Operations Budget 2025

/ 23 February 2025 / 0 Comments

As noted in the Capital Budget 2025 blog post, the Operations Budget is yet another component of the 'transitional budget' of previous council. The lens and values of this council will be represented in future budgets.

Without painting in too broad of strokes, the majority of the Operations Budget boils down to people. They are the municipality's greatest operating expense. There are six major contracts being renewed in 2025/2026, including HRP, HRFE and library staff.

Important Documents to review:

All the business plans presented at council were passed and overs/unders were added to the BAL. However, Mayor Fillmore presented a motion immediately after the business plans were passed:

That Budget Committee direct the Chief Administrative Officer to provide a briefing note for an under-budget adjustment on the Budget Adjustment List, with options for Council to keep the tax rate flat with minimal impact to core service delivery, by:

Examining, for example, the following measures:

1 a.) One-time use of Central Library Reserve @ $10 million

b.) Increase Deed Transfer Tax estimate @ $3 million

c.) Reduce Climate Action Tax by one-third @ $6 million

d.) Eliminate all under-used land-lines @ $600 thousand

e.) Start charging insurance companies for HRM fire services responding to 100 series highway calls @ $250 thousand

f.) Reduce Tree Planting @ $1 million

g.) others that the CAO may identify

2 a.) comprehensive review of current vacancies and new FTE’s (full-time employees) proposed in this budget to find cost savings for Budget Committee to consider in the 2025/26 Budget.

The motion was broken down as individual items as not all Councillors would accept a briefing note on all matters, but in the end, all of it passed at Council. For my part, I am acutely aware that the proposed tax increase is absolutely unmanageable, and I applaud the Mayor for working with the CAO to find ways to cut costs and deliver better value. This motion presents a major step forward, even if some of these tax-saving measures are one-time.

I should also take a moment to explain where we are, what the BAL is, and what briefing notes are. We are a long shot from done.

Briefing notes provide further analysis and information regarding a budget item. For example, Mayor Fillmore asked for a briefing note on the proposed climate tax decrease to assess whether we can achieve our current and future climate goals through other sources of provincial and federal funding. The outcome of that briefing note will inform the vote on how the climate tax decrease could be added to the BAL as an under.

The BAL (here is the 2025 Budget Adjustment List) contains a list of items that Council can add to (overs) or remove from (unders) before the budget is finalized. There are some overs on the BAL that have wide Council support (and some I voted in favor of), but final voting on the BAL hasn't happened yet.

Below is a brief assessment of some of the more pressing BAL items.

Community Safety

There is much talk at Council regarding the role that the municipality can and should play regarding homelessness, especially at a time when the prospects of tax increases are top-of-mind. Just a few short years ago, HRM didn't even have a homelessness file, and there is some question as to how we can afford to take on more responsibility. Whatever else is true, the numbers don't lie, and they are staggering. In 2024, 1,146 calls were made to 311 regarding garbage and waste around encampment sites, 1,262 Housing & Homelessness calls for service were answered, 659 Crisis Preparation, Prevention, and Responses were delivered, and as Councillor Austin pointed out in a heart-breaking moment at Council, 1 unnecessary and completely avoidable death at the Geary Street encampment site the day after Boxing Day. Council added (and I voted in favor) of adding the Day Shelter (which is cost-shared with the province), as well as enhancements to the AIM Team for after-hours support to the BAL.

Halifax Regional Police and Halifax Detachment of the RCMP

In my view, there were several challenges with the Halifax Regional Police budget. I had, and still do have, big concerns over body worn cameras (BWCs) and the Digital Evidence Management System (DEMS). The devices provide better accountability, but I can find little evidence that it provides better safety. The report doesn't highlight any safety outcomes, and I found no good answers upon further questioning at Council. There is also no firm policy on who can access the video evidence and when, other than FOIPOP. The use of BWCs and DEMS is roughly $3.5 million per full operating year (it is prorated this year due to program ramp up, and in the report, staffing costs are and equipment are also broken down separately). These are costs that we will pay forever, and the cost will only get higher with salaries and inflation.

Had it been an option, I would have tried to get BWCs taken off the business plan and put on the BAL (Budget Adjustment List) with a briefing note to further explain their necessity and use. However, Council cannot direct exactly how HRP spends funds. We can only review the business plan, and approve a dollar amount envelope. Councillor Cleary did table an under to defund the HRP envelope, but I voted against (it failed due to lack of support). There is much in the HRP business plan that does have merit, including the addition of Victim Services Case Workers, that I could not put in the balance and risk losing.

Also on the BAL for HD RCMP are 14 RCMP staff. This staff increase is for a community office in Beechville (6 FTEs), a community office in Fall River (6 FTEs), 1 FTE Traffic Services member in Musquodoboit Harbour, and, 1 FTE Community Policing Officer in Sheet Harbour. The addition of RCMP in BLT will have a net positive outcome for District 13, where the Tantallon office can better serve our own area.

Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency

Currently on the BAL for HRFE is the addition of 10 FTE firefighters to enable the staffing of the new West Bedford Station in the Summer of 2026 with new firefighters and avoid reducing the current staffing and service levels of two apparatus and six career firefighters on duty 24x7 at both Station 8 (Bedford) and Station 9 (Sackville). These additional positions would also improve ERTT performance to the Clayton Park, Burnside, Fall River, Dartmouth, and Upper Hammonds Plains areas. I moved this onto the BAL myself. I say it all the time - the tax payer only has one wallet, and we can either pay for better fire services, or expect to pay higher insurance premiums in the face of extreme weather events due to climate change.

Also on the BAL (although with no dollar amount attached yet) is funding firefighters for cancer screening. Currently, there is a list of cancers firefighters are more likely to experience due to their continued exposure to carcinogens, and at this time, the screens for these cancers are not covered by the province.

Operations Business Units

Of particular interest, and total disappointment, was the Halfiax Transit business plan. The 2025/2026 business plan for Transit does not include anything new for commuter-shed districts like District 13. Upon asking at Council, I was informed that the services scoped in this budget were to continue to provide services inside the service boundary, as per the direction of previous Council. I know that the Rural Transit Study is expected to return to Council in March, and was hoping to see some advancement of that work in this budget, but there was none. Currently on the BAL is an over to operate ten buses beyond their service life. Whether this stays or goes, it will not impact District 13. I asked.