The City of Oshawa is part of a regional system of municipal government consisting of two tiers. The upper tier is the regional level and the lower tier is the local level. The Region of Durham operates as a broader scale of government, providing services including police, EMS, social services and transit. The responsibility and budget for police services is with the Region of Durham and in the Regional budget. For more information, visit:  http://www.durham.ca/finance.asp?nr=departments/finance/propertytaxbudget.htm

Thank you for your question. More information on the airport rehabilitation project and costs associated with the project can be found here: http://app.oshawa.ca/agendas/city_council/2016/2016_12_12/cm-16-39-2017-time-sensitive-capital-projects.pdf

Thank you for your input and questions.

We will consider all suggestions (including your suggestion of adding additional priorities for respondents to select) when developing future opportunities for budget feedback.

The responsibility of affordable housing and social services reside with the Region of Durham and are funded through the Regional portion of your property taxes (approximately 41% of your tax bill is collected on behalf of the Region).

For more information on the Regional budget, visit: http://www.durham.ca/finance.asp?nr=departments/finance/propertytaxbudget.htm

Municipalities are legislated by the Municipal Act - Ontario to prepare a balanced budget; money received must equal money spent. Increasing service levels would require the City to raise additional revenue to pay for the enhancement or decrease other City services as an offset to the increase in order to maintain a balanced budget.

To answer your question on user fees, a user fee represents a sum of money paid by an individual who chooses to access a service or facility provided by the City. Municipal services are funded by various revenue sources including property taxes, fees for services (i.e. building permits, licences) and user fees. User fees include recreation programs, fitness memberships, facility rentals, parking fees and pet adoption fees.

The budget is our key planning document and provides an official statement about how much the City plans to spend during a set period of time and how it will pay for expenses.

The operating budget is a financing plan for the City’s day-to-day operations such as snow removal, road maintenance and fire services. The capital budget is a financing plan for construction of new or rehabilitation of existing assets such as buildings, roads and parks.

The operating budget is prepared using a base budget approach that considers cost pressures on programs and services currently being delivered. Some of the factors applied to the base budget are: anticipated salary savings; inflationary increases for commodities; contractual wage increases; and funding external agencies that provide various recreation and cultural services to residents (Oshawa Senior Citizens Centres, Oshawa Public Libraries, Parkwood Foundation, Oshawa Historical Society and The Robert McLaughlin Gallery).

In addition, municipal services are funded by various revenue sources including property taxes, fees for services (i.e. building permits, licenses) and user fees (i.e. recreation programs), while capital projects are funded by property taxes, reserve and reserve funds, federal and provincial grants, debt and development charges.

The City collects property taxes on behalf of the City, Region and School Boards. For every dollar you pay in taxes, approximately 41 cents goes to the Region and 18 cents to local school boards.

The City keeps only 41 cents from every tax dollar collected, which is managed by a budget that aims to balance competing priorities and challenges while providing quality services.

The City portion of your tax dollars (approx. 40% of your total tax bill) goes to: services (e.g. snow removal, road maintenance and fire services); provides for continued maintenance and support of existing services and infrastructure (including Recreation facilities and parks); invests in key strategic priorities and infrastructure for the City’s future; and contributes funding to agencies that provide various recreation and cultural services to our residents (including libraries and seniors centres).

The City is also faced with a number of pressures that are strenuous on resources, including rising hydro rates, debt servicing, new program and service delivery costs, increasing labour costs, inflationary costs, environmental impact costs (e.g. winter storms) and costs and changes in legislation.

The proposed 2017 City budget proposes a 1.5% increase to the operating budget over 2016 plus a 1.0% dedicated infrastructure levy. The total increase of 2.5% is equivalent to $55.52 on a property assessed at $350,000 (the average house assessment value in Oshawa) on the City portion of taxes.

Thank you for your question on how debt is used in the City’s annual budget. Debt is an instrument used by many businesses and governments to provide financing for various capital initiatives. The City has both external and internal debt which is managed within prescribed limits established by the Province and City Council.

The repayment of debt is a component of the City’s annual operating budget. Debt maturity dates vary depending on date of issue and term of financing.  The City employs a mix of short and long term financing vehicles.

Through its continuous improvement framework, the City applies LEAN principles to process review projects which may identify opportunities to improve, potentially creating capacity to streamline various aspects of the operations.

The City conducts extensive analysis of services provided and service levels including benchmarking, statistical analysis, value for money evaluations and community input received through various engagement forums. This analysis and community impacts are fundamental drivers in modification decisions related to City services.

The original amount owing on the Tribute Communities Centre at the time of building completion was $45 million. To date, the amount of principal debt paid off is $13.628 million. Yes, the 2.5% increase includes debt repayment costs for the Tribute Communities Centre.

The City recently endorsed an asset management plan, which will, over time, establish the parameters for a new capital prioritization model that will take into account risk factors as appropriate. In addition, the City has in place an Integrated Transportation Master Plan, Active Transportation Master Plan and an Active Transportation Advisory Committee.

The original cost of the Tribute Communities Centre was $45 million.

The capital budget and 9-year forecast focus on investing in and renewing the City’s core infrastructure and providing the infrastructure necessary to respond to our growing city. City staff prioritize capital projects using the Council-approved approved Interim Capital Project and Major Initiatives Prioritization Model. Based on the prioritized list, affordable projects are proposed. On December 12, 2016, Oshawa Council approved a number of time-sensitive capital projects for 2017. The projects were identified by City staff as having potential cost savings to the City if approved in December as this would allow for tendering in early January 2017 by City staff. One of the projects is the extension of the runway at the Oshawa Municipal Airport.

The airport business plan, approved by Council in 2015, identified the need to rehabilitate runway 12/30 and that the runway lighting and associated works are nearing the end their lifecycle. The runway continues to degrade which increases the risk of an aviation hazard.

The runway rehabilitation project will be funded through the use of land sale proceeds, contributions from the airport reserve and an interfund note. Debt servicing costs will be repaid over 10 years through the Oshawa Executive Airport’s operating budget commencing in 2018.

The principal amount owing for the Tribute Communities Centre is $31.371 million at December 31, 2016.

Thank you for your question.

The City has established a continuous improvement framework that is finding efficiencies at the City of Oshawa. The City uses best practices, benchmarking and performance measurement to inform decisions, and continues to review processes, take a fresh look at and streamline operations, manage risks, and train our employees within a culture of continuous improvement. For example, Service Oshawa, the City’s consolidated customer service centre, provides a single point of contact for many City services. Other recent examples of successful cost reduction initiatives include: a maintenance management system improvement of 90% in time spent processing work orders, and an inventory management improved fill rate of greater than 50%.

Thanks for posting a question.

Property taxes are not calculated on housing prices but rather assessment values as determined by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC).

Property taxes are a function of the tax rates that vary based on the budgetary requirements of the municipality.

There are a number of items to consider when looking at your tax rate as a property owner in the City of Oshawa.

Oshawa offers some of the most affordable housing in the GTA and delivers quality services (e.g. snow removal, fire services, waste collection) and has numerous amenities (e.g. 130+ parks, an extensive trail system, 7 community centres). In addition, we invest in key infrastructure needed for the future of the city, and contribute funding to agencies that provide various recreation and cultural services to our residents (including the libraries and seniors centres).

We are faced with numerous financial pressures, as are many other municipalities. Soaring hydro rates, primarily as a result of global adjustment fees added to the market price of electricity, are creating a significant drain on City resources. Other pressures the City faces include: debt servicing, new program and service delivery costs, increasing labour costs, inflationary costs, environmental impact costs (e.g. winter storms), infrastructure renewal and replacement, and costs and changes in legislation.

The City collects taxes on behalf of the Region of Durham and the school boards. As such, only 41% of your taxes go to the City of Oshawa to fund services, capital investments and agencies.

Thank you for submitting a question.

The City has contracted with KPMG, one of the “big-five” audit firms, to perform the City’s internal audit function.

The internal audit function, which can be performed by hired staff or by a professional firm through a competitive bid process, performs detailed procedural and control audits, as well as value for money and operating review type audits. The audit is focused strictly on procedures, controls, efficiency and value.

There are a number of advantages in performing audits using external services and a number of disadvantages of hiring one internal Auditor to perform the work.  These are outlined in staff report FIN-14-92. For more information, please view the Report. 

Through 2015 and 2016, KPMG completed four audits with four additional audits underway.  A number of KPMG’s recommendations have been implemented or are in-progress.

In addition to the audit work, KMPG provided workshops to City staff related to Cyber security risks and self-audit education.

Thank you for your question. There are a number of factors at hand. Oshawa offers some of the most affordable housing in the GTA and delivers quality services (e.g. snow removal, fire services, waste collection) and has numerous amenities (e.g. 130+ parks, an extensive trail system, 7 community centres). In addition, we invest in key infrastructure needed for the future of the city, and contribute funding to agencies that provide various recreation and cultural services to our residents (including the libraries and seniors centres).

Oshawa continues to grow and while having more residents and businesses partially covers the cost of services, at the same time, this growth puts added pressure on service delivery, facilities and infrastructure.

The City and other municipalities are faced with numerous financial pressures. Soaring hydro rates, primarily as a result of global adjustment fees added to the market price of electricity, are creating a significant drain on the City resources. Other pressures for the City include: debt servicing, new program and service delivery costs, increasing labour costs, inflationary costs, environmental impact costs (e.g. winter storms), infrastructure renewal and replacement, and costs and changes in legislation. Revenue sources for the City are limited.

The City collects taxes on behalf of the Region of Durham and the school boards. As such, only 41% of your taxes go to the City of Oshawa to fund services, capital investments and agencies.

Thank you for your question on whether the City budget includes funding for development at the Oshawa waterfront.

We are happy to provide you with an update. In the budget approved earlier this year, Council approved funding to convert the City owned lands around the harbor into a passive recreational area. City staff are working diligently to advance the City’s obligations under the Harbour Settlement Agreement with the Port Authority and Federal Government to provide a passive recreational area on City Lands adjacent to the Harbour. This includes remediating the lands at the Harbour to a standard that will allow public access to the lands. The City is also in the process of seeing if there is any interest from the private sector to develop and operate a marina at the harbour. Furthermore, the City has pre-zoned the lands on the north side of Harbour Road for multi-residential development.

The road work being undertaken in north Oshawa on Simcoe, Harmony and Ritson is being undertaken by the Region of Durham since these roads fall under their jurisdiction. You may want to contact them about your comments. 

For more information on Regional road projects, visit www.durham.ca/works.

We thank you and the community for taking part in the initial survey for the 2017 City budget. Approximately 1,700 community members participated from October 11 to November 14. The community feedback gathered will be shared with Council when City staff present the proposed budget to Council in December. 

Thank you for your feedback. We will pass along your comments about Lakeview Park and the cost of renting meeting room facilities to the appropriate staff in Community Services.

The City of Oshawa and Region of Durham are investing in road works to support the Highway 407 extension. Construction at Taunton and Harmony falls under the Region. Additionally, construction at Ritson Road South of Winchester, although not an outlet for Hwy 407, also is managed by the Region. For more information on Regional road projects and road construction updates, please visit, www.durham.ca/works.

GO Transit services is an important issue for all of Durham Region, both public and private sectors, as well as for partners to the east. A partnership has been developed to advocate for the Province to fund the extension of the lakeshore east GO train service through Central Oshawa to Bowmanville –the plan is for two new stations in Oshawa and two in Clarington. For more information, visit www.oshawa.ca/goeastdurham.

We will also pass along your feedback regarding Oshawa’s car-themed events. We would like to share that Oshawa has approx. 40 annual community events, including Fiesta Week, the award-winning Peony Festival, Canada Day, Concerts in the Park, Culture Squared, Culture Days, Christmas Tree Lighting and Oshawa Celebrates. We hope you join us for some of these amazing events – for more information on upcoming events, please visit www.oshawa.ca/events. Oshawa’s cultural events are supported by the Culture Counts: Oshawa’s Arts, Culture and Heritage Plan – please take a minute to learn more here http://www.oshawa.ca/things-to-do/arts-culture-and-heritage-plan.asp and to subscribe to receive our Culture Counts e-newsletter and latest Cultural news here: www.oshawa.ca/subscribe.

Thank you for your completing our Budget survey and for your questions.

In response to your question on waste subcontracting - The City’s continued growth within our waste collection has not been even across all days of the week and within weeks based on garbage days. Due to this, utilization of contractors to supplement staff on those specific days until the growth levels off across all days is the most fiscally responsible method to our taxpayers. Contractors are also utilized during exceptional circumstances or short seasonal requirements.

In June 2016, Durham College and UOIT approved a master plan to guide the development of its shared campus over the next decades. They anticipate that the current enrollment of about 20,000 students will increase by an additional 18,000 students over this period. The timing of new buildings is completely up to the schools. The implementation of their master plan is being done based on their assessment of their growth and program needs. 

Thank you for your feedback. GM continues to be an important business in the City but its relative impact on the City’s economy has become less over the years. The City’s economy has become more diverse with the Health Services and Educations sectors now larger than the Manufacturing sector.

A diverse economy creates more stability and allows the City to better adapt to future economic opportunities and issues. Going forward, the City is implementing its Sector Analysis and Cluster Development Strategy that reflects the community's evolving economic landscape and sets a new direction for economic development initiatives. It focuses on 5 key sectors that are emerging and positioned with high potential for continued growth.  They include: Advanced Manufacturing; Energy Generation; Health and Biosciences; Multimodal Transportation and Logistics; and Information Technologies.

For more information on the Sector Analysis and Cluster Development Strategy, visit: https://www.oshawa.ca/business-and-investment/reports-and-publications.asp.

Thank you for your question.

The Downtown BIA members set its annual budget and the resulting levy is collected on its behalf by the City. The BIA uses the funds to market the downtown and other projects.

The levy is unrelated to the City’s provision of services in the core.

Currently, the City is undertaking a study of servicing in the core that may result in some changes in the future. The results of the study will be shared and discussed with the BIA and its members.

Thank you for your question regarding the staffing of fire station 6. The City invested significant time and resources conducting a comprehensive examination of all aspects of the Fire Service when developing the 2013 Fire Master Plan. A truck and crew were relocated to station 6 from an existing fire station based on first response and depth of response capability in our community as recommended in the Master Fire Plan. Fire Services continually monitors response capabilities throughout our community and is not recommending additional staffing complement at this time for fire station 6.

Thank you for commenting. 

To provide some more information, the Cluster Strategy’s implementation forms part of the Economic Development Branch’s annual work plan. 

Staff have been focusing on working with companies within the identified sectors to facilitate their individual growth objectives, connect them with government assistance programs where warranted, liaising with the local educational institutions to better align their programs with industry needs and fielding investment inquires. Intelligence gained from ongoing involvement with cluster companies and stakeholders will be used to refine the program as it goes forward. 

Department business plans are posted on our website:  http://www.oshawa.ca/city-hall/strategic-planning.asp

Thank you for your input and comment. 

The City has an economic diversity strategy that is in the process of being implemented. The Sector Analysis and Cluster Development Strategy is Council-approved and sets a new direction for economic development initiatives. The Strategy identifies 5 key sectors that are positioned with high potential for growth. The sectors include: Health Services/Biosciences, Advanced Manufacturing, Energy, Multimodal Transportation and Logistics; and Information Technologies. 

The Strategy focuses on building the density of businesses, talent, and inter-connected support structures needed to support these more sustainable sources of growth. For more information, and to read the Strategy, visit our Business and Investment webpage

Thank you for your input Oshawa’s waterfront and we are happy to provide you with an update. City staff are working diligently to advance the City’s obligations under the Harbour Settlement Agreement. This includes remediating the lands at the Harbour to a standard that will allow public access to the lands. In 2016, the City issued a Request For Expressions of Interest (RFEOI) to develop a marina at the harbour and continue to advance this objective. City staff continue to review the submissions to the RFEOI and will report back to Council once the review is complete. In addition, the City has pre-zoned the lands on the north side of Harbour Road for residential development. 

Thank you for taking the time to provide your feedback. The solar-plus-storage systems project was a partnership between the Oshawa PUC and Tabuchi Electric (read the media release announcement); as such, the project was not funding through the City’s operating or capital budgets. For an update on the OPUC/Tabuchi project, please contact OPUC at 905-723-4623. 

Thank you for your question. We are not aware of other online forums on the City budget. We do hope you join us on January 5 for the live Q&A (and yes, it is organized by the City of Oshawa).

Thank you for completing our budget survey and for your input.

The management of growth can be tied to “economic development and investment” in the survey.

The responsibility of transit is with the Region of Durham and in the Regional budget. For more information, visit the Durham Region's webpage on property tax budgets. 

Thank you for taking time to provide your input.

The Oshawa Strategic Plan identifies Environmental Responsibility as one of five goals that guide decisions made by the City in accordance with the guiding principles of sustainability and financial stewardship. To read more, visit http://www.oshawa.ca/city-hall/strategic-planning.asp.

We are gathering all suggestions and will consider suggestions when developing future opportunities for budget feedback.

Thank you for your feedback and question. 

The City’s Sector Analysis and Cluster Development Strategy reflects the community's evolving economic landscape and sets a new direction for economic development initiatives focusing on 5 key sectors that are emerging and positioned with high potential for continued growth. In addition to Advanced Manufacturing, the other sectors are Energy Generation; Health and Biosciences; Multimodal Transportation and Logistics; and Information Technologies. 

Learn more and read the Development Strategy here: https://www.oshawa.ca/business-and-investment/reports-and-publications.asp