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Lac La Biche County Mayor questions "Cadillac" levels, despite population drop

Mayor questions increase costs, new hires and new equipment requests for decreasing population

LAC LA BICHE - During the ongoing discussions to create the 2023 municipal budget, Lac La Biche County councillors have not only been streamlining their funding — there's an indication they might be looking at staffing numbers as well. 

Almost 50 per cent of the municipality's annual expenses — or about $30 million — are spent on salaries and benefits. While that percentage is not unusual among other municipalities, recent comments from Mayor Paul Reutov indicate the number of staff compared to the County's population might be an issue. 

'Cadillac' county, says mayor 

Chairing recent budget discussions that have seen officials from all municipal departments present their own budgets and financial plans to council, Reutov is concerned with the increasing dollar requests compared to the decreasing population numbers highlighted in the most recent Statistics Canada census. 

"We've got these Cadillac departments servicing like 7,500 people...and we need to find efficiencies today to sustain growth."  

- Lac La Biche County Mayor Paul Reutov as council looks at ways to find overall efficiencies in the 2023 budget

"I'm looking at it that we had a seven percent decline in our population, and yet we need ... more people ... to service less people ...  It seems we have this massive infrastructure organization... or this machine, to service such a little population base," he said during a recent public meeting to discuss the budget. "We've got these Cadillac departments servicing like 7,500 people...and we need to find efficiencies today to sustain growth." 

Going into the new week, with more budget discussions planned, the working financial document showed $62 million in operating expenditures and $73 million in projected revenues. 

Reutov says that is a lot of money to operate a municipality that has seen its population decline, not grow over the last five years. At the same time, he says many municipal departments are looking to increase staffing and equipment needs. 

 The municipality currently fills the equivalent of about 250 full-time positions (FTE), including seasonal, casual and part-time staff. The new budget calls for the addition of 10 new FTE positions, with more than half for the Infrastructure Services department. 

"Our budget to service that ... we have a $29 million payroll to service 7,600 people. On top of that we spend $73 million as an overall budget," he said. 

Competitive workplace 

While the mayor took aim at staffing, the wages for Lac La Biche County's staff and its nine elected council members were recently upgraded following a comparison study compiled by a municipally-contracted consultant. The result of the study called for increases to the local wages in order to be considered in the 70th percentile of other communities. Those increases were approved by council last year. The study also led the way to changes in the pay structure for council members, including the mayor's own $110,000 a year salary. Councillors have also agreed to add cost of living increases of more than six per cent to municipal employees. 

Despite those approved additions, the mayor said the number-one thing residents ask him about, is the number of municipal staff and vehicles. 

If the staffing and expenses are at this level now, he said, how are they going to be reflected when populations increase and community growth returns. 

"We cannot keep raising our taxes and administration levels and keep coming back to say we need more money and more money, when we have zero growth today — in fact we have a decline. So when this population is going down our administration is rising," he said, expressing concerns about how staffing and expenses will look when populations increase and growth returns.  "How are we going to control it? … I would assume our FTEs or our hires would follow our growth, but here it's going the opposite; our growth is going down and our costs go up." 

High service levels 

Administrators overseeing the municipality's finance department, including the proposed budget document, say that service levels in the municipality can do more to affect budgets than population. 

"Our service levels don't look at the number of people who are there, it looks at the kilometres of road or utility pipe ...," said the County's Finance Department Manager Zeeshan Hasan. 

Elected municipal officials help to determine and approve those service levels through their policy-setting roles. 

During recent budget discussions, at least one council member — Ward 1 Coun. Darlene Beniuk — has publicly suggested that some service levels could be decreased if it means saving money.  

Staffing levels and service levels will continue to be on the discussion table as Lac La Biche County councillors go into another week of budget deliberations.  

The deadline for final approval of the 2023 municipal budget is December 31. Municipal tax rates have been part of the recent budget discussions but will not be officially set until April of next year. 

Lac La Biche Councillors are expected to extend their budget discussions by adding a December 16 date. That additional meeting request is expected to be made at their December 6 council meeitng this week.

 


Rob McKinley

About the Author: Rob McKinley

Rob has been in the media, marketing and promotion business for 30 years, working in the public sector, as well as media outlets in major metropolitan markets, smaller rural communities and Indigenous-focused settings.
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