2021 Operating Budget highlights

Newmarket – The Regional Municipality of York 2021 operating budget includes projected spending of $2.6 billion. The operating budget guides expenditures for the day-to-day operations of the Region’s programs and services, supporting more than 1.2 million residents across nine cities and towns. The operating budget is the largest component of the approved 2021 Regional budget of $3.3 billion.

The budget supports York Region’s four key priority areas of the 2019 to 2023 Strategic Plan: From Vision to Results which aligns our financial resources to the priorities for this Council term.

Highlights of the 2021 Operating Budget (gross expenditures):

Transportation Services and York Region Rapid Transit Corporation: $525 million (combined)

• Operating and maintaining the road network to meet traveller demands
• Minimizing transit operating costs while continuing to provide safe, reliable and convenient transit for residents, businesses and essential workers
• Keeping buses and transit safe through enhanced cleaning and safety protection measures
• Accelerating changes on transit routes with low demand to replace fixed-schedule bus service with conventional Mobility On-Request service

Environmental Services: $635 million

• Delivering 119 billion litres of clean and safe drinking water annually to 1.2 million residents
• Planting 150,000 trees and shrubs to maintain natural resources and preserve green space
• Maintaining the current waste diversion rate at 94%, despite uncertain markets for recyclables
• Contributing to reserves to ensure assets can be rehabilitated and replaced when needed

Community and Health Services: $749 million

• Continuing to lead the COVID-19 pandemic response and recovery, including delivering York Region’s COVID-19 Vaccination program
• Accelerating the creation of new affordable housing rental units for community housing providers and Housing York Inc.
• Maintaining safe operations at Newmarket Health Centre and Maple Health Centre through the addition of 46 temporary staff, including personal support workers, nurses, recreation and therapeutic programming staff and cleaners, as well as a permanent infection prevention and control specialist
• Adding 12 front-line paramedics and two supervisors to maintain paramedic response times
• Supporting Community Paramedicine to reduce non-emergency 9-1-1 calls

York Regional Police: $397 million

• Hiring 19 additional uniform officers and four civilian staff focusing on violent and organized crime, member wellness and legislative requirements
• Providing police services to ensure York Region continues to remain among the safest places to live in Canada at the lowest cost per capita among comparable municipalities

Additional Operating Budget Initiatives:

• Providing funding to the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority and the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority to support initiatives to protect lakes, rivers and lands within their watersheds
• Contributing $480 million to capital reserves to ensure funding is in place for key capital needs while supporting financial sustainability
• Implementing savings of approximately $146 million in 2021 to address cost pressures from COVID-19 and to continue the multi-year savings initiatives started in the 2020 budget

How the 2021 tax dollar is spent:

The Regional Municipality of York consists of nine local cities and towns and provides a variety of programs and services to 1.2 million residents and 54,000 businesses with 650,000 employees. More information about the Region’s key service areas is available at york.ca/regionalservices

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Media Contact:

Barbara Schnier, Corporate Communications, The Regional Municipality of York
Phone: 1-877-464-9675, ext. 71237
Cell: 905-505-5775
@email