Coming Up: April 22
Council meets on Monday. On the agenda this week:
2023 Financial Statements
Foxtail Weeds
Cannabis Retail Hourse
2024 Tax Change
2023 Financials
The 2023 financial statements are completed. Council will be receiving them on Monday.
There are two different reports.
The Unconsolidated, Unaudited report is the most interesting one to many people. It gives the high level overview of how City money was spent, lists where variances occurred, and gives details on capital spending. It can be found here.
Every year, the City also receives an outside audit of its financial statements. These Audited Statements take into account not just City operations, but also Library and Airport operations. They can be found here.
These statements show that the City finished the year in a strong financial positions.
There were significant cost pressures through the year that threatened a deficit. However, we were fortunate in that snow removal came under budget and Administration worked hard to implement restrictions on hiring and operational spending. This allowed the City to finish the year with a slight surplus of $597,000 (equivalent to 0.31% of the operating budget). The City is also healthy when it comes to reserve and long-term debt.
FOxtail Weeds Ammendments
In past years, some neighbourhoods have had issues with Foxtail. The seeds that come off of this plant can create a large nuisance and be very dangerous to pets. Council will be considering amendments to the Minimum Property Standards Bylaw in order to make it easier to require property owners to control Foxtail.
canabis Retail Hours
When Cannabis was first legalized, there was a lot of uncertainty about how it would be regulated and what impact it would be. At the time, Council decided to limit Cannabis retail hours to 10am - 12am.
However, the AGLC also now regulates Cannabis retail hours (9am - 2am). There is a recommendation to remove City regulation on hours. This would provide consistency between Grande Prairie and other communities. It would also prevent City Administration from having to enforce this regulation, instead allowing it to be enforced through provincial resources. I’m likely to support these changes.
2024 Budget ammendments
When it set the 2024 Budget, Council had planned to collect ~$4 million through a Stormwater Utility Model. Recently, Council decided not to implement this new revenue source. Therefore, it needs to decide how to make up for lost revenue.
There are some savings that the City will see by not implementing Stormwater Utility Model (for example: the cost of billing properties). Additionally, the plan was to collect enough Capital tax every year to stabilize rates in years where large investments were needed. Now that the Stormwater system costs will remain lumped in with the wider Capital Budget, that type of rate stabilization is not as important. Therefore, Administration is suggesting that Council only needs to make up for $3,000,000 in funding.
There are three options to do that:
Tax Funding: make it up through tax revenue, increasing the anticipated tax increase of 3.28% to 5.73%
Spending Reductions: cut spending from the City’s budget
Reserve and One Time Funding: fund it through reserves and one time funding opportunities, such as the 2023 surplus and savings from the Fire Break likely coming in under budget.
I cannot support funding this short fall through reserves and other one-time funding sources. The problem with that: it is just pushing the inevitable down the road. Every year, inflation increases the cost to deliver services. Council needs to either raise taxes or reduce spending to keep up with inflation. If we need to ALSO make up for the drying up of reserves or one-time funding: future tax increases or spending cuts will become very large.
This year, we are already drawing $1 million out of reserves to fund operations. This was a decision I opposed. It means that upward pressure on our budget next year includes inflation PLUS this $1 million. I cannot support adding to it.
Personally: I support some combination of Tax Funding and Spending Reductions to make up for the Stormwater Utility Shortfall.
Some would like to see the full $3 million made up through by spending reductions. To them: I would highlight that Council has made VERY significant cuts over the past 7 years (my time on Council). Inflation has raised costs by ~20%, provincial and federal governments have taken huge bites out of our budget, and we’ve added some new services residents have been demanding. Meanwhile, we’ve raised residential taxes by WAY less than inflation: only 2.5% from 2017 - 2023.
We’ve largely accomplished this through finding efficiency. But that can only go so far. We have hit a point where if Council continues to cut spending rather than keeping up with inflation, it means making big cuts to municipal services. Something I don’t think most residents want to see.
I think some small measure of spending reduction can be made in 2024 to lessen tax impact. But I don’t think it would be responsible to cut $3 million from the budget mid year. I look forward to conversation with Council to figure out where the right balancing point is.
Something you might be interested in: a look at how the City budget has changed over the past few years and how it compares to other municipalities.
That’s what is on our agenda this week. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
You can comment below. Or, you can contact me at dbressey@cityofgp.com or 780-402-4166. I'm happy to talk online or over the phone. I'm also always willing to setup a time to meet for coffee.
We also always have great conversation in the GP Round Table group on Facebook.
After Council meeting, you will be able to find highlights posted by the City here.
Thanks for reading!
-Dylan