As the City prepares to deliberate the 2015 budget, department heads have been directed to see where they can find savings by going over their budgets with a fine-toothed comb.
Mayor Roy Ludwig said with some thinking outside of the box, there is hope the various managers will be able to find some efficiencies in the municipal system.
It’s all part of a mantra coming from City Hall that there is to be no more spending beyond their means. Non-essential items may need some rock-solid reasoning if they are to be undertaken by the City prior to the repayment of a debt that hit about $47 million and currently sits close to about $32 million.
“It’s going to be fairly tight,” Ludwig said about the 2015 budget in an interview last week, noting he expects the coming budget, like the 2014 directive, to include few, if any, frills. “We’re looking at continuing to pay down our debt and doing whatever we can within our means.
“That’s what we’re looking at moving forward, because our council is totally dedicated to the fact that our Number 1 priority, along with some other needs, is to pay down our debt and get in a more manageable position that we can count on, for example, $2 or $3 million every year for infrastructure or capital, whatever council decides. We want to get into a position where we have dependable, sustainable funding that we know will be there year after year that we can count on,” said Ludwig.
The big expenditure in 2015 is expected to involve rehabilitative work at the Estevan Municipal Airport. The work involves repairing the main apron from flood damage in 2011, and the City has about $3 million in funding from the provincial disaster assistance program (PDAP) to complete that work. The cost to Estevan taxpayers, said Ludwig, would be about $2 million.
He said the T’s will have to be crossed and the I’s dotted, but that is one project he expects will be undertaken considering the availability of PDAP funds the City now has.
The 2014 budget included expenses of just under $30 million, though the City’s total expenses at year’s end may show some variance.
The City has been steadily contracting out work for infrastructure upgrades along the Highway 47 North throughway, including Souris Avenue in 2013 and 13th Avenue in 2014. Another stage of that roadwork includes Sixth Street and another section of Souris Avenue, and that project’s consideration will have to debated by council.
Ludwig noted for the work on Sixth Street, they are waiting to see if a process called pipe-bursting may be able to be utilized for watermain and pipe replacements beneath the road.
Whether that work will be slated for 2015 or not is yet to be determined.
Ludwig said that debt repayments will be a priority in 2015 but will be subject to whatever infrastructure priorities council deems to be necessities. With PDAP funding confirmed for work at the airport, Ludwig noted the City is also waiting to learn what they should expect in terms of infrastructure funding from the federal government and any other potential grant funds they may receive from the province.
An announcement by the Government of Saskatchewan on Monday said the province was beginning to accept applications under the Provincial Territorial Infrastructure Component of the federal New Building Canada Fund. The application deadline is Jan. 12.
“We’re always hopeful and optimistic that we’ll have some money coming from the higher powers, be it federal or provincial,” said Ludwig, while he reiterated the need to live within their means.
In order to do that, he said they may look to spread work and, along with that, the costs of that work over a number of years. There is potential that upcoming upgrades to the wastewater treatment plant may receive that treatment.
“We have some fairly difficult decisions to make,” said Ludwig.
Though there hasn’t been a specific day or set of days for council’s budget deliberations, the meetings are planned to take place some time in January.
