Service levels and SARC in focus for Thompson this fall

September 25, 2020 · 0 Comments

Aurora needs to have a “better assessment” of where the Town and its resources stand as a result of COVID-19, according to Councillor Michael Thompson.

Carrying out this assessment as the Town begins the budget process is one of the Councillor’s top priorities as Council’s fall session gets into full swing.

At the outset of the pandemic this past March, nobody “really had a roadmap” as we collectively navigated unprecedented times and now that we’re settling into a new normal it is time to assess and fully examine the needs of the community going forward.

“Everybody – be it provincially, federally, municipally – we’re trying to manage in the best way they can,” he says, looking back at the first six months of the year. “I like the fact we took a look at what we can do to help residents from a financial perspective and implemented some programs. At the same time, we’re trying to balance that with the overall need of the municipality. We did what we could in terms of managing the situation and trying to ensure that safety comes first for all our residents. I like the fact that when we could safely re-open things we tried to move as expeditiously as possible – things like playgrounds and facilities and even supporting the business community for some of the restaurants that were hit hard, enabling a program where they could at least serve some of their clients outside while they weren’t allowed to come inside.”

But, this fall, it’s number-crunching time and from Councillor Thompson’s perspective, it is important to look at the realities that will result from both a loss of revenue and resulting expenditures stemming from COVID-19.

“We will plan and move forward,” he says, adding another top priority for the season ahead is a municipal service level review, resulting from a notice of motion he put forward earlier in this term.

“I think Council will be supportive of it at budget time and we will launch into that [review] in early 2021. The whole idea really is just do that rigorous evaluation to look at the needs and the expectations of the community, trying to find best practices, alternative or better ways to deliver services, so we can be more efficient and cost-effective. I think now more than ever it is a good time to be doing this service level as a result of all we have gone through this year.”

At this point, however, he says it is too hard to say what service levels might come into focus during this process. More people are working from home now, for instance, and a “full assessment of productivity” should be a key part of the review.

“There are certain personalities that work from home better than others, so I think that it will change the workplace across the board going forward, but it will be interesting to see where it all ends up and I think more time and study is needed to really figure that piece out,” he says.

Another priority over the next month is a motion before Council revisiting the expansion of the Stronach Aurora Recreation Complex, particularly the building of a multipurpose gymnasium at the Wellington Street East facility.

“This fall, we will be talking about going forward at the SARC and the expansion, whether or not it will be an aquatics facility or not will be part of the budget discussion [but] in addition, I have requested to put back on the budget the conversation around building a gymnasium at the SARC. It has been talked about since 2017 and I think it is long-overdue.

“The other big piece that is slowly unfolding right now is the development of our Official Plan to help identify and manage the growth that is going to occur in Aurora over the next few years. The last projection I saw from the Provincial and Regional plans calls for Aurora to have 86,000 people by 2041, so if we’re at 60,000 now we have to figure out how are we going to accommodate 26,000 more people. Where are they going to go? How are we going to manage that? We need to make sure we have the infrastructure and the amenities necessary to maintain the service levels that our residents currently enjoy and expect.”

2020 has been a big year for amenities with the recent approval of the Library Square redevelopment, and this milestone is a highlight of the year for Councillor Thompson.

Along with Niagara College continuing to plant its roots in Aurora with the Armoury, movement on the new Central York Fire Services headquarters near Bayview Avenue and St. John’s Sideroad, and implementing a ward system in time for the 2022 municipal election, it has been an eventful year outside of COVID-19 and one which, from Councillor Thompson’s perspective, has brought a lot of positives.

“I have always been a strong proponent of Library Square so I am obviously pleased to see it get approved and moved to the next stage, which is the eventual construction and re-opening,” he says. “A lot of people are concerned given this crazy year that this has been with regards to how [Library Square] might impact them personally [including] through their taxes; there is a fair bit of information out there, not all of it is correct with regards to the fiscal strategy and how this project is being funded, as well as what, if any, impact it is going to have on residents’ taxes.

“I think it is incumbent upon Council as a whole to continue to communicate with residents on how the plan is coming together, how construction is, and show the impact to them is minimal, if at all, in regards to the actual construction and cost to operate. We’ll try and keep it within our budgeted principles that [we] have done for the last number of years and keep taxes around inflation plus one per cent, which is equal to three per cent over the last five years I have mentioned.”

But the positive spin-offs from the recent Library Square decision are already clear, he says. Developers have been encouraged to come forward with plans of their own after “holding back their plans to see what Council would do.” Investing in the downtown core, he says, has been a “catalyst” for others to invest as well.

“There will [also] be continued interest in the Yonge Street property the Town acquired,” he adds. “We’re actively working internally to create a portfolio to market the property to potential developers and utilize that to enhance the overall vision of Library Square as well to further revitalize the downtown. I think that is going to be one of the focuses going forward for the next two years.”

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter