The North Bay Tax Payers Association released a letter with their input on the 2017 City budget, outlining eight suggestions to reduce tax levies.
President of the Association, Miles Peters, says the letter is meant to bring awareness to future growth prospects in North Bay being minimal at best the way things are going. Peters says it’s important for citizens to make their voices heard, because the association alone won’t be able to get the City to change course.
The letter also includes information about the population decline in North Eastern Ontario. According to the Ontario Ministry of Finance, the population decline is forecast to be 3.7 per cent between now and 2041. Another reason the letter gives for reducing future tax levies is that North Bay has one of the highest average family municipal tax burdens in the region coupled with the lowest average family income.
Peters says it’s when people start hurting the most, like with the recent reports of residents struggling to avoid their hydro bills that their voices begin to get louder. Peters says there’s a lot of hard choices that have to be made, and he knows they’re going to be painful. He’s concerned about the job security of union members, because they work hard and give a full day’s work and those things aren’t tracked. Peters believes it would be an easy fix to implement a tracking system.
