Although it has been discussed at length this past fall, the 2015 budget for Athabasca County was not approved last week.
Council has been pouring over the budget for the past few months, but councillors still had some issues with it at their regular meeting last Tuesday and had it deferred for further discussion at special meeting the next day. It is anticipated council will approved the revised budget at its next regular meeting on Jan. 29.
“(We recommend it get passed) just to get on with some of the things in our capital as well as operating budget in terms of purchases. The longer we delay, the longer it delays any of those projects and purchases,” said Ryan Maier, Athabasca County chief administrative officer, during the introduction of the budget at the meeting.
The threat of potential problems due to the bottoming out oil prices, however, led to the decision to postpone their decision until the next council meeting on Jan. 29.
“There’s a lot of stuff right now, with those oil prices, makes me think differently. None of this was there when we made this budget up,” said councillor Denis Willcott.
Willcott specifically mentioned the issues that could come up – for instance, the possible cutbacks that could occur if they increase the salaries of all their employees by two per cent.
“I don’t want to be the councillor who comes in here six months from now and says, ‘Gee, we made a mistake, now we’ve got to start laying off,” he said.
“I do not want the layoffs. I think we’re sitting okay. I think we could give the two per cent, but if things down the road don’t come right, we’re in big trouble.”
Although councillor Jack Dowhaluk disagreed – stating that although it isn’t usually done, they could change the budget later in the year to correspond with the oil prices – council decided to meet the next day to discuss the budget.
The budget that was presented to council included two-per-cent increase in taxes with revenues of $33.62 million generated through operations and expenses anticipated at $33.61 million, leaving the county with a $11,075 surplus.
Among the major capital expenditures are a new fire tanker for Caslan, $2.5 million in road construction and a $175,000 upgrade to Athabasca County’s administration office heating and cooling system.
