City budget discussions were open for public delegations at City Hall on Monday January 9th when Council met for the first time in 2023. 

This meeting marked a continuation of Finance Committee meetings which began with an introduction of the draft budget to Council on December 5th. Council is not required to make any decisions on the budget until a scheduled meeting on January 30th with the series of meetings leading up to it providing community and stakeholder input.  

Five individual members of the community addressed Council in regards to the proposed 2023 budget which features a proposed 4% increase in property taxes alongside a request from the Peterborough police for an extra $1,239,000, or 4% and also includes spending earmarked for the controversial Morrow Park athletic complex.

Community member Robert Gibson addressed the proposed increase to the police budget in particular, noting that the force has failed to provide the public with statistics on use of force and race. Additionally, Gibson objected to the increase due to the role police play in the displacement of unhoused community members. Invoking University of Ottawa Professor Irvin Waller, he argued that endless increases to police budgets pose a threat to community safety overall.

Arts Sector Underfunded:

The concerns of the community regarding the arts and culture sector were also on display as Kate Story and Brad Brackenridge noted a pattern of underfunding to the arts which, in the case of Story, a Governor General Award finalist and prominent member of the City’s theatre and arts scene, has led to a significant reduction in her income over the past decade.

“The city’s lack of support ultimately costs us [artists] funding,” Story said before mentioning the fact that while the arts bring in millions of dollars to Peterborough through the City’s dependence on them as a selling feature to tourists, the artists themselves are often left behind and are barely scraping by. “Please stop assuming the local system is working and let us tell you what we need,” she stated. “We need increased financial support.” 

Similarly, Brackenridge, who is an actor and designer with close to thirty years of experience, made an argument for the social good of the arts, especially for the city’s youth, by providing them with a “sense of accomplishment and a sense of belonging” when all too often young creatives are made to feel like outsiders in a culture that struggles to recognize a career in the arts as worthwhile.

Specifically referencing the amount of labour and capital required for public art projects he noted the fact that the arts are often taken for granted as many people just assume it will be there without fully understanding what is involved in creating it. 

“You can’t separate the arts from the work you do or the work you see,” he said while gesturing around the Council Chambers. “Everything is created from art - everything in this room - everything everyone is wearing is put in practice due to the arts.”

Taxes, Climate Change, and Morrow Park:

Community member, Tricia Clarkson, objected to the proposed increase of 4% to the property tax owing to what she described as the City’s refusal to adequately invest in green initiatives which would have offset the costs of higher fuel prices. 

Clarkson was adamant about her dissatisfaction that her tax dollars were continually funding fossil fuel heavy projects and purchases which only lead to an increase in the City’s carbon footprint.

An example of one of these projects, Clarkson went on to explain, is the ongoing construction of the twin-pad arena at Morrow Park. This project, set to cost the city $25M in 2023 is an example of a “showpiece project” for the city in Clarkson’s words and which “won’t show well at all with tent encampments around them.”

Council meets again January 10th when it will hear from a number of community organisations, including Peterborough Police, Public Health, Downtown Business Association, among others, speak to their specific budget lines. You can look at the budget materials up for discussion on the City of Peterborough’s website.