It’ s hundreds of pages long, but the drafted county budget for 2016 is concise in at least one way. “It looks daunting. It’ s three inches thick...
It’ s hundreds of pages long, but the drafted county budget for 2016 is concise in at least one way.
“It looks daunting. It’ s three inches thick...but we got it all into one binder,” said Dan Small, Lac La Biche County’ s senior manager of finance and grants.
“Two binders wouldn’ t hurt, you know,” Mayor Omer Moghrabi replied, thumbing through his own heavy compendium of spreadsheets and spending proposals.
County councillors held a pair of special meetings last week to discuss next year’ s municipal budget. Small and a flock of department managers and supervisors guided council through the many lists of sums that were presented-emphasizing more than once that it’ s up to the politicians to say “yea” or “nay” to what’ s on the table.
County staffers have drafted a budget that proposes $96.8 million in spending, both on municipal operations and on capital investments. The county is also forecasting approximately $81 million in operational revenues and $67 million in general revenues, but that number is subject to change based on property tax rates, provincial requisitions and other factors.
This year, both operational and capital budgets have been drafted and presented simultaneously. That’ s meant to accelerate the entire budgeting process, but it has also meant more calculator button-pressing for administrators.
“Math is difficult,” several councillors joked in a meeting last Monday, alluding to a now-infamous statement made by former premier Jim Prentice.
The goal is to approve and adopt next year’ s official budget in mid-December. Previous budgets have taken much longer to finalize. The 2015 budget, for example, was approved in April.
The mayor says council already has plenty of information to work with and there shouldn’ t be many hiccups, considering how thorough the drafted budget is.
“If you look at these hundreds of pages, it’ s all very transparent,” Moghrabi said. “The numbers are all there. There’ s nowhere to hide.”
Council has decided to nail down operational spending before digging into capital expenditures. Some of the capital projects in the proposed budget are paving the first stage of Old Trail ($6.5 million), continuing the five-year sidewalk replacement program ($900,000), beautifying Plamondon’ s main thoroughfare ($1.45 million) and upgrading Willow Park Cemetery in Lac La Biche ($148,000).
The budget also included $210,000 for renovating McArthur Place’ s council chambers, but councillors revisited that topic during a regular meeting last Tuesday.
As budgetary discussions continue, Moghrabi says council is keeping the precarious economic situation in mind.
“We are going to be mindful of any increases in the budget-and mindful of decreases, too, because it goes both ways,” he said, elaborating that council wants to avoid cutting spending on vital programs and services. “I think this will be a very thoughtful process.”
According to county documents, the current economic downturn, sparked by a worldwide drop in oil prices, has had some impacts on municipal finances but not as many as people might think.
“Revenue-wise, the County is relatively sheltered from economic impacts,” a budgetary briefing reads. “The biggest revenue impacts are in water/sewer revenue (sales to camps have decreased) and in planning and development (fewer building and safety codes permits).”
While the proposed budget is for 2016, with some considerations for 2017 and later years, Alberta’ s Municipal Government Act (MGA) is undergoing revisions that might lead to more long-term thinking being required.
MGA amendments that haven’ t been penned yet but are expected to take effect in the months ahead will require municipalities to create three-year operating plans and five-year capital plans.
So is a plan the same as a budget? If not, then how are they different? Councillor Robert Richard asked those questions last Monday, but Small said the answers aren’ t known yet because the legislation has yet to be written.
Budget talks are continuing into December. A meeting specifically for public consultation purposes has been scheduled for Nov. 30.
