Chatham-Kent council wrapped up its second night of budget deliberations by completing all of the items in the budget binder.
Municipal staff met virtually once again on Tuesday with a large portion of the debates focusing on affordable housing.
Ultimately, council decided to not make any changes to the 0.43 per cent proposed for community investment.
"We've heard very loud and clear from the community that there's a real need to address the homelessness, affordability crisis and housing. availability in Chatham-Kent," said Budget Chair Brock McGregor. "We remain committed to adequate increases in funding for affordable housing."
The lion's share of the budget increase will be directed towards infrastructure. MacGregor says at least 2.2 per cent of the budget will be directly related to that.
Council concluded the evening with an increase of 3.12 per cent, administration initially proposed a 3.96 per cent increase for 2021.
"We decreased some annual funding towards the strategic reserves, and towards some facility top-ups. So items that we had been saving for over a year, we're pausing those savings this year to pursue some tax relief," McGregor explained.
Deliberations are set to continue on February 2, 2021 at 6 p.m. Next Tuesday's meeting will call motions from the floor. The meeting will be streamed live on the Municipality of Chatham-Kent’s Facebook page as well as the YourTV Chatham-Kent YouTube channel.