Sechelt councillors are nearing the end of the 2018 budget deliberations, after endorsing a set of committee recommendations at their April 4 meeting.
The latest budget moves include looking to savings on the operating side and approving some reallocation of reserves in order to free up the money to go ahead with a sewer expansion.
It’s expected to cost just over $2,019,000 to expand the sewer system to West Sechelt Area A06, but despite an infrastructure grant of over $1.1 million and sewer reserves there would still be a $531,897 shortfall.
At the March 28 finance, culture and economic development committee meeting, director of finance Doug Stewart suggested that about $83,000 could be moved from the general surplus because two new staff positions approved for 2018 are not likely to be filled until July 1. He also proposed using $199,160 from the sewer reserve earmarked for other projects and then use gas tax funds for those projects. The remainder of the shortfall, $26,350, would be drawn from the capital reserve.
Councillors did not, however, back delaying construction of a chemical storage area at the Water Resource Centre by one year.
“Shuffling that money puts the people who are on staff in that building at risk,” said Coun. Doug Wright. “We also run the risk of WorkSafe BC coming in and telling us we have to do it anyway.”
Mayor Bruce Milne said the hard decisions and the need to draw the capital and gas tax reserves down even further should send a message to the public as well as the present and future councils.
“It’s pretty important for people to see just how close to the bone we’re having to budget,” he said. “It’s kinda scary actually… The most basic infrastructure that municipal governments have to deal with is waste water, and here we have to do all this juggling to be able to do it.”
Councillors also approved Stewart’s recommendation that $142,500 from reserves be used for “one-time initiatives” in the operating budget, such as the $34,000 anticipated cost of running the 2018 election and a $20,000 grant for the Seniors Planning Table.
That move will reduce the overall tax increase to 5.78 per cent.
Coun. Darren Inkster said he wanted to ensure the public knows what went into lowering that number. “I think it’s important that we communicate, especially this year, in terms of how much we’ve wrestled with it,” he said. “I’ve seen spin in the past… I just think we should inform as best we can this year.”
Milne agreed. “I think we can be positive about the decisions we make on the budget and express them as positive commitments to the community,” he said. “But I agree we should be careful about how tricky we get in those explanations, shall I say.”
Wright suggested the first step in that communication should be ensuring the recommendation from the committee clearly break down the overall tax increase into 2.78 per cent for operating expenses, including two new staff, and three per cent for infrastructure renewal. “I think it’s really important that [residents] know three per cent of that 5.78 [per cent] is going into future infrastructure that we need to repair.”
