Regional councillors spent several hours behind closed doors today, going line by line through a list of potential service cuts in an effort to get next year's budget down to a target 8 per cent increase.
In a motion tabled this afternoon, council directed staff to include the service reduction options in the proposed budget.
If passed, the cuts are expected to eliminate a number of full time positions.
Since it involves personnel, details of what areas council is considering cutting were worked out behind closed doors and won't be published until impacted staff and community partners are notified.
Once that happens, the region plans to publish the service reduction options by 4:30 p.m. Friday.
The 2025 draft budget proposes raising $575.9 million from taxpayers, representing a 12 per cent increase over last year's tax levy requirement, excluding the police budget of $253 million.
Councillors will spend the next two weeks whittling down that budget to get it closer to an 8 per cent tax hike.
A third public input meeting of the strategic plan and budget committee will follow Friday's announcement to discuss the proposed service changes. It's scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 3
Coun. Natasha Salonen wanted to clarify that council isn't necessarily going ahead with service cuts and that they remain options to get the 2025 budget closer to its target increase.
Following the move to add service and staff cuts to the discussion, councillors voted on a list of 21 recommended service expansions that will impact the tax levy.
Transit services wanted to add 51 full time positions, including 16 bus operators to increase service by about 30,000 hours.
Coun. Doug Craig didn't support the motions, saying the enhanced service could wait.
"We have to look at what is absolutely essential in terms of serving the public," he said.
Interim transit commissioner Doug Spooner said the new positions would mitigate system overloads by increasing the frequency of buses on major routes and add some evening and weekend service.
Coun. Rob Deutschman sought a compromise by tabling an amendment to add eight new drivers instead of 16. The amendment passed.
Other amendments followed, reducing transit staff expansions to 28, including new hires in customer service and transit reliability as well as transit service support staff to keep buses on the road. MobilityPlus service will increase its capacity with two new full time drivers in response to growing demand.
Councillors voted down recommendations to add other staff in areas like climate and sustainability management and transportation communications.
The addition of three new full time affordable housing support staff will support households at risk of losing their tenancies. The added cost will be offset by rental revenue from from a new mixed shelter model at two new affordable housing sites in Kitchener and Waterloo.
One new legal assistant will be added to the region's roster of lawyers to deal with an increase in demand.
To ensure contractors and subcontractors get paid within a provincially mandated 30-day time frame, one full time accounts assistant will be hired.
Councillors voted to bring in two additional bylaw enforcement officers to help manage homeless encampments. The region will also work on a strategy to determine additional needs based on the most recent Point In Time count that estimated 2,371 individuals are experiencing homelessness in Waterloo region. That's a more than 100 per cent increase over the last PIT count estimate from 2021.
The region will finalize its 2025 budget on Dec. 11.
