City council gets its first opportunity to review the proposed 2025 operating and capital budgets at Monday’s (Dec. 9) meeting.
Unless there are some major concessions or creative pencil sharpening, we will not be blessed next year with a budget sporting an increase of less than three per cent over this year.
Next year’s proposed levy is almost $74.5 million, up from shy of $69 million this year, an 8.13 per cent increase.
Factor in the estimated additional growth-related tax of 3.2 per cent and ratepayers are looking at a 4.93 per cent hike to the municipal tax levy next year.
City treasurer Dan Sheridan advises, “The 2025 operating budget has been a challenge, the high rate of inflation along with the need for additional resources due to growth and development have resulted in a proposed levy increase that is higher than in previous years.”
Tag Archives: Sally Martyn
The water is anything but calm when it comes to closure of the STEGH therapy pool
While the closure of the therapy pool at St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital has resulted in a wave of disappointed users, one Central Elgin resident is vowing to pressure hospital administrators into re-opening the pool relied on by Talbot Trail Physiotherapy clients and other area residents.
And we’re not talking about just anybody.
Sally Martyn is the former mayor of Central Elgin and STEGH board member along with a pool user.
Martyn held a meeting recently which dozens of concerned residents attended.
One of the outcomes of that meeting is to arrange a face-to-face session with hospital president and CEO Karen Davies.
“There were over 60 people who came (to the meeting),” advised Martyn.
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‘The year ahead represents, to me, a bridge to prosperity and a critical shift from past to present’ – Central Elgin Mayor Andrew Sloan
The St. Thomas & District Chamber of Commerce Lunch with the Mayors gathering is typically a non-controversial State of the Union-type event, more jovial than jousting.
That all changed with last year’s get-together which came on the heels of Bill-63, the St. Thomas Central Elgin Boundary Adjustment Act.
Central Elgin lost hundreds of acres of farmland to St. Thomas for that municipality to assemble 1,500 acres for what would become the Yarmouth Yards industrial park and ultimately the home of Volkswagen/PowerCo and the EV battery giga-plant.
Much of the question-and-answer time slot was put to good use by former Central Elgin Mayor Sally Martyn to hold St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston’s feet to the fire on her municipality’s lack of involvement in the land deal.
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St. Thomas designs action plan to pursue federal housing accelerator funding
As part of the city’s ambitious housing strategy, members of council on Monday (Aug. 14) will be asked to approve an application for funding under the CMHC Housing Accelerator Fund program.
This funding is available to municipalities across the country and is to create a greater supply of housing at an accelerated pace and enhance certainty in the approvals and building process, according to a report to council from Taylor Mooney, the city’s strategic initiatives manager.
Mooney notes such an application “has the potential to achieve sizable funds to support housing development in the City of St. Thomas. Base funding is estimated at $20,000/HAF incented unit, with opportunities for top-up funding and an affordable housing bonus.
To qualify for funding, the city has to prepare an action plan that identifies at least seven initiatives and the money provided is determined by estimating the number of permits issued for dwelling units resulting from the initiatives in the action plan before September 2026.
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St. Thomas/Central Elgin boundary adjustment: ‘Trust is a big part of working together. And in the last six months or so it has been eroded to some degree.’
The Mayor’s Luncheon on Wednesday at St. Anne’s Centre could have been more appropriately billed as A Mayor’s Grilling.
Featuring Southwold Mayor Grant Jones, Central Elgin Mayor Andrew Sloan and St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston, all attention was focused on the latter in what proved to be one of the most lively such functions in recent memory.
All because of recently adopted Bill 63, the St. Thomas-Central Elgin Boundary Adjustment Act, 2023.
The bill allows for the annexation of a portion of Central Elgin to the City of St. Thomas so that the latter can assemble a 1,500-acre parcel of land to attract a mega-industrial project to the city.
It has resulted in a bad taste in the mouths of the city’s neighbours and many unanswered questions.
And so when the floor was opened to questions from the audience on Wednesday, you had to know what direction the conversation would take.
First to the microphone was former Central Elgin Mayor Sally Martyn who needed no warm-up.
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‘There is a need to try and make sure our council represents a little bit more of the population that we see here’ – St. Thomas municipal council candidate Petrusia Hontar
She is taking a second run for a seat on city council in the fall municipal election.
And, Petrusia Hontar, project manager at St. Thomas-Elgin Local Immigration Partnership stresses she doesn’t have all the answers to all of the issues.
So, suggests Hontar, open up a dialogue with those individuals and groups who can provide insight.
“My answer is always going to be who can we bring to the table to be more informed on this decision?
“I think that is a really strong piece I am advocating for.”
Hontar finished 14th in a field of 19 candidates for councillor with 1,995 votes in 2018.
For Hontar, establishing a safe injection site was a priority in that campaign, along with more affordable housing in conjunction with a housing strategy.
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Body-worn cameras ‘are often effective when dealing with victims’ – Kentville Police Service
To follow up on last week’s item on the pilot project to be undertaken by the St. Thomas Police Service to evaluate body cameras, Chief Chris Herridge indicated the small police force in Kentville, Nova Scotia may prove to be a valuable resource during the evaluation.
We contacted Kentville police and exchanged emails with Deputy Chief Marty Smith who was most helpful with his responses to our questions.
As to how long the service has employed body cameras he noted, “The Kentville Police Service started with a pilot project in 2015 under retired Chief Mark Mander.
“In the beginning, we only had a few members outfitted with Body-Worn Cameras to see if they would be beneficial for our members and the public. In 2018 KPS developed a policy and every patrol member wears a BWC when working.”
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‘We’ve been able to bend the curve, but we’re not out of the woods yet’
They are not included in the daily tally issued by health units across the province – including Southwestern Public Health in this area – and yet these individuals have been victimized and their lives put on hold by the coronavirus.
And last week’s release of the framework to be adhered to by hospitals is a welcome ray of hope for those whose elective surgeries and procedures also fell victim to COVID-19.
Although it may still be several weeks before ramping up the numbers, St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital president and CEO Robert Biron says the preparatory work is underway.
Speaking with him yesterday (Friday), Biron advised the immediate task is to work with other hospitals in the region to create a joint plan so that all hospitals are working “in a lockstep approach.”
He adds, “There is a lot of complexity involved in that because there is a pandemic we have to account for.
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Parents and elected officials get their say on pending Elgin county school closings
The mayors from a pair of Elgin county municipalities along with Elgin-Middlesex-London MPP Jeff Yurek made their best pitch Tuesday (Nov. 19) at a special meeting of Thames Valley District School Board trustees.
But it was a member of the Wilson family of Malahide who hit the ball out of the park in a bid to rescind a TVDSB motion to close New Sarum and Springfield public schools.
The meeting was held to allow public input on a motion introduced last month by Elgin trustee Meagan Ruddock to reverse a decision to close the pair of schools next year.
After the school board completed an accommodation study of a dozen area schools two years ago, it was recommended four of them be closed: South Dorchester, Westminster Central, New Sarum and Springfield public schools.
A fifth, Sparta Public School, was to be repurposed as a French immersion school.
Fifteen delegations were presented during the two-hour meeting with Yurek suggesting the construction of a smaller school than originally proposed in Belmont could allow the two threatened schools to remain open.
