Town of Bonnyville council wants to gather feedback from residents before making changes to the 2020 budgets.
During their regular meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 26, council decided against amending the second drafts of the 2020 operational and capital budgets until after the open house on Dec. 3.
"I'm willing to take what we have to the open house, listen to what comes to us from the public at that point, and then make a decision," noted Coun. Brian McEvoy.
The operational budget is currently sitting with $21.65-million in expenditures and revenues are expected to be around $21.12-million, leaving a $525,647 deficit.
Administration's recommendations to balance the operating budget include cancelling the town's membership and attendance to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), reducing disaster services programs, and deferring sewer lift cleaning until 2021.
According to Renee Stoyles, director of finance for the town, the draft budget has a 2.1 per cent increase in utility fees for water, garbage, and recycling based on inflation.
"The monthly fixed charge would increase from $25.01 to $25.53 (for garbage), and the consumption fee (for water) would increase from $2.46 for cubic metre to $2.51 for cubic metre," she said.
The forecasted deficit for the 2020 capital budget is estimated at $5.42-million. Revenues are anticipated to come in around $5.50-million, while expenditures are predicted at $10.93-million.
"As funding from ID 349 remains unknown, there's no revenue allocation under this line item," Stoyles detailed. "We're anticipating $1.15-million in provincial grants and $2.15-million uncommitted funds for the MD of Bonnyville's Intermunicipal Cooperation Program."
In order to address the shortfall, administration suggested deferring the library expansion project, pool infrastructure needs assessment work, and the fine arts feasibility study.
The drafts will be presented to attendees of the open house in council chambers on Dec. 3 at 6 p.m.
Check back for the full story.
Bonnyville could be a FRN hub
Council voted in favour of submitting an expression of interest to become a hub for the Family Resource Network (FRN).
"On Nov. 4, we received the news that Parent Link funding would be terminated on March 31, 2020," explained David Beale, director of the Bonnyville and District FCSS. "Three days later, the province released their new plan for family supports services and this is what they're calling the FRN. Parent Link was a zero to six (years-old) focused program, and it was one of the many programs that was cancelled. The FRN is a zero to 18 program. It's a much more encompassing one and there's lots more services."
The boundaries for the region Bonnyville falls under includes the Town of St. Paul, Village of Vilna, Town of Elk Point, and Village of Glendon.
Beale was originally against the idea of Bonnyville becoming a hub, but later changed his opinion after looking into the role and what it will entail.
"The hub will be selected first out of all of the applicants, and then with the ministry will develop the FRN for their region. They will be at the table with the ministry determining the allocation of the global funding, looking at which agencies will be providing the services, and I would rather be at the table than not as we look at what's going to be delivered and how," he expressed.
Check back for more.
Read the full story on the province's change from Parent Link to FRN.
Town wants more information on economic development partnership
Before committing to a regional economic development partnership with the MD of Bonnyville, council wants a bit more clarity on the topic.
The municipalities have been exploring the possibility of forming a regional economic committee that would address economic development in the area. Over the past two years, they've reached out to other municipalities with similar agreements to see what the initiative could look like locally.
In order to get a better picture of Bonnyville's current economic state, Coun. Elisa Brosseau spoke to local businesses to gather information on what they're doing that's working for them and what isn't, and if there are any gaps in services in the region.
"If we did have an economic development officer, this is something that person could do. In doing so, they could see some of the trends and information from the businesses who are already here," she noted.
Brosseau stressed the importance of developing a partnership, as it would create an inclusive and participatory process that could allow them to approach the topic in a way that benefits the area.
Since the finer details of the economic development officer position, such as who they would work for and report to, were unknown, discussing the topic further with the MD was suggested before the town made any decisions.
The full story on how the MD is looking into economic development can be found here.
Public meeting broadcasting policy nearing completion
The policy regarding council live streaming their meetings needs a little more tweaking before it can be implemented.
In order to allow more residents to watch meetings, council first discussed the possibility during a Oct. 9, 2018 meeting.
How long the videos would be available after the initial airing was a topic discussed by council.
"They will be live streamed, they would be recorded for that purpose, and they wouldn't be archived," explained McEvoy.
He continued, "The intent of this at the beginning was it would be live streamed if people aren't able to attend the meeting, you can watch it on whatever format you want."
As the videos wouldn't be official recordings of the meeting, administration didn't believe archives were necessary.
Whether or not the town would have the copyright for the videos was another aspect raised by council, as some other municipalities have that in place.
The video would be uploaded to the town's website through a streaming service, where residents would have the opportunity to watch from home.
Assistant CAO Bill Rogers said the original plan was to use a free hosting service, but they didn't want viewers to have to deal with ads.
"Instead, we found one that costs a little bit of money, but not a whole lot, that basically lets it appear to broadcast on our website as if we're broadcasting it ourselves," he stated.
Administration will fine tune the policy before presenting it to council at a later meeting for future discussion.
