Sechelt council members had another opportunity to ask questions about the provisional budget during their March 13 committee of the whole.
David Douglas, Sechelt’s director of financial services, clarified that almost every sheet in the budget booklet has been swapped out since the first round as staff have incorporated all the decisions of council or committee of the whole to date, including a shortened list of capital and additional operating requests.
The next steps for staff will be to take the one-year budget and “push it out into a five-year plan,” said Douglas. The plan is to be presented to council for comment on April 3 along with a “multitude” of bylaws, intending to have them receive their first reading before the first council meeting in May.
Coun. Dianne McLauchlan raised concerns over the renewal of the municipal hall, asking aside from the water damage, why the the project went from a $600,000 budget last year to a multi-year, multi-million dollar project.
Douglas explained that the first two phases of the envelope renewal were combined to get better pricing and that Phases 3 and 4 will proceed in future years, clarifying that the budget allocations for the envelope renewal of the building have nothing to do with additions at this point.
He added that in future meetings, staff will still talk about specific options around how to proceed with the building if they are interested, otherwise, staff will proceed with maintenance of the building.
Council spoke about the proposed 8.48 property tax increase and the importance of keeping their budget as low as possible and saving money for the community.
“I don't want to raise taxes either. But at the same time, we don't want to get caught in situations where we need to fix things, and we don't have the money to do it,” said Coun. Donna Bell.
McLauchlan suggested leaving room in the budget for community-based projects related to climate change, resilience and adaptation.
Sechelt’s provisional budget will be presented next during the council’s April 3 regular meeting, and the 5-year financial plan will be presented before May 15.
Jordan Copp is the Coast Reporter’s civic and Indigenous affairs reporter. This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.
