:33 Speaker 03: So I'm just wondering if it's obsolete.

00:21:35 Speaker 03: Why is it included in our new tax policy? That's a good question.

00:21:41 Speaker 03: It's possible that we still have legacy people on that plan, even though we're not continuing to offer it.

00:21:46 Speaker 03: But that would be my guess at this point. That's exactly it.

00:21:51 Speaker 03: So. we're not enrolling new people in ten tax, but previous people who were currently enrolled will still fall under this policy.

00:21:58 Speaker 03: So that's why it's mentioned in the in the report.

00:22:03 Speaker 03: Any other questions, Councilor Dodd? None. Yep. Go ahead, Member Greg. Through you, Madam Chair.

00:22:13 Speaker 03: Just a comment to start.

00:22:14 Speaker 07: I virtual City Hall was great.

00:22:16 Speaker 07: I would like to see more profiles.

00:22:19 Speaker 07: Obviously, one of my questions relating to that, and say preauthorization payments, because I could see that being an attractive option under financial duress.

00:22:30 Speaker 07: Are we doing anything to market those options? Through you, Madam Chair.

00:22:42 Speaker 06: So we, when we send out the final tax bill, we include a tax insert, and it includes information on signing up for preauthorized payments. so when we also advertise it on our Facebook page,

00:22:52 Speaker 06: we do try to get the word out for it.

00:22:54 Speaker 06: If anybody falls behind on their taxes, we also mention to them that there there is twelve tax.

00:22:58 Speaker 06: So once they get caught up, they can join that and then hopefully not fall behind in the future, as opposed to getting that one big bill four times a year,

00:23:06 Speaker 06: or however you don't have twelve smaller bills type of thing. Any other questions?

00:23:14 Speaker 06: Seeing none, could I please have a mover for the report?

00:23:19 Speaker 08: Member Fletcher, thank you for moving it.

00:23:25 Speaker 08: At eight C, we do not have any reports under clerks. My apologies.

00:23:35 Speaker 01: All those in favour, and it is carried unanimously.

00:23:39 Speaker 01: And I see Councillor Dodds' hand up as well.

00:23:45 Speaker 01: At eight C, we have.

00:23:46 Speaker 01: At 8C, we have no reports under the Clerks Division.

00:23:50 Speaker 01: 8D, no reports under Corporate and Facility Services.

00:23:54 Speaker 01: 8E, no reports under Fire.

00:23:57 Speaker 01: 8F, no reports under Human Resources.

00:24:01 Speaker 01: 8G, none under Information Technology.

00:24:04 Speaker 01: 8H, none under Parking and Bylaw.

00:24:07 Speaker 01: At number nine, we have matters postponed.

00:24:10 Speaker 01: There are no matters of postponement as of yet.

00:24:14 Speaker 01: At number ten. we have motions for which notice was previously given.

00:24:18 Speaker 01: There are no motions for which notice was previously given.

00:24:21 Speaker 01: Number eleven, there are no correspondence items being presented for information for this meeting.

00:24:27 Speaker 01: At number twelve, there is no discussion of additional business.

00:24:32 Speaker 01: At number thirteen, we have notices of motion.

00:24:34 Speaker 01: Do I have any notice of motion? Seeing none.

00:24:39 Speaker 01: At number fourteen, it is five forty-five, and the meeting is adjourned.

00:24:43 Speaker 01: Thank you so much. everyone, for your valuable time today.