Regional Council approves 2.74 per cent tax increase

Waterloo Region – Regional Council approved the 2013 budget today.

The 2013 tax increase of 2.74 per cent strikes a balance between meeting increased demands for some services and finding savings in others.

The Region is a major provider of essential community services including helping families, children and seniors, ensuring the safety of our drinking water, getting people to the hospital in emergencies, ensuring the availability of affordable housing, providing public transit, garbage and recycling collection, building  and maintaining regional roads, planning for growth and supporting other vital community interests. 

“This has been a very a challenging budget,” said Tom Galloway, Regional Councillor and Chair of the Budget Committee. “Regional Council had to make some difficult choices to reduce spending in some areas in order to increase funds to meet critical needs in the community,” said Tom Galloway, Regional Councillor and Chair of the Budget Committee.

Despite lingering effects from the recession and reduced provincial and federal financial support, this year’s budget will help meet the increasing demand for social services, improve ambulance response times, fund priority infrastructure projects and continue to expand transit service. 

Programs that have been altered to accommodate community needs include: reduced funding for road repairs and maintenance; second or additional blue boxes will no longer be free; elimination of the shingle diversion program at the landfill site; and reduced ixpress bus frequency from every 10 minutes to 15 minutes during the summer.

“Regional staff worked hard to find efficiencies to reduce the tax rate increase,” said Mike Murray, Chief Administrative Officer. “We identified over $3 million in sustainable budget reductions in many areas including: more efficient scheduling of GRT drivers; reduced paper and printing costs; utility savings through energy efficiency; more efficient maintenance of facilities and vehicles; and improved recycling collection methods.

The increase of 1.01 per cent for Regional Services and 1.73 per cent for Police Services will impact the average household by $46.  Regional services comprise about 50 per cent of the residential property tax bill.

-30-

For more information, please contact:

Ken Seiling, Regional Chair, 519-575-4585

Tom Galloway, Budget Committee Chair 519-575-4404 Ext. 3401

Craig Dyer, Chief Financial Officer, 519-575-4545

The Region of Waterloo provides more than 60 per cent of municipal services to a growing population of 550,000 people. We are committed to creating an inclusive, thriving and sustainable community through innovative leadership and a range of services such as: public health, social services, planning, heritage, water supply, regional roads, waste management, ambulance service, rural libraries, public transit, community housing, emergency planning, Provincial Offences Courts and airport services.

 Click on the attachment below for Budget Backgrounder