Town ratepayers will see their taxes rise 2.8 per cent in the coming year, which comes out to an additional $62.04 per year, or $5.17 per month, for the average household.
Town council discussed and ultimately adopted the 2019-2021 operating budget and 2019-2023 capital budget at its Dec. 10 meeting.
The increase could have hit residents’ pocket books a lot harder, said CAO Dwight Dibben, but after finding efficiencies in several areas over the last year, administration was able to present council with an operating budget calling for a 2.8 per cent increase in 2019 and 2.4 per cent increases in 2020 and 2021.
“In terms of maintaining service levels and town operations at existing levels, we projected that we would need a revenue increase that would equate to a five per cent tax increase,” said Dibben, citing the first full year of RCMP enforcement costs, inflationary pressures and the effects of the carbon tax and its continued rise in 2019 as the main drivers behind the increase.
RCMP costs alone would have required a 2.9 per cent increase, he said.
Renegotiating terms with energy, banking, telecom and office equipment providers saved $124,890 and brought down the increased tax rate by more than two percentage points.
Mayor Ralph Leriger commended Dibben and his administrative team on the balanced $17,446,826 operating budget.
“I appreciate the hard work you’ve done this year getting it from a status quo budget of five per cent down to 2.8,” he said, noting the increase in the amount transferred to reserves over the next three years as a significant highlight.
Dibben explained those transfers would increase from $150,000 in 2019 and 2020 to $260,000 in 2021.
“Right about that time our debenture on the Southview project goes away and perhaps we can go back up to previous levels at that time,” said Leriger.
There are still many unknowns when it comes to funding from other levels of government as well, said the mayor.
“While nobody likes an increase, I would applaud our team for attempting to keep it so low. To be clear, this is the municipal portion of our taxes and it is my hope that when the others who have the ability to levy do their budgets I hope that they are as diligent as we have tried to be,” said Leriger.
“It’s extremely challenging times for municipalities. We have had no announcement on the replacement of MSI funding, we’ve had no action on what I think are inequitable funding models in many respects and certainly no action on what I think is a flawed and inequitable funding formula for funding MSI to begin with.”
Leriger also made a point of commenting on council remuneration, noting elected officials recently lost the one-third tax benefit from the federal government.
“Like many councils around the province we have added an increase to offset the loss of the one-third tax exemption for elected officials ... all in, including salaries, benefits, conferences and travel, council continues to represent about two per cent of our overall budget and if I recall correctly our budget is down about $7,000 from last,” he said.
Coun. John Shoemaker echoed Leriger’s praise, saying he is happy with the budget.
“With policing costs rising 2.9 per cent in a year, the fact that our budget comes in at only 2.8 per cent tax increase speaks volumes, especially with carbon tax increases and general increases in costs. I think it’s a very lean budget. We realize there’s only one taxpayer out there and you can’t keep hitting them all the time,” said Shoemaker.
Coun. Murtaza Jamaly had similar sentiments.
“We have very candid conversations about people and what tax increases look like to different people ... What is that person actually going to pay and do they have the ability to pay this? We’re very conscious of that,” he said.
“We have been very diligent to realize that there are people on the other side of these percentages.”
“That is the challenge,” said Leriger.
Capital budget
Council also passed an $8,089,895 capital budget for 2019 for both brand new projects and some already underway.
There are a number of assumptions that must be when preparing a capital budget, Dibben told council, including outside funding contributions from other levels of government and pricing at the time a project is budgeted for and when it actually gets underway.
“As we move into 2019, we will certainly undertake due diligence on all capital projects to make sure they are aligned with community needs, council’s priorities and expectations of value per dollar,” said Dibben.
The big ticket items include the west industrial stormwater infrastructure project at $2.29 million; the water tower replacement project at $1.5 million; infrastructure rehab on 104 St. at $1.36 million; and a new fire truck at $1.3 million.
The curling rink will also receive some upgrades to make it more accessible; there will be some road rehabilitation on 104 Ave and the Aquatic Centre is going to receive some rehabilitation as well. The town will also purchase a new backhoe and a new riding mower.
“There really is not a lot in here other than repairs and those types of things. There’s nothing shiny or new in this budget,” said Shoemaker.
Jamaly also mentioned the work the town has done as far as asset management goes and how it affects budgeting.
“A lot of the knowledge we have about the conditions of our sewer and water and roads comes from the diligence that administration is doing within council’s vision of asset management ... I believe that as our asset management program continues to evolve and become more intelligent as we gather more information, we will be able to accurately allocate dollars to capital asset projects as needed.”
