Council passed a revised five-year financial plan (budget) at its Tuesday evening regular meeting.
Council had asked staff to revise the budget given the dire economic conditions businesses and individuals are suffering due to COVID-19. The new budget sees a 4.7 per cent property tax increase over last year––or $111 for the average house assessed at just under $1.1 million.
The previous iteration of the budget called for a 7.6 per cent increase.
The budget reduction comes from three areas: council strategic initiatives ($50,000), cutting vacant positions in finance and planning ($50,000) and the 2.2 per cent CPI wage increase for staff and council ($55,000).
Coun. Michael Kaile noted that the property tax increase is paired with a $179 parcel tax increase for waste, due to the recently renegotiated contract with Bowen Waste Solutions, and that is an additional burden to taxpayers. Paired with the capital spending and the four year projections that are certain to change, Kaile said that he couldn’t support the budget given the current crisis.
Coun. Alison Morse said she’s pleased to see the reduction but still has several concerns with the underlying budget, particularly in reserve contributions, and wouldn’t be supporting it.
Coun. Maureen Nicholson said she would support the budget but wondered about an expanded deferral program. BIM’s chief financial officer Raj Hayre said that’s all under provincial jurisdiction.
The budget passed with Morse and Kaile against.
A press release from the municipality said that there are no layoffs being considered at this time, though some staff have been redeployed to do other work in this time. While Ander had previously said BIM had layed off a couple of staff, they weren’t permanent full-time or part-time staff. \
Correction: the print version of this story mistakenly said a 4.8 per cent increase, the increase is in fact 4.7 per cent. We regret the error.
