Cornwall’s new Long-Term Financial Plan makes one thing painfully clear: the status quo is over. To maintain current services and carry out the capital program now on the books, taxpayers are looking at average annual levy increases of about 5.9 per cent from now until 2035 — a figure council will almost certainly try to push down below five per cent during the December budget deliberations. But even if the council members manage to trim the headline number, nearly 40 per cent of planned projects over the next decade still don’t have funding identified. That’s not a roadmap so much as a warning label.
Some councillors were right to be uneasy. Around the table, concerns surfaced about the pace and scale of big-ticket projects already looming — everything from a new police headquarters to landfill and water system upgrades. KPMG’s advice was blunt: Cornwall can’t do everything at once without putting serious pressure on debt and taxes, and some projects will have to be re-phased, scaled back, or put on hold.
This is the backdrop for the City’s decision to eliminate 26 positions, including 14 CUPE 3251 jobs, to save $2.4 million, just as the collective agreement expired and days before bargaining began. The optics are terrible. When you cut union jobs in the narrow window between agreements, it looks less like thoughtful long-term planning and more like using a moment of vulnerability to shrink the workforce.
The financial context makes that choice even more fraught. In recent years, council has leaned on reserves and deferred contributions to balance budgets and soften tax hikes. The Long-Term Plan confirms that this strategy has limits. With less room to tap reserves in the future, there is a real risk that layoffs become the default lever whenever the numbers don’t add up. More layoffs seem plausible. That should worry both workers and residents.
CUPE 3251 has every right to fight for good-paying union jobs and to question why front-line staff seem to be the first solution on the table. A 90 per cent strike mandate signals deep frustration and a clear line in the sand: workers are no longer willing to quietly absorb the consequences of past budget choices and ambitious capital projects that outpace the City’s finances. A strike could be looming; however, there is still time for both sides to come to an agreement and compromise.
Hard choices are coming. But if council is serious about “prioritization,” that conversation should start with the capital wish list and our appetite for tax increases — not with quietly eroding the workforce that keeps drinking water safe, programs running, and vulnerable residents supported. If we’re going to hit the brakes, better to slow the mega-projects than hollow out the services people rely on every day, because at a certain point those layoffs won’t just be numbers on a budget sheet — residents will feel them in slower service and reduced support.
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