If you own a $350,000 home in Sudbury, your taxes will increase by about $300 in 2024-2025

After days of debating, Sudbury's city council ratified its first multi-year operations and capital budgets on Tuesday.

The final numbers for tax property increases land at 5.9 per cent for 2024and 7.3per centfor 2025.

This roughly translates to a$300 annual increase for someone who owns a property valued at $350,000 in Greater Sudbury.

About 3.5 per centof that increase is dedicated solely to infrastructure, an investment Mayor Paul Lefebvre hails as "historic."

About 2.2 per cent of the 5.9 per cent increase can be attributed to increases in costs with the city's publicly funded agencies.

Breaking down the numbers

Council had asked the city's publicly funded agencies to limit their two-year budgets to a 9.4 per cent increase ahead of deliberations this year.

But that exercise turned out to be difficult for some. For example, the Greater Sudbury Police Service's (GSPS) budget was approved with an increase of approximately 15 per cent, meant to cover the costs of hiring 26 additional staff members by the end of 2025.

The GSPS budget accounts for 1.8 per cent of the total tax hike for 2024.

Council also gave more money toPublic Health Sudbury & Districts (PHSD). That increase represents about 0.2 per cent of the total tax levy increase.

Some councillors such as Pauline Fortin, Mike Parent and Natalie Labbee would havesent the budget back to PHSD to find savings, but their colleague Mark Signoretti assured them that "every rock had been turned" in an effort to present the lowest budget possible.

Coun. Bill Leduc asked council to spend $194,500 in bridge funding to Sudbury's supervised consumption site, also known as The Spot, to tide it over as it waits to hear back on its provincial and federal funding applications. That motion was defeated without much debate.

Coun. Fortin made several suggestions toslash the operations budget, including reviewing overtime costs at city hall and reducing the city's marketing and advertising budget.

She ended up withdrawing these after it became clear that staff and fellow council members could not assess the impact this would have on services. These specific spending items are expected to be discussed at greater length in the new year.

City approves several new hires

The city also approved the hiring of two additional emergency vehicle technicians, four full-time firefighters,two training officers for fire services, and one commander of paramedic operations.

It also greenlighteda plan to add 11,000 annual service hours to the city's transit services. Brendan Adair, director of Greater Sudbury's transit services, said the increase was necessary to meet demand. Since June, ridership on the city's public transit has been up 20 per cent from its 2019 levels.

To cover some of that increase, Coun. Signoretti pushed to increase transit fees by $0.25 per ride. Greater Sudbury's Public Transit Service had already tabled a $0.25 increase as part of the operations budget earlier this fall, representing the first increase to the service since 2019.

This means a one ride cash fare will now be $4 for those riding Sudbury's public transit. Those who hold concession passes will be exempted from the increase.

Council also voted in favour of hiring additional municipal law enforcement officers at the Cedar Street Transit Terminal. This year, there were 851 documented security incidents there, according to city staff.

Coun. Joscelyne Landry-Altmannsaid these additional hires were necessary.

"I don't think we have a choice. This is the Sudbury of today," she said.

Deliberating a budget in a context of rising costs

Once council approved budgets and business cases, the annual tax hike was hovering dangerously close to 7 per cent, and council started talking about ways to adjust the city's revenues and expenses.

Mayor Paul Lefebvre proposed to remove the proposed 0.5 per cent contribution to reserves and fellow council members were all on board.

That amount was meant to help manage the risk of price fluctuations in the next two years, but Lefebvre said the city could divert the operational and capital surpluses of 2023 to the reserves instead of making a contribution through a tax levy.

Lefebvre also recommended the city's assessment growth be set at 1.15 per cent in 2024 and 1.0 per cent in 2025, "to reflect the current economic climate."

Although the 2025 budget was adopted this year, council is expected to review it again in the fall of 2024 for any changes or updates.