Joel Lustig, Treasurer, addressed the Committee to announce that the City received the following two Government Finance Officers Association Awards:
- Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for the annual fiscal budget beginning January 1, 2020 for the 20th consecutive year, and,
- Canadian Award for Financial Reporting for the annual financial report for the year ended December 31, 2019 for the 19th consecutive year.
The Treasurer provided background on the history and criteria for these prestigious public sector financial awards and acknowledged the following Finance staff members for their work in preparing the budget document and the financial report: Lisa Chen, Sr. Manager, Financial Planning and Reporting, Matthew Vetere, Manager, Tax and Assessment Policy, Kishor Soneji, Senior Accountant, and, Asif Aziz, Senior Financial Analyst. He further thanked the many staff across the City for their substantial contributions.
Mayor Scarpitti addressed the Committee to acknowledge the tremendous effort by staff in achieving these two distinguished awards and that this recognition reflects the continued effort and commitment by staff to attain financial excellence. He noted that the budget and financial report presentations have incorporated the lowest average tax rate increase for 16 consecutive years and that most recently the budget passed in December 2020 contained a 0% tax rate increase for 2021. It was further noted that the City received an "A" rating from the C.D. Howe Institute for transparency of the City's budget process.
The Mayor thanked, Andy Taylor, Chief Administrative Officer, Trinela Cane, Commissioner, Corporate Services, Joel Lustig, Treasurer, Lisa Chen, Matthew Vetere, Kishor Soneji, and Asif Aziz for this accomplishment and extended further appreciation to the Chair of the Budget Committee, Councillor Amanda Collucci, and the Vice-Chair, Councillor Andrew Keyes.