BONNYVILLE – Last Wednesday, the MD of Bonnyville council approved the municipality’s 2022 capital and operating budgets.
Both budgets have been balanced with the total operating budget set at $110,738,990 and the capital budget set at $50,581,990. This is based on revenue and grants the MD is anticipating to receive in 2022, and the capital projects and operational expenses the municipality has planned.
The 2022 capital budget includes $36.4 million worth of capital projects carried forward from previous years. Capital projects include projects such as road construction, equipment replacement and building new municipal infrastructure.
The majority of the budget is being funded through General Municipal Revenue, which includes property taxes slated to come in at over $102-million for 2022.
Other funding sources for the municipality include grants, reserves, fees, fines, and revenue from Parks, Recreation and Culture, and Kinosoo Ridge.
These funding sources also help cover the cost of the day-to-day running of the municipality, including staff wages, fuel, building maintenance and utilities.
Since public consultations were held at Ardmore, Cherry Grove, Glendon and La Corey at the end of November, minor adjustments reflecting increased expenses associated with rising material costs, increases to insurance rates, and energy costs were accounted for in the final budget.
After concerns were raised by councillors on the energy cost hikes, CAO Al Hoggan explained the 50 cent increase per gigajoule is closely tied to the carbon tax that will take effect in April.
“A great deal of this and the information we are getting - and if you talk to your own natural gas and electricity providers - you will likely find out that your gas and electricity will probably go up this year by 23 per cent. It's across the board,” said Hoggan. “We're actually being told the long-term forecast that our electricity rates could be three to four times what we're paying this year inside the next 24 months.”
He continued, “Gas is not quite as bad, but electricity rates are clearly going up... as coal generators are coming offline. They have to be made up somewhere and that's impacting us. And of course, the federal, provincial carbon taxes is a big player in this as well.”
Items that were added in the final budget include Christmas light replacements in Ardmore and Fort Kent, as well as providing funding to resurface the Eastbourne Courts to include pickleball lines, which will take the form of a $50,000 grant through the operating budget.
In relation to the Christmas lights, Tolulope Maraiyesa, the general manager of corporate services told council, “This year, the infrastructure department realized that the lights to decorate the Fort Kent and Ardmore Hamlets were fire risks... so they are not able to use those Christmas lights for those hamlets.”
As a result, $60,000 for the new decorating lights was set aside. The funds include the cost of replacing Cherry Groves’ lights for next year as well.
Administration informed council that through the budget open houses, there was no requests from residents that had a direct impact on the proposed 2022 budgets.
Council will set the 2022 mill rates in the spring.
Ward 6 North (ID 349)
During the meeting, council also agreed to transfer $708,276 to cashflow reserves, with the money coming from the three per cent administrative fee that the MD collects for dispersing tax revenues collected from Ward 6 North (formerly known as ID 349).
The fee was not accounted for in the 2021 budget, as the agreement had been signed after the budget had passed.
The purpose of the transfer is to help replenish the funds drawn from the reserve after council decided to cover unbudgeted maintenance costs at Kinosoo Ridge Resort.
For maintenance of the La Corey North Resource Road, the MD will receive $2.2 million from the levies and penalties for Ward 6 North.
The 2021 levies and penalties for Ward 6 North totaled $23,740,547. Also receiving funds from Ward 6 North will be the City of Cold Lake ($13.6 million), the Town of Bonnyville ($6.1 million), and the Village of Glendon ($932,714).
A balance of $131,318 has not yet been collected from Ward 6 North by the municipalities.
First draft of a master rates bylaw passes
The MD council gave first reading to a master rates bylaw, Bylaw No. 1786. This bylaw incorporates all fees and fines imposed by the MD combined into one document.
Maraiyesa explained the master rate bylaw is to act as a living document that could be adjusted to reflect rates set by various municipal departments.
“For this bylaw, the intent once it gets approved by council is to have this on our website so it provides us a one stop place for all of our fees charged at the MD for all of our residents to see,” she told council.
In the draft, all of the departments are grouped, and all the rates set by the MD and their associated departments are included.
Hoggan added that when reviewing the MD’s policies and bylaws that there were discrepancies with how fees and fines were implemented.
"One of the problems we stumbled into when I got here, is we have no legal authority to charge a fee through a policy. The MGA (Municipal Government Act) is very clear that the council may charge a fee through a bylaw. So, we decided through that to get everything in one document... We did not change any of the rates in the bylaw, this is just to get everything into a single document.”
Hoggan adds that over the next several months, the bylaw will likely return multiple times as it takes shape, and amendments may need to be addressed for some of the rates.
Other decisions
Other decisions made by council during the Dec. 8 regular meeting included selling two vehicles from the public safety department to another law enforcement agency.
Council also denied an official request from the Cherry Grove Recreation and Agricultural Society for the maintenance of the newly constructed outdoor Cherry Grove ice rink.
On the heels of that decision, council passed a motion to terminate the current agreements, and renegotiate new agreements with both the Cherry Grove Ag and Ardmore Community societies in relation to the covered outdoor rinks, that will see the MD take a more structured role in the maintenance for the facilities.
The motion also included direction to administration to immediately undertake the maintenance at both outdoor ice surfaces.
Council approved the unbudgeted expenditure of $440,000, to be funded from cashflow reserves, to install sidewalks on either side of the Thin Lake River Bridge, located off Range Road 474.
The bridge is slated for replacement this year, but when including the sidewalk additions in the tenders, the price came in over the $1.6 million budget.
