Written By Aina DeViet, Middlesex County Warden
One of the Warden’s activities that has just resumed in person, is the annual “Local Council Visit.” The purpose for attending all eight Councils in the geography that comprises Middlesex County, is to update both local Council members, as well as staff members on the County budget, plans for the future and ongoing local initiatives. This year’s visits began in North Middlesex on April 3rd and will finish up in Thames Centre on June 10th!
Budgets are always top of mind in the Municipal context. The focus of the 2024 County budget is two pronged. First, it focuses on spending that provides essential services to residents, and in light of provincial and federal policy decisions that have resulted in increased costs of living, the second focus is to manage the impact of our budget on ratepayers. The tax rate increase of 2.93% is modest, and translates to an increase of $12.62 per $100K of the assessed value of the property. For additional budget information and detail, please visit https://www.middlesex.ca/departments/treasury
We focused primarily on three projects currently underway in the ‘looking ahead’ piece of our presentation. First, work is underway to determine how best to coordinate a strategic, Countywide initiative that will work to attract variety of enterprises to our communities. Bringing business to our communities will not only serve to diversify the tax base, but will provide employment opportunities for residents. The second project will determine the path to creating a Development Charges policy, which focuses on ensuring that “growth pays for growth. Finally, updates to the existing County Loan Program will re-focus funding to support growth infrastructure such as water and wastewater projects. This in turn will support the longer-term goal of diversifying the County tax base!
Additional topic areas included Social Services projects that continue to invest in EarlyON programs as well as the Middlesex County Connect transit program. You may have seen news stories about the recent addition of the new, third route that provides transit service between Dorchester and St.
Thomas with stops along the way that support students getting to school and employees getting to their places of work.
If you’re interested in accessing more information about the presentations, want to hear the questions your local Council members posed as well as how those questions were answered, please check your local Council’s website. Find the listing of agendas, look at the content for recent meeting dates and when you locate the County presentation meeting date, access the meeting on YouTube. It has been a thoroughly enjoyable “Spring Tour” around our beautiful County, and I’ve enjoyed meeting a few new Councillors and staff members as well!
