2021 Budget Consultation

I would not be in favor of service reduction for lower taxes.

The city should evaluate ALL services for value. Start by doing an audit of all projects - a value audit not just an accounting audit. Evaluate the core services and identify all scope creep and eliminate. Stop putting tax dollars into areas that are not the mandate of local government. Reinvest tax dollars into community events that enhance the lives of residents especially the growing demographic of young families. Follow the lead of the regional police departments integrated teams and look for efficiencies to be gained from partnerships with other municipalities .. for example: why does EVERY city need to design their own parks and playgrounds and community amenities. Shared services in particular specialties (coquitlam has a bylaw car with license plate reader, make a deal with them to share the technology cost)

Keep essential services such as garbage collection, snow removal, road repairs as needed. Look at services that were scaled back during the pandemic and see if they can remain scaled back for now. Adjust street lights so they aren’t on during daylight hours. Minimal city workers on Sundays. Our mini park can be cleaned any weekday and doesn’t need to be done weekly. It’s very small.

Cut back on staff wage hikes other than the cost of living. Look at services that were halted during the pandemic and see which ones we can scale back on.

Reasonable tax increases are expected to maintain core services. Raises taxes is acceptable if required for core services that keep within the responsibilities of municipal governance. Increased development should only be approved if it is revenue generating or revenue neutral.

I would like to see some stats of employment hours and actual need/use of members of the police and fire fighting service. This is one of the largest expenses to the city and I would like to see how theses expenses compare to other communities.

Fire services - how many fires do we have in PoMo nowadays?! Shift those $ to a rent bank or invest those $ in asset replacement plans to make sure core city services and buildings/infrastructure are maintained in future.

I would say all expenditures should be reviewed, not just city services, with the criteria that city budget increases should be limited to the annual rate of inflation.

We can skip art displays, decorations around town. Keep to the basics street salting, snow removal, garbage collection, road repairs. Note: having St. John’s traffic disrupted due to construction at same time as Murray street due to construction a bad idea?? Both roads should never have closures at the same time. Basic community programs only. Watch every penny spent ask is it necessary at this time

I was just reviewing a beautiful draft for Art in Public Spaces Master Plan. It looks like it took over 2 years to research and prepare but it seems a little excessive to me. I am a huge fan of public art, arts and cultural programs and events for our citizens but I cant imagine the time and cost that this document and its content must have taken. Rather than cut service levels to city programs or funds to our services, I would like to see city staff, admin and council look at better efficiencies and processes that include cutting back on unnecessary spending and scrutinizing existing expenses and costs.

Taxes should not be increased during a pandemic. I love the arts, but at what cost? Should not be an increase for taxpayers. Arts in our city are great but could be put on hold for a while.

The question itself is misdirected - the key to saving money is not making a few large cuts - it is a mindset change such that every dollar spent is scrutinized: "Watch the pennies and the dollars take care of themselves." Residents should not be the ones needing to provide the obvious idea of shifting to perennials and native species to reduce gardening costs, or more natural areas in parks and less grass cutting costs. The real question is how to incentivize staff to advocate for change that lowers costs (both capital and operating). Do their incentive plans and performance reviews include a heavy weighting on cost cutting? Is promotion based on reducing department size? Does eliminating under utilized programs bring reward or condemnation? Asking residents which programs should be cut is coming close to abdicating leadership (cloaked as "consultation") and leaves me questioning the competence of city management. Freeze the budget, optimize the programs, and figure it out - that is why you earn the big bucks.

Art in Public Spaces is one area where I would have no objections to lowering the level of service and capital expenditure.

The award winning Port Moody Fire Hall was a waste of money. Although being a firefighter is definitely an honoured, valuable and required profession, in Port Moody I don't see the need for such opulence. More often than fighting any fires that I know have occurred I see and hear of the firefighters attendance at birthday parties, pancake breakfasts or fender bender accidents. Is this a good use of taxpayers money? I think not.

Increasing taxes is not the thing to do, especially during a pandemic. The people of Port Moody are cutting costs to make ends meet and we expect our elected City Council to do the same. The arts grant can be eliminated, and high maintenance items such as flowers can be replaced with lower maintenance perennial plants.

Becareful in planning for higher density residential development to increase the residential property tax base. In doing so, yo can lose the character of Port Moody forever. Increasing the population density will require more services and
More roadway and transit development. Even though the revenue will increase, the expenditure will also increase.

To close the pool at Rocky Point park.

Public art and heritage, parks and recreation

a 4.5 increase during a pandemic is not the right solution. Those of us who have had a hard time having steady income during this time are not able to afford this, and the city should be doing better to manage this. If something like the mill closing (from 2018) had a significant impact on revenues that should have been anticipated and planned carefully.
I would suggest the community and recreational services as well as public art programs cut or reduced during the pandemic in order to avoid a significant tax increase like that. It's not affordable, and with all the development happening, one would expect the city revenues to be increasing from property tax and utility fees.

It is important to live within our means. During the pandemic and recession, Port Moody residents and businesses are cutting costs of nonessential items in their budgets. If Port Moody residents and businesses can make cuts to the household budgets, I expect our City to do the same. There are several nonessential capital projects being proposed that could be cut to cover the ~$2 million needed.

I don’t think that you should be looking at this. Our taxes are fair and if anything our taxes could be slightly increased to allow for the increase in services. How else to people expect offerings that are not fee-for-service to be paid for.