Elliot Lake's Finance and Administration Committee chair Norman Mann said city councillors spoke more about reserve funding at their meeting Monday night than they did through the entire 2022 budget process.
At the meeting, Mann referred to this year's budget as a concession document put together in order to come up with a number that would allow staff to do their jobs.
Elliot Lake city budgeting is done over a 10-year period to allow for unexpected or unavoidable expenditures like buying another tandem truck with a plow, so the money is there when needed and city streets get plowed as needed in the winter.
Mann also added a warning, "This year we are at a break-even point and I'm happy with that moving forward.
"There were higher recommendations. We really didn't go with that.
But Mann added, "But that doesn't mean that those things aren't coming down the road."
Coun. Ed Pearce said his concern is that council is taking money out of the discretionary reserve fund, which is cash needed in the event of an emergency.
"That's the money that we need if all of a sudden, God forbid, another roof falls in or we get 20 centimetres of snow in the middle of October that we haven't planned on.
"That's robbing Peter to pay Paul. And it's something that makes me very, very concerned," he went on.
"Whoever gets on the new council, you're gonna have to look at this and you're gonna have to look at it very, very carefully.
"You have two options. You raise taxes or you can cut services and you can cut operational funds. It's all you can do. Same thing that was done in 2010," Pearce concluded.
Coun. Chris Patrie also said he got the message about either raising taxes or slowing city spending.
"Our treasurer has been saying that since the day she was hired. It's not that we have to raise taxes. Our reserves have been going up every year and moving them from discretion from working to discretionary working to building, it doesn't matter."
However, Patrie explained there's probably only going to be a couple of million dollars of the $28 million currently listed in Elliot Lake reserves that the city will have on hand at the end of this year.
Mayor Dan Marchisella said he was impressed by the large turnout in the city council gallery Monday, but somewhat surprised.
"I'm actually glad to see so many people in the gallery this evening," he said. "Why doesn't anybody know what's going on financially with the city? All our budget meetings are open to the public?"
"I've heard silly comments being made recently that the city's got 26 and a half million dollars in reserve. Why don't we just take $22 million (of that) and build that arts hub downtown?" Marchisella continued.
The mayor explained that isn't the way the system works in that there are specific pieces of funding that go to specific things.
For instance, he explained If there's money in a transit reserve, it's for transit only it can't be put anywhere else.
Also on the Monday agenda, his fellow councillors voted unanimously in favour of Coun. Ed Pearce's motion calling for the revelation of the money the city has spent on Integrity Commissioner (IC) costs. They have been borne by Elliot Lake's taxpayers.
In light of that, staff will compile an aggregate IC cost report for public viewing but it will not include individual lawyer's invoices since they are subject to lawyer-client privilege.
On a personal note, Marchisella said he regrets filing any complaints with the IC, having been on the receiving end of investigations and experiencing firsthand the weaponization of the process.
He reflected it would be easier to settle differences in the old way.
"The municipality has no control anymore. The only thing we get to do is wait and pay bills, pay the bill, pay the bill," he continued.
"As it's been mentioned, multiple different integrity commissioners follow their own rules.
"And that's something that the ministry needs to adjust so that everybody is in the same boat," he added.
"I know I'm not supposed to condone violence, but trust me, it's a lot less painful to get punched in the face than to go through multiple allegations like that. Do it the old way," the mayor concluded. "I'm sorry. If anything, these numbers will be educational to the public and educational to councillors coming in."