ACW passes 2024 budget despite confusion over Dungannon Road project inclusion
BY SCOTT STEPHENSON
Despite an apparent moment of collective amnesia amongst council members regarding the status of proposed work on Dungannon Road, Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh Council (ACW) approved the 2024 budget at a regular meeting on April 2.
Mayor Glen McNeil asked for a show of hands from council to determine support for approving the proposed tax rate as a bylaw. Councillor Wayne Forster interjected, “I thought Dungannon Road was included in [the budget], if I remember right. Am I wrong?” Chief Administrative Officer Mark Becker indicated that the Dungannon Road project was not to be included in the final draft, according to his notes from the budget meeting held on March 15. Incredulous, Forster replied, “It was out? I thought it was in.” Becker, repeating himself, said that according to his notes, the proposed Dungannon Road project was out. Forster mentioned that he had intended to review the budget decisions but didn’t get around to it before the meeting.
“So, are you satisfied?” McNeil asked Forster, who replied, “Honestly, I thought it was in there.” McNeil then offered support to Forster’s recollection of the decision, saying, “My memory was that it was in there also, and that we were deferring Loyal Line for another year.”
McNeil asked whether council wanted to proceed or defer a budget decision until the next meeting. Councillor Anita Snobelen said, “To be honest with you, I felt like it was in, it was out, it was in, it was out so many times…. It was in my notes in my binder, which I didn’t bring with me today, perhaps I should have. I looked in my notebook and I didn’t make a note of it here but I know I did make a note of it in the binder but, as I recall, it was in and out at least twice through the conversation and discussion…. I would be okay to defer it, but I wouldn’t want to see staff, you know, have their hands tied because we don’t pass this today.” Finding himself in a parallel predicament, McNeil admitted, “I’m the same as you, I have it noted in my book, but I don’t have it with me today.”
Public Works Superintendent Thomas McCarthy offered his account of the decision in question. “As I recall, it did get passed in and out. But at the end of the day, to my recollection, it was out just because we felt like it could wait an additional cycle. It is a fair chunk of money and it would probably, the way [Treasurer Ellen McManus] has got the budget setup, it would probably impact that, so, to my recollection, it was out.”
Appearing virtually from home with access to her budget binder, Councillor Jennifer Miltenburg said, “I’m going to agree it was in and out and in and out but… I just looked in my notes and my notes say it’s out.”
Deputy-Mayor Bill Vanstone suggested McCarthy make the final decision on whether to include work on Dungannon Road in this year’s budget. Definitively, McCarthy concluded, “as discussed in the budget meeting, just because of the amount of traffic and the condition that [Dungannon Road] is in, you could hold off on it.”
By a show of hands, council supported enshrining the tax rate into a bylaw later in the meeting. A motion to approve the budget as presented was successful, with Councillors Curtis Blake and Evan Hickey voting against it.