By Aara Macauley, CFRC's Broadcast Journalist and Local Journalism Initiative Reporter.
The City of Kingston is moving forward with a proposal to endorse a public Municipal Service Corporation (MSC) for Water and Wastewater. The vote, at June 16th’s council meeting, came after a lengthy discussion between councillors and staff, and saw numerous delegations appear at the start of the evening to express their concerns about the project.
The report noted that the City of Kingston, like other municipalities in Ontario, has been trying to address a backlog of infrastructure repairs while also planning for infrastructure expansion to meet the needs of the growing population.
The City’s current total debt balance is expected to increase to $475M at the end of this year, of which about 40% relates to water and wastewater infrastructure. Staff argue that removing 40% of the city’s debt from the City’s books and onto the MSC will provide the City with more than $20M in additional debt capacity without increasing property taxes and municipal fees.
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