What did City Council do?

Urban Forestry Management and Boulevard Gardens

Council recently approved the development of an Urban Forestry Management review.  This review will help the City with targets and directions for the next 10 years with respect to our urban tree canopy, private tree rules, forested areas and more.  We currently have a target of 15% urban tree canopy for the city, with a goal of no more than 10% of any individual tree type.  I look forward to the public engagement process for this important strategic document.  Additionally the City approved allowing residents to create gardens in the boulevard area in front of their property.  While the main function for city owned boulevard is for housing underground infrastructure and enabling appropriate sightlines for vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians, I am pleased to see us permit this practice with appropriate rules and guidelines.  Boulevard gardens can not only help with the beautification of our city, but can also assist with storm water management and improve our status as a Bee City for those who plant pollinators.

Committee Night

In November, Council hosted our first in-person committee night since the start of the pandemic.  In addition to hearing from the committees that I act as the Council Liaison for (Sustainability Advisory, Active Transportation and Waterloo Park), this was a great opportunity to hear from the other committees as well.  The Town & Gown, Economic Development, Age Friendly and Grand River Accessibility committees provided some great updates on their work.  Some of the projects/topics these committees are working on/pushing Council on include; student accommodations, micro-mobility, green development standards, sustainability data and measurement, affordable housing initiatives, sidewalk snow clearing, Waterloo Park master planning and much more.  If you’ve ever been interested in volunteering with the city, looked for an opportunity to learn more about initiatives and want to lend your expertise to help guide these topics, I would highly recommend that you consider joining one of these committees the next time the city is recruiting for new membership.

Fire Master Plan

Council approved in principal the findings and direction for the City of Waterloo’s Fire Master Plan.  This document is aligned with the 2019 Fire Underwriters Survey.  The key takeaways of which included the need to expand our fire service to meet the needs of a growing population.  While there was some initial discussion related to building a new fire station on the west end, it was ultimately concluded that Station 2 (Columbia/Gatestone) is the best location to service the growing needs of our community on the west end.  As a result the Fire Master Plan recommends expanding Station 2 and increasing staffing/equipment in this location.  The financial implications of expanding the fire service are related to the $12M+ capital projects to implement the findings of the master plan, alongside 27 new full time employees (Firefighters, mechanics, business manager and more).  Rather than increase property taxes all at once, Council has endorsed a phased-in approach of 1.15%, 1.45%, 1.45% and 1.00% over the next four-years (totaling just over $5M per year) related to increased fire service costs.  Other key recommendations from the fire master plan include increasing the amount of fire education amongst residents, rebuilding Station 1 (Weber/University) to add vehicle maintenance and repair, increasing performance measurement, outcomes and efficiencies related to traditional fire response, modifying the administration structure of the service and more.  Ensuring the safety of our community is a key role as Council and ensuring that our fire service is properly funded and meeting the growing needs of our city is key in ensuring the safety of not only community members, but those individuals who risk their lives to ensure the safety of our community as well.

Reserve Funds

The annual reserve fund update came to Council for review this month.  This update provides Council with insight into the health of our various reserve funds that help us fund capital projects, insulate the city from budget overruns, fund important strategic initiatives and ensure the healthy financial position of a variety of departments throughout the city.  Council also approved a host of policy changes to reserve funds, including utilizing any surpluses to help fund the Climate Action Reserve Fund.  Additionally, due to prudent financial planning and through the implementation of numerous policies over the years, the RIM Park fund is finally in a position where it will be in a surplus starting in 2031.  As a result we are able to adjust some policies related to ensuring that the RIM Park reserve is not overfunded and diverting those funds into other capital initiatives.

Asset Management Report Cards

In anticipation of our budget release Council received our annual asset management report cards.  Asset management planning is the process by which the City understands the current and projected condition of all of the city’s assets and utilizes our award winning decision support system to prioritize projects given limited funds.  The City of Waterloo owns $4 Billion (with a ‘B’) in assets and we currently spend just over $31 Million per year to maintain them.  As a result of new assets being added, strengthened awareness and costing of existing assets and mostly due to significant inflation and price escalation the funding gap to maintain our assets has grown.  The total annual infrastructure funding gap is just over $54 Million.  Currently 34% of our assets funded through property taxes are in poor or very poor condition, while 25% of our enterprise funded assets are in the same boat.  Should we continue to fund infrastructure at our current rates that number will grow to 77% of our assets being in poor or very poor condition in 25 years.  A 1% annual infrastructure levee will help reduce that number to 58% in 25 years, which may be more acceptable to residents, but still leaves us well short of the condition assets are in today.  This is clearly not a task that can be achieved overnight and is the result of many years of municipalities underfunding capital investments, significant downloading of responsibilities from the Federal and Provincial government and more.  Ultimately municipalities need a new funding model with the Province and the Federal government as we know that fully accounting for this gap through property taxes is not feasible.  That said, it is incumbent on us to ensure that we are not leaving the next generation of residents of the city with crumbling infrastructure and a prudent approach to continuing to invest in our city is appropriate.  Here are a few of the highlights from some asset classes to give you an idea of what assets the city owns and how we are investing in them:

Transportation – Roads, Sidewalks and Trails – Asset Value $1.1B; Annual Funding $7M; Infrastructure Gap $23M

Facilities – RIM Park, Albert McCormick, Moses Springer, etc – Asset Value $542M; Annual Funding $5.2M; Infrastructure Gap $11.5M

Parks – Waterloo Park and 136 Neighbourhood Parks – Asset Value $69M; Annual Funding $1.8M; Infrastructure Gap $2.4M

Storm Water – 361km of Pipes, 59 Ponds, 70km of Channels – Asset Value $761M; Annual Funding $4.3M; Infrastructure Gap $12.9M

Fleet and Shop Equipment – Vehicles, Ice Resurfacing Machines, Plows, etc – Asset Value $28M; Annual Funding $2.8M; Infrastructure Gap $200k

Budget Release

The preliminary staff proposed budget was released this month.  The City of Waterloo conducts a three-year budget for the remainder of our Council term, unlike our comparator municipalities who budget annually.  The current proposed budget includes $364M in capital projects through 2026 as well as $556M in capital projects forecasted from 2027 to 2033.  It also includes $1.6M in annual efficiencies that staff have implemented, which have ended up saving the equivalent of a 1.75% annual tax increase.  There is no doubt that this is a challenging environment for residents and is equally a challenging environment for the municipality to operate under.  Inflation, represented by the proxy of CPI is at a 12 month average of 4.28% as of September, while the Construction Price Index (which impacts the funding of all of our capital assets) has been skyrocketing, represented at 7.66% as of June.  Council has committed to phased-in funding related to service level improvements for fire (as discussed above), digital services and sidewalk snow clearing.  Council also has external pressures related to Provincial legislation that necessitate significant investment in planning staff to meet the new deadlines imposed related to development applications.  On top of all of that we are facing the above referenced infrastructure deficit that also needs to be addressed.  The staff proposed budget for the next three years is as follows:

2024 – Base Increase (BI) 3.82%, Service Level Increase (SL) 2.64%, Infrastructure Levee (IL) 1% = Total 7.46% = $110 average increase

2025 – BI 3.86%, SL 2.44%, IL 1% = Total 7.30% = $116 average increase

2026 – BI 3.55%, SL 1.89%, IL 1% = Total 6.44% = $110 average increase

Staff have worked hard to keep our initial base budget below the 4.28% CPI, while investing in community initiatives for the aforementioned service level increases such as fire (improving community safety and potentially positively impact residential fire insurance rates), improved winter sidewalk maintenance (a key community ask during 2023 budget deliberations) and planning staff (to meet Provincial requirements and help address the affordability and availability of housing in our community).  We are also aiming to tackle climate change through transformative investment in our facilities and continuing to tackle our infrastructure deficit.

I am always open to connecting with residents who are interested in learning more about the budget process.  Feel free to reach out if you’d like to schedule a change to meet and chat.  If you would like further reading, all of the budget documentation can be found here – https://www.engagewr.ca/waterloo-budget-2024-2026.  If you would like to provide your feedback, please consider completing the budget feedback survey – https://www.engagewr.ca/waterloo-budget-2024-2026/surveys/city-of-waterloo-2024-2026-budget-survey.  Alternatively you could attend an in person public meeting on the budget that is taking place on January 9th from 6:30pm – 8:30pm at the Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex; register for that event here – https://forms.waterloo.ca/Budget/Budget-Information-Session.  The budget process takes place over the coming couple of months, with a host of business planning and budget meetings, culminating it final approval/review on February 12^th.

Other Council Business

Council approved updates to our 2024 fees; including utility rates, building, cemetery, rental housing and business licensing.  We also approved a report and funding request related to city storage expansion.  Zoning applications were approved for new developments at the old Kraus Carpets site, in the University district at Hickory and Hemlock, an interesting adaptive reuse of the commercial building at 180 King Street South into residential and we also modified zoning to allow residents to have low risk food kitchens for home businesses.  A motion from the Mayor to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing was also approved, committing to the original Regional Official Plan and encouraging our municipal peers to hold firm on the Countryside Line.  If anyone has further questions on these or any of the above topics, please don’t hesitate to reach out for further discussion.

Outside the Council Chambers

Outside of the Council chambers I was privileged to attend a host of holiday traditions including the Christmas tree lighting hosted by the Laurelwood Neighbourhood Association at the fire station as well as the tree and Menorah lightings at Waterloo Town Square.  Regardless of any celebrations you and your family may participate in, I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and I wish everyone a joyous and happy new year, looking forward to 2024!