What will Thunder Bay's 2024 budget look like? Officials to release first draft today

Thunder Bay officials will release their first draft of the 2024 city budget Friday, offering the first look at the numbers and kicking off what's expected to be a challenging budget process. 

The month-long budget approval process will almost certainly bring changes to what's released this morning, but councillors have directed administration to keep any tax levy increase to 5.5 per cent or less.

City manager Norm Gale and Keri Greaves, the city's treasurer will present the proposed budget at 11 a.m. and CBC News will be updating this story throughout the day. 

Gale has signaled that this will be a challenging budget with infrastructure spending and emergency funding expected to be key issues. The Thunder Bay Police Services Board is seeking a $54.6 million operations budget and a $2.8 million capital budget for the police this year. 

This is also the first budget to come after Mayor Ken Boshcoff gained strong-mayor powers from the province, which grants him more authority to act unilaterally during the budget process in an effort to build more housing. 

In the fall, Boshcoff issued a notice saying he does not intend to exercise strong mayor powers with respect to proposing and adopting the 2024 budget, delegating those tasks to Gale and Greaves, instead. However, he could always change his mind. The city must notify the public whenever the mayor puts his strong mayor powers to use.

Last year's tax levy was a 4.4 per cent increase, which came with a suite of cuts to staffing and services and included a one-time infusion of funds from a reserve fund.

Simply put, the tax levy is the amount the city needs from taxpayers to fund city services and capital infrastructure programs and is not necessarily a reflection of the tax hikes facing taxpayers.

Once the draft is released there will be a few key dates coming up before the ratification votes are held in February: 

You can check back in with this story as we'll be updating it throughout the day with the latest information on the proposed budget.