Administration officials including Director of Finance Brent Nadon (centre) and City Manager Randy Patrick (right) speak on the 2023 budget at the Dec. 12 North Battleford council meeting. On the left is Margarita Pena, who is replacing Nadon as the new director of finance. Zoom screenshot courtesy city of North Battleford
NB Council passes budget, finalizes tax hikes for 2023
By John Cairns
SASKTODAY.ca
NORTH BATTLEFORD — It is confirmed that North Battleford residents will see their tax bills go up in 2023.
City council passed its 2023 budget Monday, which finalizes the tax increases for the coming year.
According to the final numbers presented by Director of Finance Brent Nadon and approved by council Monday, the property tax increase for 2023 for the general fund will be 5.99 per cent.
That general fund increase is pared down from administration’s original ask of 6.57; instead it was reduced to 4.99 per cent, plus an additional dedicated tax increase for capital of one per cent.
It was whether to include that one per cent that prompted the most discussion at Monday's meeting. Administration made the point that the additional one per cent was needed to keep up with rising capital costs.
“We are going to have in the next few years a real problem with capital,” said City Manager Randy Patrick. “We've got our main costs under control. Capital costs, they are still coming at us.”
According to Nadon, that additional one per cent in 2023 amounts to $155,000. That gives the city just over $450,000 dedicated to capital, or less than 10 per cent of their annual capital expenditures.
Patrick also noted that next year “we will have a very large request” for capital. He also said of the overall budget “it’s as good as we could get, now it's your budget.”
Ultimately, councillors came around to the view of administration on the capital request, and kept in the one per cent increase.
“Based on these numbers we just got, if we don’t put that one per cent in, we are really going backwards,” said Councillor Greg Lightfoot, who also pointed to increased RCMP costs and decreased municipal revenue sharing revenues. “I think we have to approve this the way it is.”
“We’re facing a couple of very large expenses this year that are pushing (the general fund increase) around five, and then we’re dealing with a question of the one per cent,” said Mayor David Gillan, also noting the RCMP costs and municipal revenue sharing.
Councillor Kent Lindgren also said he supported the one per cent, saying “these proposed rates are fair and what our community is needing at the moment.”
In addition to the general fund increase, the budget resolution passed Monday also included increases of 6.8 per cent for waste management (including garbage and recycling), 4.3 per cent for water services utility and 5.5 per cent for sewer.
For Underground Pipes and Asphalt Replacement (UPAR), council approved an increase of the rate of 16.7 per cent, based on a per frontage measurement assigned to each property for 2023.
That sounds steep, but based on the city's estimates, on a monthly basis it amounts to an increase of $3.03 per month or $36.41 per year. A considerable portion will go to sidewalk replacement, with $475,000 dedicated to that.
“It sounds like a large increase but it’s a small rate that hasn't changed for a number of years,” said Nadon.
In addition to approving the 16.7 per cent, council also passed a resolution to bring forward an amendment to the UPAR bylaw to allow sidewalk funding. That carried unanimously.
In relation to the budget, council also approved several other associated resolutions.
Council approved the Downtown Business Improvement District budget that comes to council annually, and also approved for a Parks and Recreation request to increase the aquatic centre's inventory of common interchangeable pumps in the purchase amount of $150,000. Third party grants recommended by the Community Development Financial Committee in the amount of $60,000 were also approved, and a resolution approving a competitive salary increase of two per cent for out-of-scope employees and paid on-call firefighters, effective Jan 1, was also carried. Council also voted to approve an additional mechanic position for the operations department and that a fleet maintenance administration position go from part time to full time.
The final decisions made Monday came after three nights of budget deliberations on Nov. 22 and 29, and Dec. 1, in which council worked to bring down the proposed tax increases.
Final budget for Nadon
In other news from the meeting, this was also the final council meeting for Director of Finance Nadon.
It was announced that Margarita Pena, a longtime city employee who has been the city's finance manager, will take over as the new director of finance.
In concluding remarks, Mayor Gillan thanked Nadon for his service to the City of North Battleford and wished him well.
Nadon said it was “an honour and a privilege to work with this team ... it has been an experience that I will never forget and it has been a great experience."
