'Extremely difficult' budget in Guelph as city faces 10% increase in 2024, mayor says

Guelph's mayor says he wants people to fully understand why the city's proposed 2024 budget could increase by more than 10 per cent compared to this year.

"This budget has been extremely difficult," Mayor Cam Guthrie said in a video posted to the social media website X, formerly Twitter, on Friday after the budget documents were released on the city's website.

Guthrie noted the budget has been broken up into three parts:

• Items that city council has direct oversight of and can make decisions about.
• Items that are "uncontrollable" including the budgets of boards and agencies where city council doesn't have direct oversight. This includes services like police, public health, library, social services and long-term care.
• Items that Guthrie dubbed "PILL" — provincial impacts local levy. These are items where the province is underfunding services or the province has downloaded services to the municipality.

"The provincial impacts local levy, that is three areas. The first one is housing legislation changes. The second is hospital funding for expansions and renovations and the third ... is around addressing homelessness," he said.

"Those are key areas that have been downloaded to municipalities from the province or underfunded. And so it's important that that part is captured separately and transparently for all of you to understand."

City councillors will meet Tuesday for a staff presentation on the budget, which is the city's first four-year budget plan. 

On Friday, the city also opened up a survey about the budget on the Have Your Say website. A special council meeting on Nov. 15 will be dedicated to hearing from people about the budget. The city also has plans to hold town hall meetings in each ward before the budget is finalized on Nov. 29.

Before the budget is passed, Guthrie encouraged people to read through the documents, then talk to their councillors or share thoughts with Guthrie himself.

"We need to hear from you," Guthrie said. "Affordability needs to be a focus and you should all know that it is of mine. At the same time, we also need to make sure that we create value for the city in what we collect from your taxes."