Sudbury's budget committee approves 22 projects — including security for downtown

Sudbury city councillors firmed up plans Monday night to spend money on 22 different projects — all part of the 2020 budget deliberations.

After four budget sessions, the financial plan for next year in Greater Sudbury still hasn't been finalized, but it's close. The proposed tax increase now sits at 3.4 per cent.

Sudbury city councillors spent Monday night going through proposed business cases or special projects. 

More than two dozen projects were looked at and several were deferred until the 2021 budget, but in the end, 22 were approved.

Security for downtown 

One of the big ticket items was for increased security at downtown city properties, like the transit terminal, Tom Davies Square and even the main library branch. The entire price tag is $275,576.

Most of that ($225,576) will come from cannabis funding. That is provincial funding provided to municipalities to ease the transition to legalized cannabis.

The remaining $50,000 will funded by the Downtown Business Improvement Area (BIA).

The money will fund a seven-month pilot program that will see two bylaw enforcement officers assigned to the downtown core.

"We are setting a service level that two officers will be on duty from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 a.m., every day, seven days a week for the pilot (7 months). That equates to many more than two staff, although it might be a mix of 2 full-time and multiple part-time officers," Ward 4 city councillor Geoff McCausland, said in an email to CBC News.

"My hope is that will provide great results and if it doesn't in a year we're going to have some data, some understanding and we're going to be able to look back and decide if we want to continue," he said.

Brendan Adair, manager of security and bylaw, said police are often called to deal with bylaw issues like loitering or causing a disturbance in a municipal building, such as the library.

"We don't have the bodies capable of responding to a variety of situations in the downtown core, be it city services or be it city buildings," he said.

"The hope with this is to bridge that gap between now what is escalated to police."

Ward 9 city councillor Deb McIntosh was concerned this move could be seen as forceful instead of compassionate, but she was reassured by Adair.

"It is a level of enforcement, but we are not dealing with a heavy-handed approach. In the same breath we are ensuring the safety of our services, as well as the safety of those that use them and the staff there," he told council. 

What would bylaw officer do?

Councillor Fern Cormier had concerns about the price tag, and also didn't think designated bylaw officers could address the serious problems downtown.

"We've talked about people hanging out on sidewalks, well, people are allowed to stand on the sidewalk," the Ward 10 councillor said.

"I don't know what the [bylaw officer is] going to ...they're going to call the police, presumably if somebody is causing an issue in an entranceway to a business for example, and they tell the bylaw officer to go pound salt, what's the bylaw officer going to do? They're going to call police."

The project was approved, with Cormier casting the lone vote against. 

"By no means do I think that this is a perfect solution," McCausland said at the end of the debate.

"I think that it warrants a try, and seeing what the result is like and seeing how it impacts some of the challenges that we face."

Other 2020 projects approved

• increase for the Health Promotions Community Paramedicine Program ($361,174)
• emergency funding to the Human League Association ($35,000) 
• permanent operational funding for the Junction Creek Stewardship Committee ($40,000)
• money to hire temporary staff for the Climate Change Adaptation Plan ($34,200)
• annual support for Kivi Park to offset the annual property tax for the private portion of the park ($13,862)
• funding to hire a cyber security officer ($152,490)
• funding to implement Tactical Paramedic Services ($135,250)
• money to advance the Valley East Twin Pad Multipurpose Sports Complex ($227,000)
• money for the addition of a Small Business Specialist for the Regional Business Centre ($72,829)
• funding to increase the hours of operation and staffing for the Transit Kiosk ($32,893)
• funding to increase Syringe Recovery Services ($23,900)
• funding for community housing security camera revitalization ($100,000)
• money for the installation of lighting along Junction Creek Waterway Park ($91,000)

The city has a $614.9 million operating budget for 2020 — $21 million more than 2019, when the operating budget was $593 million.

Budget deliberations are expected to wrap up on Monday.