A tax-supported surplus for the city of Thunder Bay will go straight into reserve funds.

Staff reported a $10.9 million windfall for non COVID-19 operations in 2021 and a surplus of $5.9 million related to COVID-19.

A few At Large councillors tried to present a motion Monday night looking at options to give some of the $10.9 million back to the taxpayers.

“How about having a year where the taxpayers don’t have a tax increase, or a very minimal increase,” asked one At Large councillor. “I have previously brought a resolution that would have earmarked a percentage of positive variance back to the next budget, and it hasn’t been supported as a policy issue.”

Another At Large member mentioned it’s not necessary to just give a cheque back to the taxpayer, adding “You can give them a reduction percentage wise or an amount that can go towards their taxes. This is huge, and to me this is not acceptable considering there are people out there that are having a hard time putting milk on their table. This is a chance for us for say thank you very much, to you as a taxpayer, who gave us this money to us. We are now going to now turn around and give some of that money back to you.”

Administration presented a recommendation to delegating the money into five reserve funds:

$6 million to the General Capital Reserve Fund
$2.2 million to the Stabilization Reserve Fund
$1.9 million to the Winter Roads Reserve Fund
$700,000 to the Legal Fees Reserve Fund
$100,000 to the Event Hosting Reserve Fund

The amending resolution to look at refund options lost 6-4.

“Frankly we have to replenish our winter roads reserve fund,” said the Current River councillor. “We had an extraordinary winter this year. We don’t go back to the taxpayers when we have to send out our graders an extra fifteen times. This year, we raided the piggy bank to deal with our roads, and we did that because we planned well.”

Only two members of council voted against the main motion to put the money away.