NORTH BATTLEFORD - North Battleford council has passed its 2024 budget, and it means increases are coming yet again for city taxpayers.
After one last round of discussion, council voted in favor of the budget in a series of votes at their regular council meeting Monday. The main decision to come down at the meeting was to decide what the property tax increase would be. In the end, the final approved hike is for 4.42 per cent, down from the originally proposed 5.12 per cent hike.
Director of finance Margarita Peña presented the final budget to council Monday night. Council found a number of efficiencies in the budget in relation to a number of areas which reduced the size of the final property tax hike.
However, the final increase also factors in a larger than originally proposed increase in the service contract with the RCMP, up from three to four per cent, to cover the retroactive contract payment. Four per cent is expected to be more in line with recent developments at other police departments, in this case Vancouver whose wage increase is expected to be 4.5 per cent following their collective bargaining.
The RCMP costs ended up taking up much of the 2024 budget increase. According to the city’s news release 3.75 per cent of the general tax rate is designated for policing costs.
Council did have the option to possibly go even lower with its property tax increase, down to 3.97, but that would have meant removing a $200,000 purchase of a 1.5 ton crane from the 2024 budget and delaying that purchase for a year to 2025, while spending $30,000 on a rental for 2024. In the end, council has kept the crane in the budget.
Also going up are recycling and garbage collection charges for the Waste Management Facility by 4.4 per cent, driven by an increase with their service provider Loraas. Water base and consumption will see a rise of 4.5 per cent, while the sewer base and consumption will go up four percent.
There is no increase coming to the Recreation and Cultural Capital Facility Levy, or to the Underground Pipe and Asphalt Replacement Fund. This is in line with what was proposed by administration prior to deliberations.
The 2024 budget is also proposing a spend of $9.6 million for capital investments, which Peña said is about $400,000 less than what they were investing in 2018.
One issue raised at Monday’s meeting was the concern the city was falling behind in its replacement program addressing aging infrastructure. Administration provided a graph which showed capital asset additions down since 2021, down from $14,785,830 to $9,606,923.
Peña noted other cities are facing the same pressure, and pointed to inflation issues. Another issue is ability to access grants. “There’s not enough grants for municipalities to go and try to catch up,” she said.
The major concern on the capital side that was discussed at length at the meeting is an estimated capital shortfall of $1,042,133. City administration’s plan to address it was by tapping into unappropriated reserves to avoid using external funding.
That idea raised alarm bells from Mayor David Gillan, who saw a situation of capital not being in balance and of the City spending more money than they are bringing in.
“If we continue to do that we’re just burning our own cash flow,” said Gillan, who saw a situation where the city would use up their own rainy day fund. “We can’t keep using our own money,” he said.
The indication from Gillan is they intend to revisit that whole discussion in the new year. The budget was approved as presented.
According to the city’s news release, the Finance Department anticipates mill rates will be set in May 2024. As for 2023 taxes, the city city says outstanding property tax amounts owing are set to incur a 10 per cent penalty beginning on Jan. 2, 2024 if amounts remain unpaid. Tax inquiries can be made by phone at 306-445-1706 or by emailing [email protected].
