(Niagara At Large is posting the following media release circulated this March 8 by the Niagara, Ontario-based St. Catharines-Thorold Chamber of Commerce. Its contents, including what it says about the widening gap between the revenue Niagara’s regional government takes in through assessment growth and the amount it spends, should be of interest to everyone who lives, works and pays property taxes in this region.)
(Niagara) – With the passing of the 2011 Regional Budget last week, and the announcement of a small break in taxes for ratepayers, the St. Catharines – Thorold Chamber of Commerce continues to have serious concerns about the Region’s finances.
Chamber policy director Kithio Mwanzia
While this was the first regional budget in recent memory that clearly outlines the disparity between the tax rates, real assessment growth and regional expenditure growth, this year’s budget failed to address an increasing gap between assessment growth and expenditure growth.
“According to the region’s calculations, real assessment growth of 1.47 per cent does not match the level of increased expenditure of 6 per cent,” explains Kithio Mwanzia, Director of Policy and Government Relations. “The use of revenue realized through provincial uploading to cover operating expenses is only masking a serious issue about increasing expenses at the region that will lead to greater tax increases in the coming years.”
As a means to gain control of spending at the region, the Chamber is calling for the immediate establishment of the Office of an Auditor General.
“An Auditor General would conduct audits that focus on efficiency, effectiveness, and value for money of municipal operations,” continues Mwanzia. “It would have legislated powers, privileges and immunity that provide the necessary tools to conduct thorough audits with little or no external impediments. Governments need to find ways to reduce overall expenses, and an independent Auditor General would facilitate the process.”
Other communities across Canada have created an Office of the Auditor General with some notable success rates. For example, in 2008 for every dollar invested by the City of Toronto into its Office of the Auditor General Office, the municipality obtained a return of 560 per cent. In the City of Oshawa, the average return on investment for 2007, 2008 and 2009 was 331 per cent.
“The Region has the opportunity to bring greater effectiveness and efficiency to its municipal operations by establishing the Office of the Auditor General,” explains David DiFelice, Chair of the Board of Directors of the St. Catharines – Thorold Chamber of Commerce. “In turn this will foster a stronger partnership between business and government.”
With over 1,180 members representing more than 28,000 employees, the St. Catharines-Thorold Chamber of Commerce is the largest chamber in Niagara, and one of the largest in Southern Ontario.
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Niagara At Large 
Dare we dream that the duties of an Appointed Auditor General be expanded to include the out of control Niagara Health System.
Negative balance is 93 Million with annual interest payments of One Million Dollars.
Operating Deficit “only”3 Million
And now we will sell the St Catharines Hospital with funding to go to the New Hospital instead of debt reduction.
Gives new meaning to their Best Practices jargon.
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The Chambers of Commerce are not my favourite people , but they may have finally come up with an idea that has merit, we the taxpayers are fed up, with being gouged by all our local politicians, they think we are a bottomless pit the way they stick up the taxes every year.enpugh is enough.
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Balancing the books:
A years or two ago in a local newspaper article appeared inferring that the development charge for a single family house in the Niagara Region was approximately $9,000+ and that the developers were only saddled with slightly over $5,000 of this amount with the taxpayers on the hook for the balance. The Burlington/Halton response to the development question stated that their development charge is in the range of $34,000 per single family home with the City of London coming in at slightly over $22,000. The Niagara Regional government decided it had to increase the development charges and the response was electric with trucks circling the building and one councilor from Welland actually putting a motion forward to defer the increase. You, Chamber of Commerce be the judge as to who carries the cost in the Niagara Region, it is the taxpayers!!!!!!!!
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My gut reaction on reading any scheme put forward by the St. Catharines- Thorold Chamber of Commerce or indeed anything from the Garden City is -What’s the catch ? Niagara’s bully boy can’t possibly be promoting a plan that benefits the entire region can they? They actually may be on to something here. Any gains in efficiency by Regional government would be welcome and that goes for local municipalities as well.
How about bringing all public sector wages in line with the the Niagara median wage/and or comparable private sector wages and imposing a land speculation tax of 50%. That’s a good start to make life affordable for the rest of us.
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This is a great idea wonder what happened to it though. As a small business owner I’m continually shocked at the scale of local government waste one can see just driving around Niagara. Regional government is just one, employees cutting grass making $30 hr+ benefits. Last I checked the yellow pages was full of landscaping companies that could easily do this job via private contract. Other exmpales abound, City Hall, LHINs, NRPD etc etc.. These seems to be no checks or accountability for government operations here in Niagara. Our tax dollars are at the very least being misused to some degree and our local economy being negatively impacted by out of control bureaucracy and over spending. We desperately need this office and now!
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