Arts organizations in Peterborough are among those expressing dismay at the City of Peterborough’s draft 2025 budget which, to keep the 2025 property tax rate increase to 7.8 per cent, is recommending — among other things — a 25 per cent across-the-board cut of city funding to community organizations and the elimination of $150,000 in funding to the Peterborough Downtown Business Improvement Area.
The 393-page draft budget, which was presented to city council on Monday (November 4) and released to the public, also lists a wide range of “discretionary” service eliminations or reductions that would be required to limit the property tax rate increase to five per cent as requested by council — including eliminating city funding for the Art Gallery of Peterborough and the Trinity Drop-In Program for people experiencing homelessness.
Back in June, city staff made presentations to city council’s general committee on a preliminary estimate for the 2025 budget that included a property tax hike of 8.42 per cent. Council directed staff to develop the budget using a five per cent rate hike and, after reducing operating budget requests by over $1 million and capital requests by $51 million, staff were only able to reduce the rate increase by 0.62 per cent instead the 3.42 per cent reduction requested by council.
The proposed 7.8 per cent rate hike would add $145.56 to each $100,000 of residential property assessment, so an increase of $378.46 for a residential property assessed at $260,000.
“Any further decrease will result in significant service level reductions,” reads the 2025 draft budget document.
While it includes an increase in funding for some municipal services, such as police, fire services, paramedics, and the library, the draft budget proposes a 25 per cent cut to the city’s community projects grants and community investment grants program, including existing service grants to Hutchison House and Kawartha Food Share.
PDF: Proposed funding cuts to community organizations in the 2025 draft budget
Proposed funding cuts to community organizations from the City of Peterborough 2025 draft budget
It also proposes a 25 per cent across-the-board cut of city funding for the following organizations: Artspace, Kawartha Sexual Assault Centre, Peterborough AIDS Resource Network, Community Care Peterborough, Peterborough Musicfest, Peterborough Folk Festival, Native Learning Program, Community Race Relations Committee, Council for Person with Disabilities, Showplace Performance Centre, Peterborough Lions Club, Peterborough GreenUP, New Canadians Centre, Market Hall Performing Arts Centre, and Peterborough Drug Strategy.
Sustainable Peterborough’s entire $39,738 budget would also be eliminated, as the organization — currently under the auspices of Peterborough & The Kawarthas Economic Development (PKED) — is dissolving at the end of this year along with PKED, with the city using the $1 million in funding it previously provided to PKED to support the city’s own economic development and tourism activities.
In an emailed statement, Artspace director Leslie Menagh says the proposed 25 per cent cut to the Peterborough’s artist-run centre will “set us miles back in our work to see the city legitimize the work of artists and the arts in general.”
“I and my colleagues are taken aback, and gutted at the thought of this coming to fruition,” Menagh writes. “The overall budget deals a devastating blow to the arts community and sets an alarming precedent.”
Menagh adds that she will be attending the general committee city council meeting on Tuesday (November 12), when councillors will hear registered public delegations on the draft budget, and is encouraging artists, arts workers, and arts supporters to contact city councillors and city staff and attend the public meeting about the draft budget from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday (November 7) at the Healthy Planet Arena.
Another organization that would be dramatically affected by the 2025 draft budget is the Peterborough Downtown Business Improvement Area (DBIA). Primarily funded by a $351,500 levy collected from DBIA members, the DBIA also receives $150,000 in annual funding from the city as well as services including street cleaning and event support such as park rentals, road closures, and paid-duty policing.
The city’s $150,000 in annual funding to the DBIA was the result of a 2017 settlement between the DBIA and the city, after the DBIA agreed to drop its appeal to the Ontario Municipal Board of the city’s decision to allow a casino at 1400 Crawford Drive instead of in the downtown core. Under the settlement, the city agreed to pay the DBIA $150,000 annually for 20 years — funding that the DBIA has been using for events, promotion, and security.
However, the 2025 draft budget has eliminated the $150,000 payment to the DBIA, at least for 2025. The budget document refers to an upcoming report from the city solicitor (Report LSOCS24-008 Review of OMB Appeal re OPA 173 and Zoning By-law 16-053, dated November 18, 2024) where “staff recommend redirecting the $150,000 annual payment back to the city to reduce the 2025 net tax levy requirement.”
Along with funding reductions to community organizations and the DBIA, the draft budget also includes a long list of “discretionary budget areas and service level reductions” for city council to consider if it wishes to reduce the property tax rate increase from 7.8 to five per cent.
The most significant budgetary items on the list include saving $880,000 by reducing preventative maintenance of city facilities, saving $886,237 by entirely eliminating the community services grant programs (which would affect 75 organizations), saving $771,000 by eliminating city funding for the Art Gallery of Peterborough (which would see six staff lose their jobs and the possible closure of the city-owned building), saving $400,000 by eliminating sidewalk snow-clearing (requiring residents to clear their own sidewalks of snow), and saving $390,000 by eliminating city funding for the Trinity Drop-in Program for unsheltered people (operated by One City Peterborough).
PDF: Discretionary cuts in the 2025 draft budget
Discretionary cuts in the 2025 draft budget
Other potential service eliminations or reductions include closing city-operated daycares (saving $125,000), eliminating two positions at the Peterborough Public Library and paying other positions less (saving $120,000), no longer operating the Centennial fountain in Little Lake (saving $111,800), and no longer maintaining the Trent Canal for public winter skating (saving $100,000). Other items on the list include reducing staffing hours for lifeguards at Rogers Cove and no longer funding fireworks or the Canada Day parade (each saving $40,000) and eliminating the recreation subsidy program for low-income people (saving $37,500).
On the other side of the ledger, the draft 2025 budget would see the operating budget of the Peterborough Police Service increase by three per cent to $36.1 million, although the Police Services Board has requested an 8.8 per cent increase to $44 million — which would require an additional 0.95 per cent to the property tax rate increase.
The draft 2025 budget would also see a 4.6 per cent increase for fire services, a 4.7 per cent increase for the paramedic service, and a 10.9 per cent increase for the Peterborough Public Library, which includes the costs of operating the new branch in Miskin Law Community Complex at Morrow Park.
In addition to Thursday evening’s public meeting about the 2025 draft budget in the Banquet Hall at the Healthy Planet Arena, which will include a brief presentation followed by an opportunity for residents to speak with city staff, the city is hosting a drop-in session from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in the main foyer at city hall on Tuesday (November 12), prior to the general committee meeting where city council will hear public delegations on the budget. The drop-in session will not include a presentation on the budget, but members of the public will be able to speak with city staff.
Prior to the general committee meeting on Tuesday evening where registered public delegations will be heard, city council will hear presentations on the budget from invited local boards and agencies beginning at 3 p.m. After those meetings, general committee will review, discuss, and debate the draft 2025 budget from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on November 18 and 19. No public delegations will be allowed at these meetings. The mayor will present the draft budget to city council on December 9, when registered delegations will have another opportunity to present to council.
