BONNYVILLE – The Town of Bonnyville is holding an open house to go over the 2023 operating and capital budgets, seeking input from residents.
The budget open house will take place in council chambers at Town Hall on Dec. 6, starting at 6 p.m.
Following a review of the Town’s draft budgets, ratepayers will have an opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback about how the municipality moves forward with next year’s capital and operational budgets.
The Town’s proposed 2023 capital budget is balanced at $16.4 million, however, feedback from residents can still impact what the interim budget will look like.
A $1 million transfer to a new swimming pool reserve has also been proposed for the capital budget in preparation for building a new aquatic centre in 2025.
“What you're seeing in our capital budget is our attempt to start socking money away in the event that we're successful, and we can make this project a go,” said Bill Rogers, the CAO of the Town of Bonnyville.
Town council and municipal administration are working together make a new aquatic centre a possibility by earmarking funding for the project, as well as looking at opportunities to partner with the MD of Bonnyville and seek federal funding.
“Our residents have made it very clear that they want this and we're doing our best to plan for it and we'll have to see where it goes. It's a big project. There's a lot of work to do to get to the point where we can pull the trigger on it, so to speak and we're just literally doing that now. But it's no secret, that's for sure,” Rogers told Lakeland This Week.
When it comes to the Town’s draft operating budget, more work still needs to be done in order to bring it into the black.
With capacity for a $23.4 million operating budget, the Town’s second draft sits at a $741,139 deficit.
In order to reduce both the deficit and potential tax increase that would be needed to balance the operating budget, Renee Stoyles, the Town’s general manager of corporate services, provided some options that council and ratepayers can consider during the upcoming open house.
Council could reduce the amount of funds provided to outside organizations requesting financial support. Funding requests sought by outside organizations for the 2023 budget term has increased by $125,930, compared to the previous year.
The Town could increase the utility and garbage fees or pull from the operating reserve, which sits at about $2.7 million.
“Including any of the above options would reduce the overall operating deficit and as such would also reduce the amount of tax increase required to balance the interim operating budget for 2023,” said Stoyles.
If the remaining deficit is not reduced, it would equate to a 9.13 per cent tax increase for ratepayers.
The proposed 2021 draft operating budget that was presented at the Town’s budget open house last year had a deficit of just over $1.2 million before it was balanced and approved as an interim operating budget.
