Latest news with #cityservices
CTV News
2 days ago
- Business
- CTV News
Vancouver mayor asks staff to look at property tax increase scenarios as low as 0% for 2026
Vancouver's mayor has told city staff to draft a 2026 budget with no property tax increase – raising concerns over the potential for slashed services.
CTV News
4 days ago
- General
- CTV News
Turning down the volume. Ottawa Bylaw Services receives fewest noise complaints in 8 years
The sign outside City Hall in Ottawa (CTV News Ottawa) Ottawa residents appeared to be turning down the volume last year, as Bylaw Services received the fewest noise complaints in eight years. The Ottawa Bylaw and Regulatory Services 2024 annual report shows the city received 9,789 noise-related complaints in 2024, down from 11,039 in 2023 and 12,339 in 2020. 'The decrease in noise-related service requests can likely be attributed to residents spending more time away from home as they return to the office following the pandemic,' staff said in a report for the emergency preparedness and protective services committee. The 9,789 noise-related complaints in 2024 are the fewest noise complaints since 2016, when 9,717 noise-related complaints were filed to Bylaw Services. Bylaw Services officers responded to more than 55,107 service requests in 2024, including the 9,789 requests for noise. There were 13,385 requests for animal care and control, 2,681 requests for sick/injured animals and 18,245 requests for property standards and zoning enforcement. The report says there were 496 service requests in relation to vacant properties last year, with 55 charges issued for various infractions. 'Their work resulted in the issuance of 247 permits, representing over 500 addresses, including subdivisions slated for future development,' staff said in the report. 'Over 55 charges were issued under various applicable regulations and more than 80 enforcement actions were taken, including Court Summonses, Notices of Violation, Property Standards Orders and contracting out of required work. Illegal dumping Bylaw Services responded to 576 service requests for illegal dumping, up 43 per cent over 2023. 'This increase is likely attributed to ongoing city-wide public education and the creation of a new online reporting mechanism arising from Council approval and subsequent implementation of Public Works' Curbside Waste Diversion Policy, including the three-item limit which took effect in Fall 2024,' staff said in the report. 'Bylaw and Regulatory Services will continue to monitor the annual service requests related to illegal dumping and monitor year over year trends.'
New York Times
27-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
D.C. Mayor Unveils Budget Plan Aimed at Easing Pain of Congressional Cuts
After waiting nearly three months for Congress to fix what even many of its own members agreed was a mistake that left Washington facing a surprise $1.1 billion budget cut, city officials announced on Tuesday a plan to deal with the sizable shortfall on its own. At an public budget presentation, Mayor Muriel Bowser said that her administration would not need to lay off workers or make substantial cuts to municipal services, as the city had feared might be necessary. Instead, local officials were able to use a 2009 federal budgeting law to boost this year's spending by hundreds of millions of dollars. They closed the rest of the gap by temporarily freezing new hiring and making piecemeal cuts to the 'thousands' of contracts, grants and other expenditures across dozens of city agencies. 'We have really blunted what could have been a catastrophic situation for city services this summer,' Ms. Bowser said. The plan, which still needs to be approved by the City Council, addresses a question that has been looming over the city for weeks. On March 8, the U.S. House of Representatives unveiled a resolution to temporarily fund the federal government while mandating a federal spending freeze. Though the District of Columbia's budget has to be approved by Congress, such resolutions have for decades exempted the city from spending freezes, since the money it spends on services comes from locally raised taxes, not federal funds. But that carve out was not in the House's resolution, suddenly saddling D.C. with a $1.1 billion shortfall with the fiscal year already half over. The U.S. Senate unanimously passed a bill allowing D.C. to keep operating according to its current budget, a measure that President Trump explicitly endorsed. But the House needed to approve the bill and in the weeks that followed nothing happened, besides some talk from right-wing lawmakers about possible amendments on unrelated issues like bans on abortion funding or reparation payments to Black residents. In mid-April, the mayor announced that the city was going to address most of the shortfall by invoking a 2009 federal law that gives the city the authority to increase its appropriated funding by up to 6 percent. That provided significant budgetary breathing room for the rest of the current fiscal year and on Tuesday, officials outlined how they would close the remaining gap. Some payments would be pushed into the next fiscal year, which begins in October; some debt would be refinanced; open positions would temporarily go unfilled; and certain individual programs would face cuts. The mayor made clear, however, that the city was still urging Congress to restore its ability to spend according to its initial budget. 'This is still a matter of the autonomy of the district's budget,' she said, 'so we will continue to work on that.' While the city may have averted the immediate crisis, the larger fiscal threat remains — namely, an administration that is hostile to the federal bureaucracy, the city's largest employer. Mass layoffs of federal workers have lowered the city's revenue estimates by more than $1 billion over the next three years and has prompted the ratings firm Moody's to downgrade the city's credit rating. Repeatedly citing these challenges, the mayor said that her budget proposals for the years ahead were designed to 'shift our economy from one that is so reliant on federal jobs to one that is more reliant on growing private sector investment and jobs.' These proposals include tens of millions in spending reductions to programs and services, paired with substantial expenditures and policy changes aimed at attracting jobs outside of government, in areas like tech, entertainment and sports.
CTV News
23-05-2025
- Business
- CTV News
City of Ottawa robocalling residents about water bills in event of Canada Post disruption
The City of Ottawa says it has been reaching out to residents asking them to register for paperless billing to avoid late payments for services in case of Canada Post service disruptions. In a statement to CTV News Ottawa Friday, the city said it has been 'proactively' contacting residents through automated phone messaging and other communication methods. 'With the possibility of a Canada Post service disruption, residents and businesses could experience a delay in city paper billing, invoices and other paper notifications,' said Joseph Muhuni, the city's deputy treasurer of revenue. 'Despite any postal service interruptions, water utility bills will continue to be issued, and payment due dates will remain unchanged.' More than 75 per cent of properties are registered online and have access to their bills through the MyService Ottawa portal, he says. All residents have received the 2025 final property tax bills, which were sent by mail on May 12, Muhuni says. The city says more than 95 per cent of tax and water payments are made electronically. To register for paperless billing, visit your MyService Ottawa account, or call Revenue Services at 613-580-2444 for assistance account balances and payment options. Access to city services, programs During a postal service disruption, mail delivery of Presto Cards will be unavailable, the city says on its website. Transit riders are asked to buy their cards at ticket machines, the Rideau Centre Customer Service Centre and participating Shoppers Drug Mart, Loblaws and Real Canadian Superstore locations, reads the website. The most up-to-date information about the city's Employment and Social services can be accessed in this link: Residents who use the city's Rent Supplement and Housing Allowance programs can access the newest information on - Subsidized housing. More information about postal disruptions is available here: Though a big disruption was averted after the union representing over 55,000 workers backed down from a strike threat Friday, Canada Post customers may face delays as workers swear off overtime shifts. With files from The Canadian Press
Irish Times
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
U-turn on Grafton Street toilets as council reverses ‘ludicrous' closure plan
Dublin City Council has reversed plans to remove the city centre's last public toilets following opposition from all city councillors, who described the move as 'ludicrous' and 'abhorrent'. The council had planned to shut down the toilets installed five years ago at the top of Grafton Street , citing reduced demand. It had been spending almost €400,000 a year to operate the toilets, put at the St Stephen's Green end of Grafton Street during the Covid-19 pandemic. The current owner and operator of the toilets was going out of business and the council said it would draw up proposals for replacement toilets, but these were not expected to be in place until summer of 2026. Green Party councillor Claire Byrne, at a council meeting on Monday, said the 'ongoing failure of this city to provide basic services to meet a basic human right' was 'abhorrent'. The council had had five years to procure alternative toilets, she said, but had also been discussing the issue since before she was elected in 2014. READ MORE 'Very little, next to nothing, has been done, yet we were happy spending €400,000 a year for this unit and not looking for a long-term solution.' There was, she said, a 'very clear demand, every single person needs to pee'. Her Green Party colleague Hazel Chu said that when she was lord mayor she let people use the toilet in the Mansion House. The council should open up public buildings with toilets for the public to use, she said. Social Democrats councillor Catherine Stocker said it was 'ludicrous and exhausting this most basic and simple of things cannot be sorted by Dublin City Council'. Independent councillor Mannix Flynn pointed out that public toilets had been part of the original contract with advertising company JC Decaux for the Dublinbikes scheme, 'but somewhere along the line an official in this council took that stipulation out of the contract'. Labour councillor Dermot Lacey said it was a 'fundamental responsibility of a city or county council to provide toilets'. He noted that toilets had been included in countless council budgets but not implemented due to insufficient funds. 'Nearly €2 million has been spent on this one toilet,' he said. 'People are laughing at Dublin city over this.' [ Dublin city centre's only public toilets to be closed Opens in new window ] Derek Kelly, director of service with the council, told councillors officials had 'worked out a solution' over the weekend to keep the Grafton Street facility open 'while in tandem we try to develop and finalise an ongoing solution for toilets within the city centre'. The current operator 'is liquidating, that has pushed the situation, they want to cease the service', he said. However, the council would see if it could persuade the company to continue until replacement toilets were in place next year, and if not, would buy the toilets and appoint a new operator, Mr Kelly said. The council had initially opened toilets at two locations in 2020, the second at Wolfe Tone Square on the city's northside. The northside toilets were subsequently relocated to Ryder's Row off Capel Street but were decommissioned in 2022, with the council citing 'complaints of antisocial behaviour in the area and low usage'.
