6 Friday, February 7, 2020 brooklintowncrier.com WORSHIP DIRECTORY WORSHIP DIRECTORY Burns Presbyterian Church 765 Myrtle Rd West (just 4 minutes north of Brooklin) 10am Worship, Kids Zone Fun & Nursery Care "Discovering God, Sharing God's Love" 905.655.8509 www.Burnschurch.org Brooklin United Church 19 Cassels Rd. E. Sundays 10:30 am Sunday School & Nursery Care Come catch the Spirit! www.brooklinunited.ca 905.655.4141 Renaissance Baptist Church of Brooklin 40 Vipond Road (Just West Of Library) Sunday Worship & Kids Program 10:30 am We're here for Brooklin! 905.655.4554 www.brooklinrbc.ca Brooklin Village Church At Brooklin High School, 20 Carnwith Drive W. Sundays, 10:30 am Our Mission is to share the love of Christ as we live out our calling to become more like Him. www.brooklinvillagechurch.com St. Thomas' Anglican Church 101 Winchester Road East Sunday Services: 8:30 and 10:30 am Sunday School & Nursery Program (10:30am) Wednesday 10:00 am Communion & Healing Service Celebrating 150 years in Brooklin 'Wherever you are on your spiritual journey, we welcome you!' 905.655.3883 www.stthomasbrooklin.ca Whitby Council recently approved the budget target , a 1.99% increase on the total residential bill for Town services. This equates to about $8.90 per month per household based on the average Whitby MPAC assessment of $470,000. (Or, in the real Whitby world, closer to double that, roughly $15-16 per month for most of us. I've yet to see a house for $470,000). It was suggested at council that we could look at carrying debt to offset the property taxes. Personally, that makes me nervous. We have a lot of growth coming, 40% over the next 12 years. While it's not pretty to have an increase, we'd be piling this on the shoulders of our children down the road. Facing already increasing home costs and affordable housing shortages, we could be digging a hole we couldn't climb out of since growth does not pay for itself. We also know we have an aging population which will trigger even my generation into paying the lion's share while the population shifts to a senior majority. Kinds of debt There's good debt and there's bad debt. Much the same as a household budget, we need to be aware of what we're willing to borrow on. Most of us have mortgages and we borrow on our homes for improvements or repairs. But we shouldn't be borrowing for vacations and dinners out. It's the same for the municipality. While in future years, I might be willing to borrow for a sports facility, I won't want to do so for fleet vehicles. There is lots of good planning in the budget report which is now online at whitby.ca/budget. February 18 is the public meeting for community input on the proposed budget for 2020. February 24 is the Special Council Meeting for final approval of the proposed budget for 2020. Our Budget Chair this year is your Ward Councillor Steve Lee. You can connect with him at lees@whitby.ca or 905-706-0214. Meanwhile, at the Region, I sit on Finance and so have had a good look at what's happening there. You can access this information at: https://www.durham.ca/en/regional-government/budget-and- financial.aspx There was much debate at Finance about the surplus at the Region as there is a lot of money in reserves. For the first time ever, we are about to see the Region use the Reserve funds for impactful items like electrifying buses and servicing of employment lands to better aid economic development. It's been a long time coming and I give credit to Chair Henry and CAO Elaine Baxter-Trahair for leading the way on this largely new council which showed ambition to change the status quo. This is the change I was hoping for. We've been playing catch-up to other regions like York and Peel which put pipes in the ground to attract industry while we waited for the industry to pay for the pipes. It's money well spent. Service gaps The Region is also facing gaps in Health and Social Services. Most of the funding for these services comes from the province and the Region delivers them. We've decided that cutting services is not an option in this area and so whatever holes are left after the province makes its changes will be filled with our property tax dollars. Whitby's representative on Health and Social Services is Councillor Elizabeth Roy. She says, "As we move through health and social services 2020 budget we will be facing inflation and growth pressures. Health and Social services will be working through their budget proposal to ensure we can meet the demands and the pressures in the community for programming." Overall, like most of you, discussing money stresses me out. But it's as much part of my public life as it is my personal life and there's no getting around our responsibilities. To be frank, you will see an increase. But you will also see: investment into employment lands to attract jobs, electric buses popping up, shovels in the ground for a new sports facility in a few short years, and shovels sooner than that on the mid-block road just south of the 407. Budgeting 2020 Regional Councillor: Rhonda Mulcahy The Brooklin Town Crier is looking for a sponsor for our upcoming Easter Colouring Contest! If you know a business that would like to have some fun with a colouring contest, we are all bunny ears! E-mail mulcahy42@rogers.com today!