The incoming mayor of Chatham-Kent says his continued focus will be on addressing the massive infrastructure gap in the municipality and keeping taxes low.
However, don't expect things to change overnight.
Mayor-elect Michael Bondy said a new arena will likely be built this term of council but the $2.7 billion infrastructure gap won't be fully resolved for a long time.
Bondy said it'll be done bit by bit based on community and staff consultation, priorities, and what the municipality can afford.
"First of all, I think we have to prioritize. Because of the size of this deficit, we can't tackle the whole thing. We're not going to solve it, we're not going to fix it, we're not going to complete it. So, I think prioritization of what should be done first, that's where to start," said the mayor-elect.
Bondy said his immediate priority is to examine the corporation with a fine tooth comb to find savings and efficiencies, something he maintains hasn't been done in the last 12 or 15 years.
His other immediate priority is dealing with the budget in a different way.
"I think it's a matter of prioritizing where our money goes. The infrastructure gap and trying to keep taxes lower, it's kind of recooking the thing and figuring out where we can find savings and efficiencies so we don't have to raise taxes but we can tackle the infrastructure problem," Bondy said.
Bondy said the budget has been very confusing over the last 16 years of his council tenure and he wants to get back to basics to determine what the municipality can afford.
He said property taxes can't continue to rise by five per cent year after year.
Bondy is not ruling out service cuts.
