Budget 2013

I had hoped that this budget would be one of revitalization of our organization based upon the Russell Farmer Organizational Report ‘Pursuit of Excellence’.

That is not to be.

The 87 recommendations of the organizational wide review are not being released until the new Commissioner does a detailed analysis of the recommendations, and works with Council to select and prioritize the recommendations that ‘fit’ with our community’s immediate and long term needs.

Until then Council needed to deal with the budget put before us...an overall ask of 4.9% tax rate increase that contained some ambitious capital and planning projects as well as programs.

Council pared that budget down to 2.6 %. Why not more? Why not less?

It’s a balance of maintaining services; trying to maintain user fees at reasonable levels while trying to absorb the increasing costs that are passed on from utility providers; and maintaining the right mix of capital projects that support our community’s quality of life objectives.

Capital plans included: 

·      $ .25 mill to plan a new fire hall (AIMP grant funded)*

·      $ 1 mill for modernization of another fire station(MSI)*

·      $ 2 mill for old County Hall renovations (MSI)*

·      $ 2.6 mill to fund Emerald Hills aquatic/wellness centre (surplus)

·      $ 1.3 mill to build a specialized fire training centre

·      1.74 mill for the Spray Park (surplus)

·      $ .75 mill to build a parking lot adjacent to turf field and ABJ (surplus)

The new fire hall planning, modernizations of the existing firehall and County Hall renovations were deferred*. I have seen this organization, its enthusiasm, take on more than it can handle. I have seen building project after project delayed, in part due to lack of internal resources. I believe that delay of these projects will free up valuable human and material resources to focus our energies and dollars more tightly and efficiently on community projects and places that contribute to health and wellness.

While there were many excellent projects brought forward; this budget needed to support our community’s social capital: projects and programs that focus on health, wellness and universal accessibility.

 I say: let’s emulate an athlete:  take a breather, bulk up for our endurance race to come....the implementation of the organizational review recommendations.

Some major business initiatives that are approved to proceed are:

·      Safety, inspection and fire prevention program

·      Risk mitigation in rural neighbourhoods

·      Open date portal and Civic Reporter program

·      Support program for children experiencing violence

·      Youth intervention program

·      RCMP extended front counter service

·      Specialized transit Service Restructure

Strathcona County Council has a mix of places to draw from at budget time. There is MSI (provincial municipal infrastructure funding); reserves; surplus (this year amounting to approximately 9.4 million); and debt financing.

Council has to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of how and where to use these funding sources. Sometimes using debt for long term large community projects contributes to the right formula to amortize the construction to create fair intergenerational equity. Utilizing our surplus has been something Council has been advised against drawing on for other than ‘one time more capital oriented projects’.

This year, Council utilized over a 2.66 million dollars from that surplus toward funding the budget. I believe that it behooves any private or public business to ensure that there is a prudent use of surpluses and reserves, but I do think the time has come to review Council’s policy and philosophy on utilizing surpluses toward tax and debt reduction, as requested by the county’s Chamber of Commerce. Council passed a motion to review the surplus policy at the end of budget session.