Bruce County’s Corporate Services Committee has approved a 1.5 per cent Infrastructure Renewal Capital Levy in order to pay for some bridge projects without having to take on debt.
The committee was advised by staff at an October 14th meeting that about $13 million is needed to complete scheduled work on the Teeswater Bridge in Paisley and the Durham Street Bridge in Walkerton.
A 2016 Infrastructure Asset Management Plan recommended the County put $4.2 million annually into reserves for bridge work in order to avoid borrowing, but previous councils chose not to do that, because, according to a staff report and County Warden Janice Jackson, they didn’t want to further increase taxes.
At the October 14th meeting, the Committee was told that if the County continued to finance the bridge projects through debt, it would also be paying about $6 million in interest on it. Director of Corporate Services/ Treasurer Edward Henley told the committee in a presentation that if the County had started putting the recommended amount into reserves back in 2016, there would have been enough money to cover these upcoming projects.
The County is locked in to $830,000 in interest payments for the bridge in Chesley which has already been completed, but the committee asked staff to look at ways to avoid the remaining roughly $5.3 million in interest payments that would be linked to the planned Paisley and Walkerton bridge projects.
Staff presented a number of options at an October 28th meeting for an Infrastructure Renewal Capital Levy that varied from one to two per cent put into reserves annually. The Committee chose a 1.5 per cent annual levy increase to be put into the reserve, which, according to staff will pay for the projects without borrowing and without millions of dollars in interest payments. The 1.5 per cent that goes into the levy can be reviewed at budget time each year going forward.
Jackson told the committee meeting October 28th, “I’m always very, very sensitive to levy increases that are, four, five, six seven, eight per cent but I recognize the shortfall that we have in infrastructure and that should be at the top of the list.”
Meanwhile, the Corporate Services Committee has approved the 2022 budget in principle at a net increase of 4.80 per cent.
A release from the County explains, “Any adjustments due to variances in estimated new tax base growth to be assigned to transfers to reserves for transit and/or roads and bridges infrastructure.”
A bylaw on the draft 2022 budget will come before council at an upcoming meeting.