Sechelt council continued working on the 2020 budget March 11, with a review of capital projects, business cases for requests presented at earlier meetings, and requests brought forward by community associations.
The district’s finance department has been laying out the budget with all requests for new programs and spending on the table, making for some daunting numbers that council is expected to winnow down considerably as the process continues.
“We’re not asking for decisions today, it’s just a continuation of the process we’ve been in,” said director of finance David Douglas in introducing the projects list to councillors.
“The asks and the funding [sources] that have been provided today could change,” added Douglas, who said he was awaiting audits on what is available in current reserves, Development Cost Charges (DCC) and surplus revenues.
Capital requests include three replacement vehicles, among them a new dump truck valued at about $225,000 and an over-seeder for field maintenance, which Douglas said would be a piece of equipment to be shared with other local governments.
Among the budget asks that sparked questions from councillors at the March 11 committee of the whole meeting was $40,000 for an assessment of the lot the district purchased a few years ago across Chapman Creek from Brookman Park. It had at one point been eyed as a possible location for a new visitor information centre.
Douglas explained the $40,000 price tag wasn’t for a conventional property assessment, but geotechnical and other studies to help determine what, if any, building or improvements the land could support.
There is also an estimated $58,000 needed for upgrades and maintenance at the district-owned facilities Rockwood Lodge, Seaside Centre and Mission Point House.
Douglas also said the Library and Municipal Hall building needs a paint job – inside and out – to the tune of about $75,000.
“We’ve had a leak in the tower just recently… There’s some siding that we need to replace and repaint the building,” he said. “It’s probably imperative that this gets done.”
Another item that raised questions was $60,000 for a new district website.
“I’m particularly concerned with use by the public,” said Coun. Matt McLean. “What are we hearing that the public is struggling with [on] our website?”
Communications manager Julie Rogers, whose department oversees the website, said the district gets a lot of calls and emails from people looking for information that’s on the site, but too hard to find.
She also said the page is becoming too hard to manage for staff, citing “about a half a day” needed to build a section on the budget, 20 minutes to post a press release and the fact that it will no longer support the programs needed to allow online payments and facility bookings.
One of the biggest items on the March 11 committee agenda was billed as “additional department requests.”
It amounted to some $1.3 million and Douglas explained the list came out of earlier presentations when Mayor Darnelda Siegers asked each department head a variation of the question, “If you could improve your department today, what would you need to add?”
But few, if any, of those items are likely to make it through to this year’s budget.
“We made a list of that and costed it out,” Douglas said. “Those are probably more futuristic than they are current, but these are the things your staff are looking for down the road and they’re important to them, otherwise they wouldn’t ask for them. It’s a good indicator to know what you’re going to be coming up against down the road from a budgetary perspective.”
Douglas said public open houses on the budget were likely to be held in late April, but it’s unclear how the need for precautions around public events in light of the COVID-19 pandemic will impact those plans.
Council was expected to continue budget talks at the March 25 committee of the whole meeting is now scheduled to be a “video only” meeting.
