INFRASTRUCTURE & FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY

Janice continues to be concerned about fiscal responsibility and to be a budget watchdog. She was delighted that she and colleague Carolynn Ioannoni were finally successful in persuading the Council to request more operating budget detail. Greater detail allows closer scrutiny; closer scrutiny reveals questionable expenditures and allows the worth, to the general community, of proposed spending to be examined. Janice has advocated reducing or eliminating spending on marginal items. She isn’t afraid to trim non-essential spending if there are insufficient funds to take care of the core services a municipality is expected to provide. She has been unfaltering in her concern for our basic infrastructure needs, and in stressing the detriment of under-funding these. Reduced spending on maintaining roads, sewers, water lines and other infrastructure doesn’t save money. It just defers expenditures to future years, when the same items usually cost more. Meanwhile additional costs are often incurred as a result.

Reductions in operating expenses of marginal benefit to the community, however, offer real costs savings, year after year. Janice notes:

Sewers, roads, water mains, sidewalks and fire services are the backbone of our City. We all rely on these core services to be there for us, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

During my years on Council, I have watched staff’s and consultants’ reports warn that under-funding the maintenance of our basic infrastructure costs us more in the long run. Millions have been spent on non-essential items that, while very important to some, are not crucial in the daily lives of us all.

If not maintained in a timely manner, infrastructure will fail, and must then be fixed immediately. Urgent fixes often mean wasting money on costs which could have been avoided.

We are not financially prepared for unplanned expenditures on urgent fixes. Reserves are what cushion taxpayers against unexpected blows such as recessions, multi-million dollar liability payouts, and other large unanticipated expenditures. Ours have been badly depleted. We cannot continue like this indefinitely. Tough calls have to be made.

I strongly believe that we should focus on taking care of our core services. To do this properly while rebuilding our reserves and keeping taxes down as much as possible, we need to prune expenditures which are not essential to serving the community effectively. Can you see another way?

I have a vision of Niagara Falls remaining an affordable place to live and invest in the future. I want to continue working to bring fiscal responsibility to Council's spending and to ensure that Niagara Falls remains an affordable place to live and invest in the future. To do so, I need YOUR support!

Sewers and Water Mains | Roads | Rural Infrastructure | Straight Talk on Taxes