While he voted in favour of a number of measures throughout the evening to reduce the bump, Mayor Cam Guthrie voiced his support for the budget itself.

“This budget — really, the theme for me — was around health and around safety, and we've accomplished that,” the mayor said.

Though I did not support everything in the #Guelph 2020 operating budget, it also wasn’t so toxic or offensive that it wasn’t worthy of my support. Roughly 3.91% tax increase passes 10-3. — Councillor Mark MacKinnon (@ward6mark) December 3, 2019

Police get what they ask for

While the increase is the biggest council has approved in a number of years, large parts of the meeting were dedicated to looking at some of the factors contributing the most to that increase.

The largest contributor to the increase was a request from the Guelph Police Service to bump up its budget by nearly 10 per cent.

Coun. Mike Salisbury proposed stretching the additions the police were asking for — coming to just under $1.2 million — over a two-year span.

The Ward 4 councillor said that while the police need what they were asking for, “it is of such an incredible magnitude that I think for us not to seek a method of reducing that impact on our community is just not being responsible.”

However, Salisbury’s proposal did not gain much support, with councillors saying the police need the additional funds now, not later.

“I'm really uncomfortable here — we are talking about a service that keeps our city safe, and then we're randomly saying let's give them half of what they asked for this year as an increase,” Coun. Rodrigo Goller said, later adding that he has been told by some residents that they have started carrying knives with them when they go downtown because they do not feel safe.

“I think it's dangerous to start playing around with these numbers.”

Coun. Cathy Downer said that while she would support what police are asking for, there is “some communication they need to do with the community” to explain why this increase is needed.

Salisbury’s motion would fail in a 2-11 vote, with Bell being the only councillor he brought on side.

Council did narrowly approve a proposal from Billings to pull $500,000 from its reserves to help offset the increase. Billings and Salisbury would later vote against the local board budgets, which includes the police budget.

Additions and subtractions

Gibson also tried to get the tax increase lower by proposing a $1.1-million reduction in how much the city contributes to its infrastructure renewal reserve fund, saying that promised funding from upper levels of government can make that up.

“I don't understand why we have to continually be so aggressive and so headfast on this 1 per cent when we know that there are promises being made on a daily basis to trickle money down from the upper levels of government,” he said, referring to the city’s infrastructure levy.

Guthrie, who would later vote in support of Gibson’s proposal, said that based on what he has heard “from some of my contacts in the upper levels of government, it is looking more and more likely that … there is a huge desire to be moving fast on infrastructure money flowing to municipalities” from the feds.

However, many councillors were not swayed, saying they did not want to risk the city’s infrastructure health over money that may not come — Coun. Cathy Downer called it “all big ifs and speculation” — as well as the project impact it would have on the city’s long-term capital plan.

According to city staff, this reduction would result in a $10.6-million deficit in Guelph’s 10-year capital plan. Gibson said what he was asking for paled in comparison to that overall plan.

“$1.9 billion in our 10-year capital plan, and I’m talking about putting a $10-million deficit on the table to save taxpayers half a percent on their tax increase this year,” he said.

“Come on, we got nine years to make that up. No problem.”

Council would vote down the proposal in a 4-9 vote, with Coun. Dominique O’Rourke and Billings joining Gibson and Guthrie.

Council just passed our 2020 budget with funding to help keep the SRR open. But we’re only a part of the overall funding needed. Please consider donating through @UWGuelph to make a huge difference in someone’s life! #Guelph https://t.co/YOJvT65JE2 — Mayor Cam Guthrie (@CamGuthrie) December 4, 2019

Council also voted in favour of directing $302,000 — this does not have a tax impact, with $152,000 coming from the province’s payout following cannabis legalization and the remainder from reserves — to cover the costs of a court support worker, the Welcoming Streets initiative and the recently opened supportive recovery room, all recommendations of the mayor’s homelessness task force.

Council also narrowly approved upping the annual contribution to the city’s affordable housing reserve fund. In a 7-6 vote, the city will now be putting in $500,000 per year, up from $330,000.