Greater Sudbury city council ended 2025 budget deliberations on Tuesday afternoon with a tax levy increase of 4.8 per cent.
“We’re investing in our community in very concrete ways,” finance chair and Ward 9 Coun. Deb McIntosh said at the close of Tuesday’s meeting, noting that residents asked them to provide more police coverage and fix the roads, which she said they focused on.
Of the 4.8-per-cent levy increase, 1.6 per cent is for municipal services, 1.4 per cent for Greater Sudbury Police Service, 0.3 per cent for other partners (Public Health, Conservation Sudbury and Greater Sudbury Public Library), and a 1.5-per-cent special capital levy for infrastructure.
Next year’s tax levy increase started at 7.3 per cent when city council members first approved it in late 2023 as part of the city’s first-ever multi-year budget, which included operations for 2024 and 2025 and capital projects for 2024-27.
Earlier this year, Mayor Paul Lefebvre tabled a successful motion for city staff to find at least $8.5 million to bring the tax levy increase down to a maximum of 4.9 per cent.
Thanks in large part to a boost in provincial funding, city staff were able to bring it down to 4.7 per cent without affecting service levels.
From there, city council members bumped it up to 4.8 per cent by approving various business cases during two days of deliberations which began on Monday.
This, plus a water/wastewater rate increase of 4.8 per cent, in keeping with the city’s long-term financial plan.
Following Tuesday’s meeting, McIntosh told Sudbury.com that an easy highlight is maintaining a 1.5-per-cent special capital levy to help tackle the city’s infrastructure spending gap, which at latest estimate was $130-million annually.
The 1.5-per-cent increases compound each year and are slated to bring in $86 million after five years, and $375 million after 10 years. These funds are being earmarked for roads.
“If you’re driving around, you can see the impact on the roads and there’s going to be more coming,” McIntosh said. “It’s throughout the city; it’s not just the core — it’s the entire City of Greater Sudbury that’s getting work done.”
There’s still much more to do, she said, noting that when it comes to the infrastructure spending deficit, they’re “just chipping it away” at this point.
The first day of budget deliberations saw city council members vote to expedite the closure of three fire halls, including those in Copper Cliff, Val Caron and Falconbridge.
Highlights to the second day of deliberations were the approval of business cases to reconstruct Elgin Street from Elm Street to the Brady Street underpass and renovations to the Tom Davies Square courtyard facing Paris Street.
Both projects were already in the long-term financial plan, but have had their timelines moved up in order to accompany other major projects that city council has approved.
The Elgin Street work carries a total price of almost $8 million and will accompany the downtown events centre project.
“It’s not a direct requirement of anything happening at the event centre,” city Engineering Services director David Shelsted explained, noting that these improvements were already approved by city council and are in the downtown master plan.
If not now, the road work would be proposed within the next four-year capital budget which begins in 2028, Shelsted told city council members.
The downtown events centre is currently expected to open by May 2028, and a business case noted that if the road work took place after the events centre was operational, “construction could disrupt access to events, creating challenges for attendees.”
Elgin Street road work will include replacing underground water infrastructure, which is at the end of its life, according to the business case, and include the construction of active transportation infrastructure which includes bike lanes. Work will take place over the course of two seasons and be completed by the end of 2026.
The other major infrastructure project approved by city council on Tuesday was $4.8 million in work to the Tom Davies Square exterior facing Paris Street to complement the Cultural Hub at Tom Davies Square library/art gallery/municipal services relocation project.
Similar to the Elgin Street work, the Tom Davies Square project was also previously planned but moved up the list to accommodate another project.
The Cultural Hub project could move forward without this work, but staff recommended it be done now to be completed “in tandem … to reduce interruption and further support the functionality and revitalization of Tom Davies Square.”
This work will include replacing exterior stairs, making the area meet modern accessibility standards with a ramp, landscaping, waterproofing and other complementary work.
During Tuesday's meeting, Ward 11 Coun. Bill Leduc argued that these costs should be included in the Cultural Hub and events centre budgets, and that their respective budgets of $65 million and $200 million aren't accurate.
Although approved at a tax-levy hike of 4.8 per cent, the tax impact per household won’t be known until next spring, when the city hashes out its tax plan.
As this year’s tax plan showed, the 5.9-per-cent overall municipal tax levy hike approved during 2024 budget deliberations translated to a 5.4-per-cent overall residential hike, a 4.7-per-cent commercial tax jump and a 3.4-per-cent increase for industrial properties.
Sudbury.com will publish an in-depth report later this week on the service level changes that this week’s 2025 budget readoption will establish.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.