BONNYVILLE – Town of Bonnyville council and the public had their first look at what the municipality’s 2024 budget may look like at the Oct. 24 regular council meeting. For now, the capital and operating budgets have deficits in the millions of dollars.
However, both budgets will go through at least two more revisions before being passed as the Town’s 2024 interim budget prior to Dec. 31. The budgets can still be amended before the 2024 property tax rate bylaw is approved in May of 2024.
The first draft of the budgets include a long list of the municipality’s needs along with council’s priorities for the year ahead.
The capital budget currently sits $24.3 million over budget, while the first draft of the operating budget sits about $1.75 million over budget.
Council and administration are now tasked with paring down what projects will be carried out in 2024 and what items can be held off.
Capital budget
Recreation and wellness along with economic development remains the top two priorities for council in 2024.
Projects discussed by council include a master plan to enhance recreation activities along Jessie Lake as well as downtown revitalization and economic development priorities, listed Renee Stoyles, the Town’s general manager of corporate services.
Projects that were added to the 2024 budget include the replacement of decorative lights along main street ($325,000), a GIS air photo ($30,000), economic development priorities ($100,000), self-watering planters ($15,000), beach volleyball court enhancements ($15,000), an increase to the Bonnyville and District Centennial Centre’s (C2) annual capital budget ($275,000) and an accommodation study ($50,000).
To reduce the current deficit from the capital budget, administration put forward 10 projects that could be deferred to save roughly $9.6 million in 2024.
Council heard that the items recommended for deferral, while they are critical in nature, are not completely degraded and can be postponed for a year or more.
Staff also suggested reducing the C2 capital funding request of $375,000 to the Town’s previous year’s contribution of $100,000. Using revenues transferred to reserves was also recommended to fund the main street light upgrades.
Coun. Neil Langridge inquired why the lights on main street were being recommended for replacement prior to a downtown revitalization study being completed. In response, Stoyles explained that many of the parts for the model of streetlights the town has, have become obsolete.
“You'll see there are a couple lights that are out. We can't do any fixing with them right now. We did have a meeting with ATCO and their proposal was to replace all of them at the same time,” Stoyles stated.
The decorative lights slated to be installed on main street will be the same as those currently being installed along Jessie Lake and in the town’s newest subdivisions. They are LED and are anticipated to save costs for the municipality over time.
An accommodation study may serve to save the municipality in the future as well. The study would review the municipality’s current facilities, the needs of various departments and the best purpose for municipal buildings now and in the future.
“We will have a couple of buildings that may become vacant or will become vacant, so as to see where we can best have use of those facilities and what we should do with them,” said Stoyles.
The accommodation study may also play a role in addressing a future library expansion. The expansion of the Bonnyville Municipal Library has been put on and off the Town’s capital budget for about six years, according to Stoyles.
Administration is also recommending lowering the amount distributed to the curling club from their initial capital funding request of $75,000 to $25,000.
“That building is pretty old, and a lot of equipment is starting to now show its wear,” acknowledged Stoyles. “Administration would suggest at least the [ice plant] compressor needs to be done.”
While discussing areas of the budget slated to be cut or reduced, Coun. Byron Johnson noted the importance of investing in facility upkeep.
“We put money away all the time for amortization of equipment to replace it down the road. When you look at the curling club and C2, those are our buildings,” said Johnson.
“I think we're going to have to look really closely at those two assets because it's important to keep these buildings up to snuff and the equipment working properly in them because we do own them. If you let them degrade too much, it's going to cost you a lot more in the future.”
Operating budget
When discussing the operating budget’s $1.75 million deficit, council had fewer questions, but big-ticket items stood out quickly.
Council heard that there was an overall decrease in revenue in the amount of $606,262. This was exacerbated by a roughly $1.4 million increase in expenses from the 2023 final budget.
Areas where expenses have increased include funding requests from outside organizations, insurance, the inclusion of a municipal census, addition of a reserve transfer for RCMP COLA (cost of living adjustment), and equipment replacement reserve transfer due to increased equipment costs.
Contracted costs for 911, the patching program, the Beaver River Regional Waste Commission contract, costs for a downtown revitalization plan, flowers and trees, and salaries and benefits based on the negotiated salary increases, also went up.
However, one of the largest impacts to the Town’s operating budget came from one community organization’s funding request. The Stepping Stones Crisis Society is seeking $550,000 from the Town to fund a portion of Phase II for its second stage housing building in Cold Lake, and to operate its satellite office in Bonnyville.
Stoyles noted that without the large request from Stepping Stones the total amount of community funding requests would be on par with previous years.
“We had them as a delegation and $500,000 of that was for a new build... I don't deny that there's a need for it, but I just cannot see the Town supporting that full ask,” said Mayor Elisa Brosseau. “As far as the $50,000, which is to operate their satellite office here in Bonnyville, I can see us supporting that.”
Looking at operational projects that could be postponed, the mayor pointed to the $50,000 increased costs of the downtown revitalization plan.
“I know that has been an initiative that council would like to see but before we actually keep that in the budget, I'd like to see that priority come from the Economic Development Committee,” Brosseau noted.
On Dec. 5, the public will have the opportunity to raise questions and concerns during the budget open house where administration will present a third draft of the two budgets.
