WESTLOCK – Breaking ground on the “long overdue” $4.4-million public works shop, the $200,000 Polymanth Playground refresh, as well as newly-formed community events committee and the inaugural Truth and Reconciliation Day, are just a few of the highlights from 2022 for Town of Westlock mayor Ralph Leriger.
And looking forward to 2023, his 10th year as mayor, Leriger admits that the town taxpayers will probably face a small tax increase as the municipality tries to cope with diminished Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) dollars from the province as the program will end this year and be replaced by the Local Government Fiscal Framework (LGFF) in 2024, a program the province says will dole out $722 million in capital funding.
“It was another interesting year in the land of municipal governments for sure. I would start by saying that municipalities are challenged and are still waiting for a predictable funding model for MSI … that’s still up in the air and makes budgeting very challenging. From 2022 to 2023 dollars, we’ve lost 60 per cent of our MSI capital funding, so that makes it tough to maintain major infrastructure,” said Leriger in a year-end interview Dec. 28.
“You look for stability in your provincial and federal governments and there’s a lot of electioneering going on at the moment, so we’ll let that settle before we can see what kind of a funding model we’re looking at.”
Leriger said coming off back-to-back zero per cent tax increases during the COVID-19 pandemic years “to make sure our community remained affordable”, inflation has skyrocketed which he predicts will lead to a “small mill rate percentage increase” for town residents. At their Dec. 12 meeting, town councillors voted 6-0 to adopt 50 per cent of the municipality’s 2022 operating budget, $13,580,407, as an interim budget until the official 2023 operating and capital budgets are done.
“You can’t ride on zeros year after year. But we want to see what our year-end surplus is and what our assessment looks like and then we’ll move the needle around and keep it as reasonable as possible. Right now, it’s still a bit of a wait-and-see game,” said Leriger.
“We achieved the zeros by putting a little less in our reserve accounts, but you have to be careful because especially with the cut to MSI, you’re going to need to have enough reserve money to do the major infrastructure replacement projects.”
Looking back
Looking back on the past 12 months, Leriger said the new public works shop, which will be located north of the current facility that was built in 1975, was “long overdue” — while ground broke on the shop in August, the building won’t be open until later in 2023. Leriger also called the Polymanth Playground refresh “spectacular” and will be the first in a trio of planned playground projects over the next four years.
He said they’re also looking forward to the data coming out of the $80,000 water distribution leak detection system that was installed last year. It’s hoped the system will help curtail water loss as in 2021 the town lost 20 per cent of all the potable water it paid for from the regional water commission — $276,270 that, in essence, flowed into the ground.
“At first glance, it’s working well and informing our plans and I’m pleased with that. We’re starting to see the data, but we need more and I’m looking forward to that,” he said.
Leriger also gave kudos to the newly-formed community events committee “for the great work they’ve done this past year” on events ranging from Light Up to Canada Day and the Concert in the Park and also “really happy” with the inaugural National Day for Truth and Reconciliation event at Memorial Hall in September and wants to “expand and grow” their relationship with the Alexander (Kipohtakaw) First Nation.
Finally, Leriger said their healthcare appreciation program with their regional partners “has gone very well” and their relationship with the RCMP has “never been better”, while the waste and water commissions “had strong performances this past year and are in good shape.”
