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Council voted 15-9 to allow bikes on Confederation Line trains at all hours of operation when the LRT line opens in November.
Cyclists will be required to board the train at a specific door and stand with their bikes at the nearest multi-use space on the car. There’s an initial 15-month period for the bikes to be allowed. Transpo will review how it’s working out after the first year of LRT operations.
Bikes are already allowed on Trillium Line trains.
Transpo management didn’t want to allow bikes on trains during peak hours. Council’s transit chair, Stephen Blais, warned against the potential for conflict if bikes are taking space from fare-paying customers.
Watson said he originally thought that it wasn’t a good idea to have bikes on trains, “but the more I looked into it, the more I realized we’ve had bikes on trains in the O-Train for 10 years and there are virtually no complaints.”
If bikes on LRT trains cause problems, Transpo can take action, Watson said.
“Until you actually see the service in operation with bikes on trains, we really don’t know if it’s going to be a problem or not,” he said.
“In fairness to the cycling community, we should at least give it a try.”
Council also voted to change the transit bylaw to allow small pets on buses and trains. The pets must be in a carrier or crate that can sit on the owner’s lap.
Reserves need a boost, report says
The city might need to beef up its main operating reserves by earmarking annual budget money to the fund, a finance report says.
The city hired MNP Consulting to review the structure of discretionary reserve funds.
The city has 33 reserve funds and five of those are restricted by legislation, such as the reserve for building code operations and gas tax funding. The other 28 reserve funds are discretionary, but the city wants to reduce that number to 19 by merging some funds.
A newly structured tax stabilization reserve — which rolls in winter, self-insurance, child care and election reserves — has $23.6 million. Finance staff believe there should be a minimum of $34.8 million. They call it a “feasible target” for 2020, but it will mean pouring any annual surplus money into the account or budgeting reserve contributions.
“I think what the treasurer has done is laid out a fiscally conservative game plan to reach that goal and I have confidence we can meet that,” Watson said.
A reserve for employee benefits would also need a boost from the $56 million in the fund now to the recommended minimum of $67.6 million.
At the end of 2017, the city had $329.2 million in all of its discretionary reserves, which is roughly equal to 10 per cent of the city’s entire annual spending budget. It’s considered a “strong” reserve position by the consultant, so city finance staff are recommending making sure there’s always between 8.5 per cent and 12 per cent of the spending budget tucked away in the reserves.
The finance and economic development committee will consider the reserve fund changes during a meeting on Tuesday.
City ended 2017 with $24.9-million surplus
The city says its surplus at the end of 2017 was $24.9 million on the $3.3-billion budget.
The growth of new homes, raking in more tax money, helped pour extra cash into the coffers last year, the city says. Council has already booked $10 million from the surplus — the so-called “Christmas miracle” money — for infrastructure repairs in 2018.
The city ended up in the black, despite large deficits in public works, tax rebate and remissions and police. Surpluses in land sales and investment revenue helped balance the books, with millions more to spare.
Year-end surpluses in departments backfill deficits in other departments. The rest of the money goes into reserve funds.
jwilling@postmedia.com
twitter.com/JonathanWilling
查看原文...
Cyclists will be required to board the train at a specific door and stand with their bikes at the nearest multi-use space on the car. There’s an initial 15-month period for the bikes to be allowed. Transpo will review how it’s working out after the first year of LRT operations.
Bikes are already allowed on Trillium Line trains.
Transpo management didn’t want to allow bikes on trains during peak hours. Council’s transit chair, Stephen Blais, warned against the potential for conflict if bikes are taking space from fare-paying customers.
Watson said he originally thought that it wasn’t a good idea to have bikes on trains, “but the more I looked into it, the more I realized we’ve had bikes on trains in the O-Train for 10 years and there are virtually no complaints.”
If bikes on LRT trains cause problems, Transpo can take action, Watson said.
“Until you actually see the service in operation with bikes on trains, we really don’t know if it’s going to be a problem or not,” he said.
“In fairness to the cycling community, we should at least give it a try.”
Council also voted to change the transit bylaw to allow small pets on buses and trains. The pets must be in a carrier or crate that can sit on the owner’s lap.
Reserves need a boost, report says
The city might need to beef up its main operating reserves by earmarking annual budget money to the fund, a finance report says.
The city hired MNP Consulting to review the structure of discretionary reserve funds.
The city has 33 reserve funds and five of those are restricted by legislation, such as the reserve for building code operations and gas tax funding. The other 28 reserve funds are discretionary, but the city wants to reduce that number to 19 by merging some funds.
A newly structured tax stabilization reserve — which rolls in winter, self-insurance, child care and election reserves — has $23.6 million. Finance staff believe there should be a minimum of $34.8 million. They call it a “feasible target” for 2020, but it will mean pouring any annual surplus money into the account or budgeting reserve contributions.
“I think what the treasurer has done is laid out a fiscally conservative game plan to reach that goal and I have confidence we can meet that,” Watson said.
A reserve for employee benefits would also need a boost from the $56 million in the fund now to the recommended minimum of $67.6 million.
At the end of 2017, the city had $329.2 million in all of its discretionary reserves, which is roughly equal to 10 per cent of the city’s entire annual spending budget. It’s considered a “strong” reserve position by the consultant, so city finance staff are recommending making sure there’s always between 8.5 per cent and 12 per cent of the spending budget tucked away in the reserves.
The finance and economic development committee will consider the reserve fund changes during a meeting on Tuesday.
City ended 2017 with $24.9-million surplus
The city says its surplus at the end of 2017 was $24.9 million on the $3.3-billion budget.
The growth of new homes, raking in more tax money, helped pour extra cash into the coffers last year, the city says. Council has already booked $10 million from the surplus — the so-called “Christmas miracle” money — for infrastructure repairs in 2018.
The city ended up in the black, despite large deficits in public works, tax rebate and remissions and police. Surpluses in land sales and investment revenue helped balance the books, with millions more to spare.
Year-end surpluses in departments backfill deficits in other departments. The rest of the money goes into reserve funds.
jwilling@postmedia.com
twitter.com/JonathanWilling
查看原文...
