2010 will be an expensive year for Jasper.

The proposed $16 million capital budget is the most the town is expecting to spend over the next five years. The library, activity centre and compost facility will all see millions of dollars of investment in an attempt to upgrade services. The Activity Centre upgrades are required to meet the needs of an athletic, healthy community who use the building frequently (although not as frequently as in previous years), the library is due for an upgrade and the composting facility fits into Jasper’s green priorities, plus the need to divert more waste from landfill.

These upgrades are needed, however that doesn’t mean the money shouldn’t be scrutinized.

The danger, as the municipality experienced in 2009, is that projects in Jasper have come in over budget. Nearly 20 per cent overruns have taxpayers nervous. While other municipalities were able to see some cost savings during the recession, as contractors offered discount prices, Jasper saw the opposite.

While relative distance from the trades play a part, it’s puzzling as to why the town was still paying such a premium. By building so many projects in one year, this won’t necessarily help matters. Labour is tough to come by, and bringing in more workers from Edmonton and beyond doesn’t come cheaply.

It’s not as if the municipality doesn’t realize this fact. The town has responded by hiring an independent auditor for the activity centre project. Council already approved an extra $1 million loan for the activity centre in hopes of saving money down the line, and they want to ensure spending doesn’t exceed that. The town will need to work closely with project managers to keep costs down across the board.

We realize there are difficulties facing the town.

Savings, such as future heating bill cuts and increased usage, are hard to show on a traditional budget sheet, so while administration can justify the cost, it looks ugly. And without word from the provincial government about MSI funding, it’s near impossible to move projects forward. The town is counting on receiving at least 75 per cent of Municipal Sustainability Initiative funding (MSI) in 2010, but there are still no guarantees. For a fund that was supposed to be a saviour for municipalities, it appears to be creating more headaches.

The best the town has is a vaguely worded letter from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs. How are municipalities supposed to build these promised projects without knowledge of when the money is coming?

The risk is the funds won’t come through and the taxpayer will be on the hook for such costs, either through increased debt load or increases in municipal taxes. We also recognize the fact that in the end, it’s all tax dollars - be it municipal, provincial or federal.

Wise spending is required. Council must decide what amount of risk they are willing to take in order to improve facilities, and what projects will need to wait, or be scraped altogether.