December 6th, 1982. /6.

revenue~sharing scheme with the Provincial Government will be

substantially lower than before - up to 1/3 lower some predict and

that there is a general malaise in the entire economy thus

revenues usually received by way of building permits sre down and
that truly the 80's are proving to be tough. Mayor Traboulay
stated there has been no significant change to the better es we
still have high levels of unemployment, double digit inflation,
high interest rates and whet amounts to a full-scale recession and
stated little wonder then, that faced with this reality many
municipally-elected people are concerned about the public's
ability to pay for municipal services. Mayor Traboulay quered how
do you‘hold the line on expenditures and maintain services and
advised the Provisional Budget this year is 1.3% below last year's
expenditures but with revenues down this reduction in expenditures
represents a 10% increase in taxes but fortunately because of some
budget adjustments and fortuitous saving on the Broadway
re-construction we have $350,000 coming forward to the 1982 budget
which will go a long way in keeping taxes down. Mayor Trabouley
stated the Council during budget debate may well find themselves
asking questions never before asked in a serious way - questions
like how many firefighters does a Fire Department require; how
many can we afford; and the same question may be asked about our
police protection; surely no one wants a reduction in public
safety but when you spend almost 44% of your budget on these two
services alone then questions are bound to be asked. Mayor
Traboulay stated other areas Council members may query are
recreetional services - prices for adult swimming were just
recently raised to $1.50 from the recommended $1.25 of the
Recreation Committee - can we afford to run all those worthwhile

programmes with a subsidy as high; what about staff - shouldn't we