It might be a new year but heated debates at the Timmins city council continue to be the norm.

This time, an addition of $1-million dollars to the Community Services budget for Aquatic Centre-related costs was the catalyst.

Ward 5 councillor Rick Dubeau questioned why the money is in there in the first place when council never voted on it.  He says he doesn’t get it.

“What really irks me is last year, $1.5-million was budgeted for engineer drawings and after (Ward 4) Councillor (Joe) Campbell pushed it forward, the Director of Public Works (Luc Duval) admitted this was for the building of a new pool,” he said, “And then we approved $750,000.  Now, we’re adding an extra million.”

Dubeau continued: “This wasn’t approved, this is already in our capital budget and it says in here, it’s coming off the tax levy and transferred to reserves. Tax levy of $1-million dollars, that’s 1.4 per cent tax increase on our taxpayers, which was never brought here.”

“This is ridiculous, this was omitted, this was not told to us.”

And then as Mayor Steve Black stepped in to clarify, the proverbial heat peered its head with an uttered obscenity.

“This is in the capital budget, this is bullsh*t,” Dubeau claimed before apologizing.

From there, things continued to proceed with raised voices and back and forth bickering between the two men that have been at odds for a long while.

Mayor Black played the “council collusion” card brought up in the past.

“Council has voted approximately nine times now, 7-2…yes, in the big collusion world, 7-2 on the Aquatic Centre,” he said.

Dubeau immediately jumped in to call out Black for being out of order.  Black apologized.

(CLICK HERE to watch the full 90 minute segment, under Item 2C.  You can also view the slideshow presentation in PDF format HERE.)

“We passed several resolutions on the Aquatic Centre,” the Mayor continued, “If you want to go back and review those votes and look at those votes.  (City staff is) preparing to continue to move forward with this project.”

“It wasn’t to carry over $750,000,” Dubeau countered, “What we voted on last year does not affect this year’s budget.  Each budget is voted on individually.”

City CAO Joe Torlone put the blame on himself for any confusion.

He says he directed the Treasurer to put in $750,000 for 2017 based on council’s vote to cut a proposed $1.5-million request in half for the 2016 budget process on January 26, 2016.

He adds the extra $250,000 is because there was a feeling a little extra money was needed.

Torlone also pointed out that Duval didn’t have a lot to do with the Aquatic Centre.  But in an email sent to local media Thursday morning, Dubeau says a webcast of the Jan. 13, 2016 meeting shows otherwise.

(If you want to take a look at the webcast for yourself, CLICK HERE.)

There was also push back from Councillor Campbell, who asked if the money should be allocated if it’s just going to sit in reserves.

He says the money could be better served elsewhere, calling into account where the budget sits and how big decisions will need to be made before the budget as a whole can be passed through without drawing the anger of local residents.

Through all this, it was noted by both Community and Development Services Director Mark Jensen—the man delivering the presentation—and Treasurer Jim Howie that this particular budget, like all the others isn’t set in stone and council can simply put a motion forward to vote the spending off the table.

Ward 4 Councillor Pat Bamford made the suggestion to keep it as is, and come back to it when all the departments made their presentations.  Council can then start cutting down the budget increase and see if there’s room for it.

Overall, Community Services is asking for a 6.1% increase from 2016, which equates to around $1.057-million dollars.

Nothing has been passed as of yet.

Filed under: Local News