Deliberations over the city's operating budget and five-year capital plan began Tuesday night at city hall in North Battleford.
The deliberations continued Wednesday and were expected to resume next Monday and Tuesday night, as councillors consider administration's recommended mill rate increase of 3.9 per cent.
Deliberation sessions began with a review of general governmental and protective services provisions of the budget. The lengthy discussion then dealt with transportation services, environmental and public health, planning and development.
Recreation culture and parks were on the agenda Wednesday and are expected to conclude next week with discussion of revenues and taxation. While both Monday and Tuesday next week are booked for budget meetings, the Tuesday meeting may not be necessary as the deliberations moved swiftly during the first session this week.
The budget document was presented at Monday's council meeting by Finance Director Byron Tumbach, who said this will be his last budget in the position with the city before he moves on to a new opportunity in the Qu'Appelle Valley.
Tumbach said a number of priorities, linked from the strategic plan, were taken into account in preparing the budget.
The first was a branding and marketing initiative, with the focus to brand North Battleford as a "have" city.
The second priority is downtown development, with work on that going forward in 2012.
"A vibrant community needs a strong downtown core," said Tumbach.
The third priority is managing growth, with expanded facilities, new components, plus expanded capacity of infrastructure and new residential and commercial subdivisions.
Maintaining and creating partnerships was another major priority identified, as was attracting business. The last priority outlined by Tumbach was carrying out service delivery plans, investing in city employees with professional development and in maintaining a safe working environment.
Tumbach identified several challenges facing the city. One is preparing a history book for the 2013 centennial as well as anniversary preparations. A total of $4 million in road reconstruction upgrades is needed over the next five years, he said, including asphalt on 100th Street from 11th to 17th Avenue, partnering with Saskatchewan Highways and Infrastructure.
Completion of the Waste Management Facility Cell 3 is another priority. Tumbach also identified expanded water treatment capacity and improved quality of water from that expansion and new wells as in the works.
Other challenges include a business plan to change service delivery for waste management to rollout bins, street lights projects, four brand new recreation and culture facilities in the Credit Union CUPlex, as well as the addition of five additional RCMP members.
One big issue the city could face, Tumbach noted, could come from the results of the census in 2012. If the city exceeds 15,000 population, Tumbach said the contract with the RCMP could change dramatically as the cost share per member would go from 70 to 90 per cent.
That would mean the RCMP contract would increase by more than $770,000 from April to December 2012 and over $1 million the year after that.
The City is proposing the general mill rate be raised to 18.758 mills from 18.177 mills to meet all the services required. The increase varies depending the classes. For residential and condominiums, the increase is 3.1 per cent. For vacant residential land it is 13.5 per cent. For agricultural, it is 4.3 per cent. For multi-family, 4.4 per cent. For elevators, pipelines and other commercial, 3 per cent.
Based on a market value of $100,000, residential and condo units can expect to see increases of $56, a multifamily four-plex $90 and commercial $100.
For utility rates, a 3.9 per cent increase is being proposed for the combined water, sanitary sewer and sanitation. Customers using 25 cubic metres can expect residential water charges of $26.74, a residential water base of $17.17, a residential sewer rate of $21.97, a residential sewer base of $21.44, and a waste management fee of $9. The total would come to $96.33, up from $92.71 in 2011.
The City is also proposing to amend the tipping fees schedule at the land fill with an increase of 50 per cent across the board. Sorted recyclable material will be unchanged for residents, however. As well, there will be a $1/door increase in waste management fees from $8 to $9.
At least one councillor voiced preliminary support for the budget during comments aimed at council's television audience Monday night.
Councillor Ron Crush said he was "excited" about the proposed budget. He noted other communities were considering utility increases in the range of 10 per cent, and also expressed the view the budget will meet the pressing infrastructure needs of the community.
"I'm proud of this budget as a councillor," said Crush.
There were no changes made to the budget document based on the first night of deliberations Tuesday, as councillors reviewed each section of the budget document and asked questions of administration.
That prompted Councillor Brad Pattinson to raise concerns. He said council should be asking questions and looking for more cost savings, particularly on the operations side of things.
Crush said the budget process was about meeting the goals and objectives of a strategic plan that had been implemented. Crush didn't want to "whack and hack", as he put it.
That prompted a response from Councillor Trent Houk.
"I always want to find efficiencies," said Houk, saying the arrival of the CUPlex could lead to overlaps with the Don Ross Centre.
Also, "we're operating two galleries, and I'm wondering if we could operate them under one roof," suggested Houk, who wanted to see that longstanding issue addressed as well.
While not much news came out of the first day of deliberations, there were some items of note.
One is a move by the city to go "paperless" in the future, outfitting council and senior administration with the necessary computer hardware and software at a cost of $20,000.
Council had previously directed administration to move in this direction and reaffirmed the plan Tuesday by a 5-2 show of hands, although both Pattinson and Houk had reservations about the idea.
Pattinson said it would be impossible for the City to go completely paperless, and voiced the view there would be no saving of paper even if the changes were brought in. Houk was also skeptical, but he did indicate he might support it if the changes would save administration time.
Other items discussed Tuesday were protective services, infrastructure and the airport. Administration confirmed at the meeting that a number of proposed improvements at the airport, such as a deer fence, were taken out of the budget due to cost. The deer fence would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to City Manager Jim Toye.
As well, penalties will be going up for those bringing large quantities of recyclable materials to the landfill, including cardboard and wood. Director of Public Works Stewart Schafer reports a surcharge for $125 for a first offence, $250 for a second offence, $500 for a third and $1,000 for each offence after, all in a calendar year, will be brought.
The moves are being done to cut down on the amount of recyclables that fill up the landfill cells and end up costing the City money in coming up with new cells.
City administration also has come up with a way to finance a proposed move away from back lane receptacles to individual rollout bins.
The proposed conversion has been discussed at council before and there had been a successful trial in one neighbourhood, but the move has yet to go ahead because of cost concerns.
Tumbach reported administration plans to bring forward a business plan to pay for the containers, which will see the reserve contribution guideline increased from $300,000 to $750,000. The 50 per cent tipping fee increase at the waste management facility and the $1 per head increase in waste management fees would go to pay for that rollout.
