For anyone who might have missed it, North American, European and Asian economies are swimming in a sea of debt. Even Ajax
The minister of finance tells us the days of financial boom are over and we, as a nation, are going to be faced with, or forced to deal with this new reality. This includes Ajax.
What might this mean to Ajax? Here’s what we might expect:
- a focus on debt reduction
- spending cuts and possible civil service layoffs
- municipal 'belt-tightning'
As federal spending diminishes, it trickles down eventually to squeeze funding from provincially-administered healthcare, social programs, housing and transportation programs among others.
Has anyone noticed a decline in the cost of food, medicine, gasoline, bank lending rates, GO passes, electricity and other utilities charges? I haven’t.
The rise in our property tax rate was set by the current council and remains at 2.75%. The Town is preparing to incur more debt, and, at the end of the day, little room is left to cut services any further if the current spending programs will remain.
If a zero percent tax target is attainable, we need to take a long, hard, serious look at Ajax spending and dig a little deeper into the books to discover where we can achieve savings.
If our finance minister’s comments are a signal that austerity measures are in the works to reduce the debt, we as a Town, should be looking to the future to buffer ourselves from that trickle down pain that is surely coming our way.
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