City manager plans ‘one-stop shop’ for growth

THUNDER BAY — The city is facing financial challenges with the rate of inflation outpacing the growth of the tax base, according to City Manager John Collin.

During a presentation Monday, Collin briefed the council on his growth plan, which aims to create growth opportunities in the city. In particular, it plans to meet this challenge by adopting a new streamlined model to support development.

The one-stop shop model

Collin told the council that through the growth plan, residents would be able to access support for their development projects through a single point of contact.

Collin told the council, “We need a one-stop development shop for anyone who wants to build something. Whether it’s something as simple as a terrace or a 12-story wooden building.

“The idea is you go to a location or call a number or send an email, and then we walk you through the process to get your development up and running,” Collin said.

According to Collin, the development model will be implemented “as soon as possible”.

Additionally, the one-stop shop model will be expanded to other areas of municipal services, including finance, parks, recreation, roads and snow management, to “enhance customer service, which will improve image and perception, which will drive growth,” Collin said. .

“We are getting closer to an acceptable production rate to meet our growth needs,” Collin said.

All hands on deck

Through partnerships with community and business leaders, business owners and academics, Collin envisions a collaborative approach to his smart growth plan.

Collin calls it: Task Force Growth.

The task force will have its own tax-funded budget and will use that revenue “to feed into a special fund to bolster growth in the future,” Collin said.

By tapping experts and professionals in the field, the working group can work to reduce or eliminate barriers that slow development, with ideas such as the one-stop development window.

Advice. Brian Hamilton asks if the smart growth plan encourages existing businesses.

“It’s not just about new business. This is not possible. We also need to take care of the businesses that are currently here and make them prosper so that they can choose to expand, evolve and grow,” Collin said.

Encourage growth

Collin suggests the city implement “smart growth” incentives.

I certainly do not foresee growth rates of 10 or 15 percent in this action plan. It’s just unmanageable, but three (percent) or a little over three would be a great place to be,” Collin said.

Advice. Mark Bentz asked how the city could see growth over the next five years thanks to the incentives.

The city manager said they should keep revenues above inflation and invest discretionally in initiatives that can encourage growth.

“It’s smart growth to ensure we have the housing, talent, services, recreation and sports needed so everyone can enjoy the community they live in.” Create this smart growth plan with all the different stakeholders. it will be involved,” Collin said.

Colin is confident that the Housing Accelerator Fund and the Build Faster Fund, for example, will produce a return on investment next year.

At the end of September, the city issued 310 building permits for residential properties and he assures that the council will reach the provincial target of 350 units by the end of the year.

The Corporation of Thunder Bay

Collin’s plan is accompanied by a significant restructuring of the city’s administrative services.

“We are reviewing the central administration and financial support functions, not because they are ineffective, far from it,” Collin said.

“They are very efficient. This is not a review of effectiveness. This is a review of efficiencies. We have to find savings,” Collin said.

He plans to create a new growth department within the company over an interim period of two years.

Infrastructure and Development Executive Director Kerri Marshall would lead the Growth Department, which would include the Development Services Division.

Several other departments and senior administrative positions would also be affected by the restructuring.

Collin also suggests abandoning the use of the title general manager, which he finds “old school.”

“This doesn’t speak to the importance of the leadership roles required within these organizations. And you will find that many municipalities across Canada have adopted the term commissioner instead,” Collin said.

The challenge of growth

Collin said the city’s population has increased 1.3 percent over the past ten years, according to the last two censuses.

He compared that to average population growth of 5.8 per cent provincially and 5.2 per cent nationally over the same period.

Since the municipality’s revenue depends on property taxes, population growth is a major factor in the city’s financial results, Collin explained. If growth does not keep pace with inflation, the city’s revenues actually decline.

He said that over the past five years, the annual growth of the tax base has averaged 0.44 percent and over the past 10 years, it has been 0.63 percent.

“If you take a look at our compound growth over the last 10 years, because growth is a lot like interest, it compounds on its own. Our total growth over a 10-year period was 7.8 percent,” Collin said.

The Consumer Points Index (CPI) rose much more, Collin said. “CPI, or household inflation, if you prefer, increased by 31.7 percent over the same period.”

Collin said municipal inflation is typically much higher than household CPI.

“Our growth has been four times lower than inflation by any measure. This means that the city’s purchasing power has declined significantly in each of the last ten years. And that caused taxes and user fees to increase above inflation and services gradually declined,” Collin said.