For the third year in a row, council has opted to wait for the year-end numbers for 2014 before voting on this year’s municipal operating budget.
Instead, on Jan. 6, council approved an interim budget, to allow administration to continue with business as usual, until the finals bills arrive next month.
As it stands, the proposed budget calls for a 4.37 per cent tax increase, as well as a 19.71 per cent increase to the town’s water rates.
By waiting for the actuals from 2014, council will have a better understanding of the overall budget—where administration budgeted too much or too little—presumably allowing for a more accurate budget for 2015.
That could mean a decrease or an increase to the proposed budget, as those actuals could illuminate instances of either over budgeting or under budgeting.
“We have options both ways,” said Coun. Gilbert Wall, who pushed for council to pass an interim budget. “We may get some year-end stuff that says we have to add a couple of [percentage] points.
“It’s not only that we could remove a point, we could end up having some numbers that could have us revisiting some of the other lines. I just think this is a really prudent way to go.
“We started this two years ago ... and we had never done an interim budget before, and I think that the process that we went through to have an interim budget—and look at the actuals—was good for us as a council, and I think it’s still good for us as a council to see the actual numbers before we pass something.”
Wall is specifically concerned about the utility costs for each of the departments, as there are large variances between what was budgeted and what was actually spent in nearly all of the them.
“Frankly, I’m having trouble following the energy line through the entire budget,” he said. “That’s one big ticket item I see where passing an interim budget now and looking at our actuals might be really useful.”
Wall’s difficulty is the result of a new contract that was negotiated in 2013. That contract was meant to greatly decrease the utility costs for the municipality, but in many cases it created problems for directors as they were estimating their utility costs for the 2014 budget.
“Some of the directors found it a bit more of a challenge to forecast accurately,” explained Alice Lettner, director of finance. “The big ones we’re looking at are the cost of the streetlights, that was one that we felt was overestimated, and utilities in our public works building and again the high cost of the bailers for bailing our recycling.”
The final utility bills for 2014 will arrive in February. Once they have been included in the 2014 budget, council will take a second look and determine whether the estimates for 2015 are too conservative or too generous.
Lettner said she understands council’s desire to see the finalized numbers, but warned that utility costs won’t stay the same from year to year.
“While our rates will remain the same and our wire charges will not change this year, consumption could still go up or down, so you still have to recognize that they’re not going to be completely dead on, we will have some variance in that,” she said, noting that all it takes is a cold winter for consumption rates to jump.
Administration is dubbing the 2015 budget as “status quo,” with no new services being added.
Making up the majority of the proposed 4.37 per cent tax increase is a transfer of $167,500 to restricted funds, in order for the culture and recreation department to maintain and repair its facilities.
Those funds would go toward some major repairs to the activity centre and arena, as well as the purchase of a new Zamboni, salary increases and an asset management plan that would outline and schedule future repairs to the activity centre.
When asked why those funds aren’t already available in the department’s restricted fund, Lettner explained that the money that was there for a new Zamboni, as well as ongoing maintenance, was depleted a few years ago.
“[Culture and recreation’s] restricted funds were depleted when there were overruns building the fitness centre, and they haven’t been adequately replenished. So, really what we should have done in 2011 was a transfer to reserves at that point in time and not waited until now.”
Also highlighted in the budget is the need for maintenance and repairs to the town’s aging infrastructure.
It’s that infrastructure that is responsible for the substantial increase to the town’s water rates.
Jasper’s waterlines and valves are in dire need of replacement and maintenance—as was made especially clear when the municipality responded to 11 emergency valve replacements this year and, in turn, was unable to complete the five that it had scheduled.
To catch up with the rapid deterioration of the town’s infrastructure, the municipality is putting funds in the budget for replacement and maintenance and, in the long term, it is creating an asset management plan that will assist the municipality in prioritizing its efforts.
The municipality’s proposed budget is available in its entirety on its website: www.jasper-alberta.com.
It will appear before council again in February, once the year-end numbers are available for both the municipality’s utility costs and snow removal costs.
In the meantime, administration will operate under the interim budget, continuing business as usual.
“However,” explained Lettner of the interim budget, “if there is something specific that has not been approved in the budget, we would ask staff to delay initiating that, so for instance, in culture and rec, if [council is] uncertain if all of that money is going to be transferred to their restricted funds, we would ask them not to start doing their projects.
“It just simply delays some of those major activities until the funds are definitely secured.”
Nicole Veerman
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