WESTLOCK - Policing costs and unpaid property taxes will result in a 2.12 per cent property tax increase for Westlock County ratepayers in 2020.
After a public open house and a number of budget committee meetings over the last several weeks, Westlock County councillors had one last robust discussion at their Dec. 17 meeting, and passed the provisional operating budget and interim capital budget for 2020.
“Recently, the province has also impacted the budget by offloading items onto municipalities such as policing costs and is reducing grants over the next few years in order to address their own fiscal challenges,” wrote CAO Leo Ludwig in his notes to council.
“This increase can be attributed to the increase in anticipated bad debt write-off of $400,000 from unpaid property taxes from insolvent and non-paying petroleum companies and provincial policing costs of $113,300 which are new for 2020. Without these two costs, total expenses would have decreased.”
The provisional operating budget passed with a 5-2 vote with Coun. Dennis Primeau and Coun. Isaac Skuban voting against it. The interim capital budget passed with a 6-1 vote, with only Primeau voting against.
With operating revenues of $9,477,345 and expenditures of $21,185,824, the county must raise $11,708,479 from property taxes. Meanwhile, the capital budget comes to $3,486,704, with funding from grants of $2,617,704, another $736,200 from reserves and proceeds from sales of assets of $132,800.
The draft budget released in November before committee meetings were held, called for a 4.94 per cent increase and council was able to bring that number down to 1.12 per cent.
But a surprise Dec. 4 announcement from the province that rural municipalities would start paying a portion of their policing costs in April 2020 increased the number to 2.12 per cent, said reeve Lou Hall.
“I have to commend the budget committee for all the hard work that they did — for the discussions that were carried out and the decisions that were made, and they weren’t easy decisions,” she said.
“We all had a hard time cutting in areas that we felt were important. That happens when you’re discussing budgets. It’s only provisional, so it could get worse.”
The budget will be finalized in the spring when assessments and requisitions for education and Homeland Housing are known.
Budget discussions
In his written introduction to council Ludwig stressed that the budget was set “based on trying to keep service levels as similar to 2019 levels as possible … There have been some difficult decisions for council in order to reach a balanced budget while still maintaining acceptable levels of service.”
Coun. Skuban was quick to express his disapproval with the planned operating budget, calling it a short-term solution.
“I just think that for the long-term viability of this county, we needed to do a little more. Maybe find some more efficiencies,” he said. “It’s somewhat of a band-aid in my opinion, and I think the coming years are only going to be tougher. I think we really need to take a look at service levels and what this county can viably offer in the future.”
Deputy reeve Brian Coleman pointed out that finding places to cut was difficult and most around the table did not want to decrease transportation services, i.e. road maintenance. He agreed the numbers could change drastically when linear assessments come in.
“If our linear assessment goes down significantly before April, we’ll be making some very serious cuts. We can’t move forward with this budget if the linear is way down … We may be digging much deeper into this come April, but I think we’ve done a fair job of finding what we can, knowing what we know right now,” said Coleman.
Coun. Fred Slobodian said he was a little frustrated with how many unknowns there are in municipal taxation and the budgeting process.
“That’s the whole problem I have with municipal taxes. You never know what your numbers are going to be. They expect you to have numbers all put together, but you don’t know what your funding is going to be, and it drives me crazy,” he said.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if this group sits for another two, or two-and-a-half days, and debates another budget in the new year.”
Coun. Victor Julyan reiterated that there are still a number of uncertainties that will become known in several months and that this budget document is only provisional.
“Today we’re just making an interim budget on what we’re going to do,” he said. “I had never thought it would get as low as it is, to be honest with you … I am voting for this budget.”
Coun. Jared Stitsen said he would love to see a zero per cent increase, but knows that’s not realistic.
“I don’t think that’s a responsible thing to do when everything is going up and everything we do costs more. Unless our revenues are going up substantially, how could we ever go with a zero per cent increase? Salaries and benefits go up each year. Fuel goes up each year. Everything goes up a little bit each year, and we have to follow suit,” said Stitsen.
Coun. Primeau asked for a recorded vote before declaring he would not support the budget.
“There are too many untouchables,” he said. “We’ve got in our heads that we can’t touch those items. You can’t produce the budget when there are areas you cannot touch.”
Primeau took issue particularly with councillors’ salaries, which will increase in 2020 after they decided not to take an increase in 2019.
“We signed an agreement not a year ago and it was set at 1.25-1.5 per cent. That sets the bar and nobody should be going past that … All you’re doing going past that number is losing credibility with staff and you lose credibility with the population,” he said. “It’s a double standard.”
Reeve Hall did not agree with Primeau.
“If you knew what councillors and staff put up with, you would appreciate that they don’t get paid enough. I’m telling you that,” she said.
Director of corporate services, Diane Urkow explained how the increase in councillors’ pay is determined.
“The increase that council is taking is 1.75,” she said. “Council’s salary is determined by policy that is reviewed by the municipal planning commission prior to council’s election.”
She went on to clarify increases are set according to the consumer price index and 1.75 was the union-negotiated amount that is applied to union members, non-union members and council.
Coleman pointed out that many of the untouchable areas are protected by contracts.
Skuban told Primeau he was entitled to his vote, but would have liked to see more constructive participation during deliberations.
Stitsen agreed, adding, “Through the budget process we had all the sheets, all the information and we had good ideas on how to make the cuts … To sit here now at the final hour and say you don’t agree with this budget, it’s disheartening.”
Hall pointed out the motion from the budget committee to bring the budget back to council was unanimous, but Primeau said it would have been irresponsible of him to vote against bringing it to council.
Julyan had enough of the discussion and called for a vote.
“This argument is just going to go on. Coun. Primeau is determined to run his one-man-band against the whole of the council by disagreeing with the things that are being done and to lead his coffee group in criticizing, and has been very successful,” he said. “I think he should ask himself what he has actually done for this council? What is it he’s helping to build? Who is he serving and is he serving the best interests of the members of this county?
Primeau went on to suggest the number of meetings had decreased and that taking an increase was not warranted, but he was quickly refuted by Hall and Slobodian, who both noted councillors were paid for a lot more than regular council meetings.
“There is a lot more to this than there has been in the last seven years, I guarantee you that, and I wasn’t here for the last seven years,” said Slobodian. “In the last three years we’ve attending ICF and IDP meetings at two or three a month. My schedule in October and November was up to 10 or 11, up to 15 days sometimes … If you want to get really serious about doing this job, you could put in up to 30 hours a week.”
The numbers
With councillors’ raises and the increased cost of benefits, the budget for council only increased by 0.37 per cent, coming in at $498,427, which includes a transfer from reserves of $76,000.
Salaries, wages and benefits for council come in at $329,642 for 2020, up $8,575 over 2019, while contracted and general services are up $36,733 over 2019 at $162,065.
The transfer from reserves will help cover the costs of hiring a facilitator, mediator or arbitration for ICFs with the town and the Village of Clyde.
Administration costs are up 1.14 per cent in 2020 at $1,704,023. Contracted and general services were down $47,263 from $530,513, while salaries, wages and benefits are up $1,019,485, an increase of $58,592.
Costs were up 10.66 per cent in the office of the CAO due to increased benefits, software and the addition of a part-time communications officer. The budget for general administration though was down 7.92 per cent, or $44,518, to $517,613.
Corporate services, which includes finance, human resources and information technology services, come in at $654,353, a 3.29 per cent increase of $20,844.
Planning and community services, which includes planning and development, fire services, enforcement services, health and safety services and recreation and community services.
Planning and development will see a 19.2 per cent increase in funding, rising $57,874, to $360,512. Fire services will see a decrease of 4.79 per cent, $22,499 less than 2019 at $447,449. Enforcement services is down 0.97 per cent, while the health and safety budget is also down 7.77 per cent at $173,694.
Recreation services are budgeted for a 1.64 per cent increase for maintaining Long Island Lake, Echo Lake, Rainbow Park, Spruce Island Quad Park and Tawatinaw.
Funding for the community grant program will also fall by $22,652 to $93,348 for scholarship grants, physician recruitment, community clean-up and mowing grants and community enhancement grants.
Infrastructure services include general administration, transportation, utility and agricultural services.
Transportation services have a budget of $5,584,100, which covers gravel road maintenance, ditch maintenance, bridge maintenance, hamlet streets and the public works shop, an increase of 0.78 per cent.
Capital budget
The county has a number of capital purchases in 2020 totalling $3,486,704 including building renovations, vehicles and equipment and the Wiesel Creek realignment project.
Seventy-five per cent will be funded through grants, with 21 per cent coming out of reserves and four per cent from the sale of assets
The 2019 shoulder pull program will be completed in 2020 at a cost of $1,051,840, as it was deferred due to poor weather. The budget is based on 30 miles at $36,000 per mile. There is no grant funding available for 2020.
The water plant in Jarvie will be upgraded at a cost of $900,000, with two-thirds coming from grants and the remained from reserves.
The bridge repair program will also cost $815,864 and is funded entirely by federal gas tax funds.
Renovations on the county’s administration building are budgeted for $100,000, funded entirely from reserves. This will include window replacement, HVAC upgrades and re-roofing.
The county will also invest in a new tender for the Pickardville fire department for $150,000 — $96,200 will come from reserves and $53,800 from the insurance payment after the previous truck was written off in 2018.
A new skid steer will also be purchased for $59,000 along with a new Dodge one ton truck, with a flat deck for $75,000. Wiesel Creek will cost $185,000 with a grant covering $150,000 and $35,000 from reserves.
Both budget documents can be found at the Westlock County website.
