CORNWALL, Ontario – In the waning minutes of Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021, Cornwall City Council passed this year’s municipal budget, resulting in an average increase of 2.83 per cent or $72.78 per household.
Council reviewed the budget for three days, and a total of roughly 20 hours for one of the more challenging budgets the council has faced.
“This is the first Zoom budget meeting I’ve ever gone through and I hope I never go through another one,” said Councillor Glen Grant. “I think the residents will accept this budget, and if they don’t they can call us and we will explain to the best of our abilities.”
This was the first budget process to be conducted entirely virtually.
“This was a very difficult budget,” said Councillor Claude McIntosh. “I didn’t support most of Eric’s motions or Justin’s but I appreciate the work they did they clearly did their homework.”
Both councillors Eric Bergeron and Justin Towndale put forward a series of motions to defund or fund in different ways, a series of capital projects in the budget, most of which did not pass.
For the second year in a row, Councillor Bergeron voted against supporting the budget. At issue was how information on the operating budget was provided to Council.
“I fully support the Capital budget we just went through,” he said. “I won’t be voting for this budget. I won’t get into too many specifics. I was going to be difficult for me to promote this budget given the vote last week. I don’t think we’ve done enough work on the operating side of this budget.”
At the council meeting on Jan. 25, Bergeron had put forward a motion asking that the city’s operating budget be presented line-by-line in the same way as the capital budget.
Council narrowly rejected the motion, with those opposed stating that any information that council could want about that budget was readily available.
READ MORE: Council rejects changes to budget process
Councillor Bergeron was not alone in his opposition, councillors Dean Hollingsworth, Maurice Dupelle and Towndale joined him in voting against the budget.
“In this case, I feel that most of my motions were rejected in the most part. I have troubles with this budget in much in the way as councillors Bergeron and Hollingsworth,” said Towndale.
Councillor Dupelle opposed the average 2.83 per cent increase per household.
That being said, Council debated removing various items from the budget in excess of five hours and found a whopping 0.06 per cent in savings.
“I am going to support this budget, because it is a good budget,” said Councillor Todd Bennett. “When we saw what we were looking at last year, a starting point of 2.9 is not too bad. I think we can all go to our constituents tomorrow and say we did what we thought was best for you.”
“My first message is to residents of Cornwall. I’ve never been more proud to be a member of council or Mayor than this past year,” said Mayor Bernadette Clement, citing the sacrifices that residents have made during the pandemic. “To you, this is why we are here. This is why we do the work we do. Because of you. I’m very proud of the City of Cornwall employees as well who have stepped up during this year of the pandemic. It is remarkable in the sense that it is not a COVID budget, it is not a COVID budget, but it was conceived with COVID in mind. It has never been done before. We lose sight of that.”
The final vote on the budget saw councillors Claude McIntosh, Glen Grant, Todd Bennett, Syd Gardiner, Carilyne Hébert, Elaine MacDonald and Mayor Bernadette Clement voting in favour and councillors Eric Bergeron, Dean Hollingsworth, Justin Towndale and Maurice Dupelle voting against.
