ATHABASCA – The Town of Athabasca’s 2023 audit has completed, and the accountants brought some good news to the town’s councillors — $250,000 worth of good news to be precise.
Town ouncillors received their consolidated financial statements during their April 16 meeting, where it was reported that the town finished with an extra $250,000 more than expected, bringing the total surplus to nearly $1.3 million for the year.
“It’s a much more positive audited statement then the previous year,” said Mayor Rob Balay, referencing the town’s $600,000 deficit in 2022. “It was a very positive year from the town … there were some contributing factors there for sure.”
The town’s increased fiscal security came from a variety of places, some of which were outside of administrations control. A lack of snow meant the town spent less money on fuel, according to Balay, and Athabasca received provincial compensation after an expensive water break that was dealt with in 2022.
“We did a bunch of leak detection, some metre changes, those were also positive results on the revenue side,” said Balay. “There were several things that contributed to the positive surplus we ended up with at year end.”
A new addition to the financial statements is the asset retirement obligation, which deals with asbestos abatement in town-owned properties. Athabasca is legally required to perform abatement activities upon renovation or demolition of the buildings, and a 2023 change to the account standards means the town needs to plan for that occasion.
Athabasca’s liability is $733,000, although it hasn’t started the process of putting money into reserves for the process.
When asked what he felt the most important part of the 2023 fiscal year was, Balay pointed to the town’s level of service. The town managed to save a chunk of change without having to cut back on services for the residents.
“We increased services to the public and we still managed our expenses very well, I think that’s one of the things that sticks out,” said Balay. “While we did have some increases on taxes it was still a lot less than some other municipalities had on their residents and on their businesses. I think we managed to keep our increases to a manageable level.”
Reserve funding
Of course, council had to decide what to do with the money they had saved — reserves are an important tool for municipalities, which are unable to run a deficit to fund infrastructure projects.
Councillors voted to split the cash surplus into four main categories, with a smaller amount going into a newly named reserve for community enhancement.
Athabasca added $350,000 into the general capital reserve for future capital projects, $360,000 into the water infrastructure reserve, $400,000 into the general operating reserve, $50,000 into the Athabasca Regional Multiplex’s reserve, and the remaining $26,444 into the community enhancement and recreation reserve, which was previously titled the beautification form franchise fees reserve.
Councillor Graling pushed for the enhancement and recreation reserve, which was made from funds that would have gone into the general operating reserves. The reserve already had $80k in it, but with an expanded focus that will include green energy, the riverfront, trail systems and beautification, councillors said it will help tell the community they’re listening.
“That at least sends a message to our community that those are important to council — they aren’t as important as replacing water lines, which we’re putting $300,000 into because those are a priority for us, but we are putting some money in for those projects,” said Balay.
Coun. Sara Graling said the surplus was a great opportunity for the town to catch up on some of the smaller projects which had been ignored in recent years due to budgetary constraints.
“We’ve talked about this throughout the year, this is the opportunity we have. If we continue the conversation about how far behind we are every time we do our capital work all we’re going to do is dread that work,” said Graling.
“I’ve come to this point with some intent to show our community that we do look at initiatives besides the dread of infrastructure and to take a good year and focus it on some other initiatives.”
