Town of Westlock councillors, department heads, and the mayor himself were on hand to walk residents through the municipality’s 2016 budget at an open house Feb. 16 at the Rotary Spirit Centre.
The walkthrough gave residents the opportunity to examine detailed charts and information on the town’s 2016 budget, capital plan, investments and revenue.
Most people, explained mayor Ralph Leriger, don’t have the time to fully explore the budget on their own, and having its architects on hand for face-to-face conversation helps to simplify the information for consumption.
“I think there’s a great many people that don’t really know what services each level of government delivers,” said Leriger.
Personal dialogue, he explained, allows officials to go in depth on budgetary details in a way that is personally relevant and difficult to do outside of normal media channels.
“Everybody has a thing that they’re most interested in — for some it’s recreation, some have a particular issue about their street or neighbour,” he said.
The more people engaged and curious, he added, the better.
“[The open house] is about information. It’s about the fact that you want to know how tax dollars are spent,” added Coun. Murtaza Jamaly.
“It’s important to be able to show, visually and demonstrate how the operating budget is allocated, how the capital projects budget has been allocated.”
That curiosity is a recent remembrance for Jamaly. This time last year, he was on the other side the equation as an interested citizen hoping to start a bit of dialogue.
“[Coun. Wyatt Glebe] took me around and showed me what it was all about, so I see great value in this, not only as a citizen but as an elected representative.”
“He gave some thought-provoking comments,” Glebe said. “I guess maybe we sparked something.”
Forty-year Westlock resident Fred Serhijchuk dropped to satisfy his own curiosity.
“I just came to see what the councillors are doing. I asked the questions I wanted and they answered. I’m happy,” Serhijchuk said.
“The councillors are more visible and they want feedback in to make this a better town.”
The open house is in its third year and the information session is designed to be close and personal.
Councillors and other town officials engage residents in one-on-one discussions to help explain the significance of various expenditures and streams of income.
“I’ve asked everybody, so if we raised taxes one per cent, how much money would that be,” he said.
“I’ve had guesses of $2.5 million, and then I say, it’s $65,000 and then the eyes get big.
“Then people realize the challenges that we face with large infrastructure.”
“You can only put so much in the paper,” said Westlock County’s director of engineering and infrastructure Bill Mills, who attended the open house as a citizen, out of personal interest.
“If the representatives are here, councillors are here, they can fill you in on what’s going on, and, the information provided is pretty good.
“We’ve only been living in town about a year, but when you listen to town council and look at their budget and graphs, it’s reasonable.
“We all have to be good stewards of everybody’s tax dollars,” Mills added.
Former Town of Westlock fire chief Lyle Birnie called the presentation an eye-opener.
“When I was on the fire services, my budget was $260,000. Now it’s up to $600,000,” he said.
“To have individual councillors — it’s neat to be able to actually pose the questions.
“People are concerned. A lot of them don’t really know what’s happening.”
