The town of Westlock has released their annual report for the calendar year 2024 which details the town’s finances and major achievements over the year.
The town’s financial asset reserves dropped somewhat from nearly $14 million in 2023 to $11 million in 2024. This was largely due to the town pulling out of a $3 million fixed-income GIC investment.
“What we do is if we have money sitting around and it's not really giving us any benefit, we put our reserves in a GIC, which has the principal amount secured,” said Town of Westlock Director of Corporate Services Adil Imtiaz.
“Then what happens is we earn interest on top of it, which helps us also increase our reserves. That amount is being utilized, but it's also secured so we're not risking our money. Sometimes when we need the money, we would pull it out from the GIC, and we would use it towards the project that we have it allocated for, so it just depends. If you need the money, we'll pull it out. If you don't need it, we let it park there and earn interest for us.”
The drop in financial assets brought the town’s overall net financial asset (reserve debt) to around $2 million.
The town’s long-term debt increased slightly from $7.1 million to $7.5 million due to the town taking out a $400,000 federal loan for the Canadian Municipalities Green Municipal Fund. The town’s debt level is still far below the debt limit outlined by the provincial government, which is $27 million based on 1.5 times the town’s overall revenue in 2024 ($18 million).
“We're paying off over a million every year but it just depends on if we end up having new projects that might need additional loans and that's why you will see the loans increasing sometimes,” said Imtiaz.
The town also reported a slight increase in tax revenue collected from $9.7 million to $10 million despite the tax rate in the town staying the same. Imtiaz explained this was likely due to overall assessments increasing.
“You can look at it in a positive way that the value of properties is increasing in Westlock. Anytime the assessment goes up, your taxes will go up as well because it is based on a percentage.”
The report also included councillor, mayor and Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) salaries, which range from $32,000 to $45,000 with the CAO salary being $183,000 with an additional $87,000 in benefits included in all disclosed salaries. The difference in councillor salaries is explained by councillors making more based on a larger contribution to more committees.
The average median family income in Westlock as of 2021 was around $85,000, according to the town’s recently released socio-economic benchmark report.
The town’s full annual report can be accessed online here.
