Sault Blog

Mr. Tom Vair, CAO, recently submitted his Strategic Plan for our City Council approval. The Strategic Plan has four (4) focus areas: Community Development, Quality of Life, Infrastructure, and Service Delivery.

Conspicuously absent is a focus area strategically addressing “Cost Containment”—the City of Sault Ste. Marie has the highest municipal tax mill rate in Ontario; last year saw one of the most significant tax increases in recent history. Costs are not going to decrease; they will only increase. Looking at other cities like Windsor, ON, they are forecasting a twelve (12) percent increase in municipal taxes for their next budget.

The Strategic Plan completed by Mr. Tom Vair, CAO, needed to address the escalating costs of running and maintaining this City. City municipal taxes for many residents are over $6,000 annually and upwards of $10,000 for others.

Under the Quality of Life focus area is the stated goal: “Maintain an affordable community.” Having the highest municipal tax mill rate in Ontario does not reinforce that goal as an affordable community to live in or move to.

Gone are Sault’s historically low residential property assessments; in comes the revised MPAC Ontario-wide updated assessment values with our new skyrocketing residential housing assessments.

Our City’s Administrators will not be able to lower the municipal tax rate enough to offset the higher property assessed values because they cannot and will not find ways to “control cost.” Not placing cost containment in the Strategic Plan as a singular focus area is an admission that it is not a high priority for Mr. Tom Vair, CAO.

Mr. Vair, CAO, wants to avoid being challenged on any spending under his administrative tenure. He has a history of overspending; the Downtown Plaza was, by most measures, an unnecessary overspend, with many cost overruns that desperately needed an independent audit completed.

In the case of Councillor Kinash vs. Consultants, Mr. Vair was asked to examine how much the City Administration spent on consultants. Mr. Vair, newly minted as CAO, had a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate his commitment to cost containment by simply saying, “Yes, Councillor Kinach, I will produce that report for you and the Taxpayers of Sault Ste. Marie”. Instead, the City endured a spectacle of hurt feelings and no report reviewing the value of consultant dollars spent.

Mr. Vair, CAO, who has been employed by the City for over seven years in an administrative capacity, failed to forecast the need for a USA-Michigan-type (TARP) program for urban blight removal and urban redevelopment for our City. Now, the Sault Taxpayer will have to pay singularly for the expropriation, abatement, demolition, and infrastructure redevelopment of the Old Hospital Site.

The City of Sault Ste. Marie requires financial assistance from the Federal and Provincial Government for a super-fund (similar to USA-Michigan TARP) program to remove the blighted buildings in our City.

Our City’s budget is approaching $250 million a year. Yet, Mr. Tom Vair, CAO, did not see fit to include the provisions of hiring an “Auditor General” for our City in the new Strategic Plan.

Sudbury, ON, has an “Office of the Auditor General” under the provisions of the Municipal Act. The Auditor audits several city departments and programs annually to find operational efficiencies.

North Bay, ON, hires an independent auditor to examine departmental or program efficiencies without fully committing to a full-time “Office of the Auditor General.”

It doesn’t matter what type of Auditor our City chooses, in-house or external; our City is too big and expensive not to have an independent auditor any longer. In any corporate organization, cost containment is at the top of the Strategic Plan because failing to contain costs is not an option.

I can’t speak for other citizens of Sault Ste. Marie, but we pay enough municipal taxes for the services we receive, and it is now time for the City’s Administration to employ cost-containment measures to hold the line on tax increases.

Holding the line on tax increases can be done if the City’s Administration has the will to do it and is held accountable by the City Council.

Mark Menean, Saultblog.com