Heading into 2019 budget deliberations, the MD of Bonnyville plans to focus on making the area appealing for industries while expanding on recreational opportunities for residents.
As their discussions don’t begin until January 2019, council approved a $49-million interim operating budget that will allow operating expenditures to be paid out for the first quarter of the new year.
They’re hoping to decrease the non-residential mill rate to attract larger organizations, and business owners will continue to benefit from the small businesses property sub-class tax rate.
While no decisions have been made just yet, Coun. Ben Fadeyiw noted the dates council has set up for deliberations will allow them to discuss any changes they would like to see.
In a press release, Reeve Greg Sawchuk said, “This budget will recognize the current economic conditions... Our council will take a conservative approach, while maintaining essential services.”
Currently, the parks, recreation, and culture department is accepting proposals for a feasibility study for a multi-use outdoor recreation park. This is just one of the projects the MD is working on in order to offer more recreational opportunities for their residents to do and to draw regional and provincial sporting events to the area.
While the interim budget outlined the municipality’s operating expenses, a full capital budget wasn’t presented during the meeting.
“What we discussed before is there will be no capital in this initial interim budget, because council hasn’t had a chance to do any budget deliberations yet,” explained CAO Luc Mercier. “We do have one component (in the capital portion)... about the safety vehicles that should be ordered sooner rather than later, because they take so long to get here.”
The total cost for the peace officer vehicles is around $143,000, which is below the $160,000 budgeted.
Administration wanted to remain in line with the 2018 budget, and used the year-to-date amounts to do so.
“Our administration is a smart bunch and really know what we need and how it goes forward. There’s not a lot of increases, and I think that’s kind of what they’re looking for now to keep things going,” said Fadeyiw.
The 2018 year-to-date numbers saw a decrease of over $5-million in revenues compared to what was projected in 2018 budget, bringing the total to just over $88-million for the interim budget.
While bridge repairs had $600,000 included for 2018, none of that had been used at the time of the interim budget was passed, meaning this was pushed over to the 2019 budget.
Just over $430,000 was slated in the 2019 budget for building repairs and maintenance.
Intermunicipal Collaboration Program (ICP) funding for the Bonnyville and District Centennial Centre saw a leap of $136,261, for a total of around $986,000 in 2019.
MD staff salaries dropped about $1-million from 2018. They sit just below $6.7-million for the upcoming year.
Based on the numbers from 2018, unrestricted surplus transfers came-in at just under $23-million.
The MD plans to organize town halls to allow the public to ask questions and make comments regarding the budget.
Council’s budget deliberations will start on Tuesday, Jan. 8 at 11 a.m.
