Like other communities across Saskatchewan, the City of North Battleford is back to reviewing its budget, again.
City officials confirmed at Monday night’s council meeting that they are hard at work looking for potential savings in the operating and capital budgets in the wake of the revenue shortfall from the provincial budget March 22.
The plan now is for administration to give a full report back to council at the April 24 meeting on revisions.
According to City Manager Jim Puffalt the report will outline what administration has been able to do, as well as look at a number of projects that were slated for 2017 and consider which ones to put on hold.
“We need to find out the balance as to what can conceivably be delayed, and what we could delay but it’s going to cost us in the end,” said Puffalt. “So we have to be really careful about what we do here.”
According to Puffalt, it can be expected that the budget will be the main topic that evening.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do in the next two weeks,” said Puffalt. “We’re hoping that council will be able to see their way clear to say ‘yay’ or ‘nay’ to the suggestions we’re making to them and provide their own, and then hopefully we can finalize and get the budget done.”
If decisions on the budget cannot be made that night, Puffalt expects a special meeting could be called.
In any event, decisions will need to be in place by May, as that is the time when the City sets mill rates and sends out tax notices.
That provincial budget blew an estimated $2 million hole in the City’s budget, including a $1.1 million loss of revenue from SaskPower and SaskEnergy payments in lieu.
A few days later, Government Affairs Minister Donna Harpauer announced a 30 per cent cap on payments in lieu cuts.
That provided some relief for North Battleford: instead of losing $1.1 million payments in lieu, they now lose $809,000.
“It’s small consolation,” said Puffalt after Monday’s meeting, who still said the province has no right to take away the payments in lieu.
“It wasn’t part of their bottom line until they took it.”
The city will also have to deal with the loss of payments in lieu permanently, as legislation has been introduced to eliminate the process. Puffalt noted this is not just “a one-year hit, it’s forever and ever now.”
For now, administration will be preparing budget revisions. Administration will be looking to find a way to “minimize impacts on property owners, minimize impacts on infrastucture projects, minimize impacts on services,” said Puffalt.
As to what people might expect, Puffalt indicated it will be a similar approach to what Saskatoon and Regina are doing.
“We’re all doing the same thing,” Puffalt said.
“The City of Saskatoon’s already said they’ll increase the property tax alongside service cuts and capital delays, Regina’s doing the same thing, and honestly we’re looking at the same type of thing.What can we possibly do?”
While there were not a lot of budget decisions or deliberations at council Monday, there was plenty of discussion about the budget and a lot of venting by frustrated municipal officials.
Council accepted correspondence from both the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association as well as CUPE voicing concerns about the provincial budget. SUMA held a press conference earlier that day in Regina in which they again criticized a lack of consultation.
In speaking about the SUMA correspondence Puffalt noted there were other cuts in the budget, including the Urban Highways Connector Program which has been cut to the operating grant itself. Also noted was the massive cut to libraries in the province.
Mayor Ryan Bater said there has been “daily contact” with members of SUMA and with the City Mayors’ Caucus. “This is obviously an ongoing conversation and of vital importance to the city,” said Bater.
“There’s clearly some very difficult decisions for council to make in the coming weeks.”
Councillor Kent Lindgren took the opportunity to again express his frustration with provincial government decisions.
“It’s really disappointing, and the more that comes out about this budget, and the way the government is working right now, our provincial government, it really does seem like they’re on a full-on attack of what cities are doing and trying to undermine the good work that’s happening.”
Councillor Greg Lightfoot was also frustrated as he slammed the province for offloading costs onto municipalities.
“This is definitely being passed down from the provincial government down to the taxpayers of this community in a big way,” said Lightfoot. “And it is very frustrating.”
