[0:14] Good afternoon and welcome to our

[0:16] special council meeting for February

[0:18] 24th, 2026.

[0:20] I'll call the meeting to order at 5:00

[0:22] pm.

[0:24] First item on the agenda, agenda item

[0:26] 1.1, land acknowledgement. The town of

[0:30] Coldell acknowledges [clears throat]

[0:31] that we are gathered on the lands of the

[0:33] Blackfoot peoples of the Canadian plains

[0:36] and pays respect to the Blackfoot

[0:38] people's past, present, and future while

[0:41] recognizing their cultural heritage,

[0:43] beliefs, and relationship to the land.

[0:46] The town of Coldell is also home to

[0:48] Matei District 1 foothills. Agenda item

[0:52] 1.2, conflict of interest declaration,

[0:56] pecunary or nonpunary. Are there any in

[0:59] the room this afternoon?

[1:01] None declared. Thank you.

[1:04] Moving on to

[1:06] agenda item 2.1, acceptance of the

[1:09] agenda for our meeting today for special

[1:13] council meeting agenda February 24th,

[1:15] 2026. I have one addition under addition

[1:20] agenda item 13.2 two

[1:25] Colddale procedures and transacting of

[1:28] business by council of the town of

[1:30] Coldale. Are there any other additions

[1:33] to the agenda?

[1:36] Seeing none, could I get someone to

[1:38] entertain making a motion that council

[1:40] adopt a special council meeting for

[1:43] agenda for February 24th, 2026 as

[1:46] amended? Councelor Reese makes that

[1:49] motion.

[1:51] I'll call for the vote.

[2:01] And that vote is carried.

[2:04] Moving down to the agenda under new

[2:06] business, we have our draft 2026 to 2028

[2:11] operating budget and we have our chief

[2:14] financial officer, Tim Koba, presenting.

[2:17] and Tim just wanted to congratulate you

[2:20] on behalf of uh council with your new

[2:23] position. Thank congratulations.

[2:26] So before I open it up to Tim, is there

[2:29] anything you wanted to start off before

[2:31] I let the library library come and do

[2:34] their presentation?

[2:35] » Uh no. Uh I don't have anything. Um

[2:38] thank you.

[2:39] » Okay. So, Kendra, we'll let the two of

[2:42] you come up and uh whenever you're

[2:46] settled in, you got to use your

[2:47] microphone and if you could both

[2:49] introduce yourself for the public record

[2:51] and then you can do your presentation,

[2:53] please.

[2:59] » My name is Kendra Bur. I am the head

[3:01] librarian at the Coldell Public Library.

[3:04] » My name is Candace Langworthy. I am the

[3:06] current Coell Public Library Board

[3:08] Chair.

[3:12] Thank you for having us here. Good

[3:13] evening, mayor and council.

[3:16] I'm here on behalf of the Cold Public

[3:18] Library Board to speak to our 2026

[3:21] budget request, specifically the

[3:23] reinstatement of a full-time assistant

[3:26] librarian position.

[3:28] Over the past three years, our library

[3:30] has experienced significant growth. Door

[3:33] counts have increased 28%.

[3:36] Program attendance has grown 164%.

[3:40] That growth spans children, teens,

[3:43] families, and adults. It reflects strong

[3:46] community demand and meaningful

[3:49] engagement.

[3:50] We are very proud of what our small team

[3:53] has accomplished during this period of

[3:54] growth. But as I'm sure you can imagine,

[3:59] the difficulty this has posed when

[4:00] staffing levels have not increased at

[4:02] the same pace as service demand. So we

[4:06] have approached this request carefully

[4:08] and creatively.

[4:10] As you probably know from our budget

[4:12] request last year, we have offset costs

[4:15] where possible and reallocated funds to

[4:17] minimize impact for our 2026 budget. And

[4:21] thank you so much to Tim for working

[4:23] together with me to do this. We are

[4:26] grateful for our partnership with the

[4:27] town and how this council has

[4:29] consistently shown strong support for

[4:33] our library and tonight we are asking

[4:35] for your approval to reinstate this

[4:37] position so we can continue to meet the

[4:40] needs of this growing community.

[4:43] » Thanks.

[4:47] » Thank you.

[4:49] I'll open it up to members of council.

[4:51] Any questions, comments?

[4:54] So, Kendra, that was a

[4:57] » Cole's notes version of your ask.

[5:01] » So, this position, what are they going

[5:03] to be exactly doing?

[5:05] » So, it would be an assistant librarian

[5:06] position. They would um have

[5:11] um professional oversight. They would

[5:14] also have um they would be a part of

[5:16] program development. They would be a

[5:18] part of um community engagement.

[5:21] and um eventually

[5:24] um having that MLIS compliance that we

[5:27] need when we hit um 10,000 for our

[5:29] population.

[5:32] » And what kind of uh resume do they have

[5:34] to have? Like what kind of education for

[5:36] something like that?

[5:37] » Uh masters of library and information

[5:39] science.

[5:40] » Thank you. Council Avery has a question.

[5:42] Thank you, mayor. Thank you for your

[5:44] presentation. Um and I can appreciate

[5:46] the increase in um people attending the

[5:50] library. Do we know the percentage of

[5:53] town versus county that are coming in?

[5:56] » Yeah. So, our um our library

[6:00] memberships, 87% of them are from the

[6:04] town and about 13% are from the county.

[6:08] » And does the county contribute any

[6:10] funding towards the library?

[6:12] » Yes, they do. So that the county

[6:14] residents, they do pay for their yearly

[6:17] membership whereas town um residents,

[6:20] they they enjoy a free library card. Um

[6:24] and also the county contributes to the

[6:27] rural grant services. Um and that is

[6:31] split between us and patribute. And

[6:34] » Will the county be contributing to this

[6:36] position at all?

[6:38] » Uh what they contributed last year was

[6:40] around 37,000.

[6:44] Thank you. Any further questions,

[6:47] comments for our presenters?

[6:50] Well, thank you very much.

[6:52] » Deputy Mayor Beakman speaks highly of

[6:54] your team, so we appreciate everything

[6:56] you do.

[6:57] » Thank you. Appreciate it.

[7:00] » You're free to go.

[7:01] » Thank you.

[7:03] » So, back to our 2026 to 2028 operating

[7:07] budget. We have our chief financial

[7:09] officer, Tim Kova, presenting. And Tim,

[7:12] whenever you're ready.

[7:15] » Okay. Thank you, uh, Mayor Van Rein, and

[7:18] welcome, council. Um, so tonight's

[7:21] meeting is meeting number two of three

[7:23] that we have scheduled for the operating

[7:25] budget deliberations.

[7:27] Um, now this presentation, um, I will

[7:31] start off by kind of summarizing what we

[7:38] summarizing some of the kind of like the

[7:42] the reasons for this budget in front of

[7:44] you today as as well as um you know our

[7:49] budgeting approach to get to uh what you

[7:52] see in front of you. Um there will be a

[7:54] lot of information so please feel free

[7:56] to just stop me and ask if you have any

[7:57] questions along the way. Um,

[8:02] I guess the information I I do have two

[8:05] separate um I guess PDF documents that

[8:09] have been attached for the draft

[8:10] operating budget and I will I will be

[8:12] jumping back and forth between the two.

[8:15] Um, now the first two slides that you

[8:17] see in the budget presentation, these

[8:19] are all points that are covered um in

[8:21] our in the cover letter that's attached

[8:23] to the draft operating budget. Um these

[8:25] are items that I will speak to um

[8:28] individually um as we go through um kind

[8:32] of like the the overall summary of the

[8:35] 2026 budget uh 2026 to 28 budget. Um so

[8:40] these first two slides I'm just going to

[8:42] real quick skip through those ones. Um,

[8:45] and I think it's kind of important to

[8:46] maybe go through um, our budgeting

[8:49] approach first so that council has an

[8:51] understanding of, you know, the reasons

[8:53] why we uh, did the budget the way we did

[8:56] and and sort of just to let council know

[9:00] that we we kept in mind uh, council's

[9:03] objectives in in their strategic um, you

[9:07] know, what what they wanted to see from

[9:08] the town um, and and kind of what the

[9:12] their expectations were for 2026.

[9:14] Um [snorts] now just to clarify this

[9:17] budget is mainly focused on 2026. Uh we

[9:21] we when we approach departments for

[9:23] their asks we asked them to focus mainly

[9:25] on 26. Um there are some numbers that we

[9:29] uh have budgeted out 27 and 28th for

[9:33] growth and um you know there are certain

[9:37] agreements that that go up um and so

[9:40] those have been reflected and I'll I'll

[9:43] make it very clear which which items

[9:45] those are and uh uh like I said again if

[9:48] you have questions feel free to stop me.

[9:50] Um so the 26 to 28 operating budget uh

[9:54] we first met in October, November with

[9:57] each department to get an idea of what

[9:59] their requests would be for 2026.

[10:02] Um we what I did first is you know we we

[10:07] worked in those requests based on um

[10:10] sort of the data that the previous CFO

[10:13] had populated you know for 26 and 27

[10:16] when he prepared last year's budget. Um

[10:18] however, in order to get and and he did

[10:22] an excellent job at um projecting out

[10:25] makes making sure things were included

[10:27] and and we were uh prepared for the

[10:30] future uh by setting aside you know

[10:33] transfers through capital reserves and

[10:35] and making sure that uh you know

[10:38] utilities were self-supported and taxes

[10:40] were funding ongoing expenses. Um

[10:44] however for myself uh and being new to

[10:46] this role my first year presenting an

[10:49] operating budget um I we we really

[10:52] wanted to get a a really good

[10:54] understanding um so to get a base level

[10:57] understanding of you know what services

[11:00] we are providing what what costs are

[11:03] there and then as well along the way we

[11:05] also um

[11:07] you know uh I also looked at what uh the

[11:12] alloc ations were and um you know we did

[11:16] adjust allocations kind of across the

[11:18] board. So you might notice that some

[11:20] expenses might jump, some might go down

[11:23] significantly

[11:24] um but that's just due to a change in

[11:26] the allocation. So there are some

[11:29] categories uh such as salaries and wages

[11:32] um you know natural gas and power

[11:34] municipal utilities uh debentures, bank

[11:38] charges and interest and insurance for

[11:40] example that affect the whole

[11:41] organization and the way that the

[11:44] previous CFO had those allocated out.

[11:47] you know, I may I may have made some

[11:49] tweaks, but um overall I can tell you

[11:53] kind of what the increases are across

[11:55] those um specific items. Um and then

[11:58] there are items that departments have uh

[12:01] you know more uh discretion over. So you

[12:05] I I would be talking about things like

[12:07] contracted services, purchases of

[12:09] supplies, materials, uh construction

[12:11] materials. Um and those items, you know,

[12:16] that's where we met with the departments

[12:18] and went through line by line to figure

[12:20] out, you know, are these where they

[12:22] should be? Should we increase certain

[12:23] amounts, decrease certain amounts? Um

[12:26] and and it was a we we did have more

[12:29] meetings in um 2026. Um, so those are

[12:34] follow-up meetings uh in January,

[12:36] February um to get to the budget that

[12:39] you see in front of you today. So it it

[12:41] is kind of a rework from the ground up

[12:43] for a lot of items. Um there's a lot of

[12:46] allocation changes. Um, however, I think

[12:49] the main uh message or the main uh goal

[12:54] of this budget was to present something

[12:57] to council that was um, you know, that

[13:00] gave us an understanding of, you know,

[13:02] the town's operations and and to provide

[13:05] um, a budget that didn't uh, impact

[13:10] residents or that that had a 0% uh,

[13:14] residential tax increase for at least

[13:16] the 2026 year. And that was important

[13:18] because of a few items. Um, you know, as

[13:22] council is aware, we we approved a

[13:25] utility rate bylaw that had utility rate

[13:27] increases that we weren't expecting. Um,

[13:30] there are um there is a rates and fees

[13:34] bylaw that that went through first

[13:35] reading. Um, but that one also has some

[13:37] slight increases in it. So, you know,

[13:39] considering everything, um, we wanted to

[13:42] take an approach that, um, would soften

[13:46] the impact to residents. You know, we

[13:48] don't want to see someone come in and

[13:50] then and then see sudden increases

[13:52] across the board. So, um, we did look

[13:54] very carefully at all of our projections

[13:57] for both revenue and, uh, for expenses.

[14:01] uh we went line by line making sure that

[14:04] onetime costs that were in 2025 uh were

[14:07] not being carried forward so uh there

[14:10] weren't any duplicates. Um

[14:13] and then you know one of the one of the

[14:16] principles that we kind of followed um

[14:19] and and one that we carry forward from

[14:21] the previous CFO is to ensure that we're

[14:24] not relying on surplus funds to fund

[14:28] annual costs. So that's a big one. um

[14:31] you know if if uh ongoing costs are

[14:35] going up they should be funded um

[14:37] through ongoing revenues um and [snorts]

[14:41] it it took a bit of work and it also

[14:43] required a little bit of work on getting

[14:45] the year end caught up. So there was um

[14:48] there was a period in January where uh

[14:50] we did have to get November and December

[14:53] uh numbers kind of as best we could. Um

[14:56] we still have the year end uh that needs

[14:59] to be uh well the file needs to get to

[15:02] the auditors by the end of this week. So

[15:04] it is still in progress. So the numbers

[15:07] that I'm reporting here on 2025 actual

[15:10] are unodudited and those numbers are

[15:13] well they will change. Um however I I

[15:17] tried to reflect as best I could what

[15:18] what those changes would be. Um,

[15:22] so on this slide here that we're on,

[15:25] I'll kind of just go through um some of

[15:28] those items. Uh, we are projecting at

[15:30] least a surplus of about 325,000.

[15:34] Uh we've allocated those that those

[15:37] surplus funds to kind of sort of cover

[15:40] uh now we passed a 2026 to 2030 capital

[15:44] budget and there was one item in there

[15:45] for the library roof replacement uh for

[15:48] 13,000 that we said would be funded

[15:50] through uh surplus. Um so we do have a

[15:53] surplus. So that is in there right

[15:54] there. Um just one note to make is that

[15:57] the library board is also contributing

[16:00] uh 50% of the cost of that uh renovation

[16:02] or that roof replacement. Um some of the

[16:06] other items that are coming out of

[16:08] surplus to fund the 2026 one-time

[16:11] expenses uh would be uh 16k for uh

[16:15] council expenses. uh 26,000 for um

[16:19] additional costs related to upfront

[16:22] costs related to uh training new CPOS.

[16:25] Um we've allocated 60,000 for downtown

[16:28] area restructure plan and supporting

[16:31] studies. Um now that item there there is

[16:34] there is a possibility that we could get

[16:36] grant funding for that one. However,

[16:38] we're we can't budget for things that we

[16:41] aren't sure we're receiving and grant

[16:43] operating grants are one of those. Um

[16:46] and then we also allocated uh 60,000

[16:49] towards the wage contingency. Um that is

[16:52] an operating reserve that's set up to uh

[16:55] cover you know one-time fluctuations and

[16:58] wages based on events in the year. Um so

[17:01] there's currently 40,000 in that

[17:02] reserve. So, we would add 60,000 and

[17:05] that is there to be able to draw from if

[17:08] uh you know uh based on events in 2026.

[17:13] Um or if we don't need those funds, they

[17:14] can they can be used in future years as

[17:16] well. But, uh we've set aside 60,000 for

[17:19] that. And then obviously these are items

[17:21] that council would have approval over.

[17:24] Um but we're we're just trying to kind

[17:26] of project out what might be needed in

[17:28] 2026, what might be needed even beyond

[17:31] that. So, the last item there is 150,000

[17:34] set aside for uh landscaping at

[17:36] Centennial Park, which would uh likely

[17:38] be a capital item. Um, but I've included

[17:42] that there just to kind of give you a

[17:43] full picture and to kind of tie that

[17:45] into

[17:47] um the the first page in the operating

[17:50] budget that you'll see after the cover

[17:52] letter. Um the goal was um throughout

[17:56] this process to get a good idea of 2026

[18:00] to 28 uh focusing mainly on 2026.

[18:04] Um and again we want to make sure that

[18:08] we're not uh you know borrowing from the

[18:10] future to um to make 2026 work. So, one

[18:15] of the main things that I looked at was,

[18:17] you know, how is our transfers to

[18:19] capital reserves being impacted by a lot

[18:22] of the changes that we made. So,

[18:24] » Councelor Avery has a question.

[18:26] » Yeah.

[18:27] » Thank you, Mayor. Thanks, Tim. Um, this

[18:29] presentation has now tweaked something

[18:32] for me and maybe the CEO has the answer,

[18:35] but um, so why are we asking the library

[18:38] board to contribute 50% of maintenance

[18:41] on a building that belongs to the town?

[18:43] We don't ask that from any other our um

[18:47] non not forprofit or other organizations

[18:49] that are using town facilities to pay

[18:51] for repairs, i.e. the hub. Um I don't

[18:55] see anything in there where we're asking

[18:57] um that organization to pay for roof

[19:00] repairs. So I'm just wondering why u

[19:02] we're not budgeting fully for this and

[19:05] asking library board to contribute.

[19:10] Uh maybe the CO has a better response

[19:13] than I do, but I I do believe that as

[19:15] far as municipalities and funding

[19:17] libraries go, um the town of Coldell

[19:19] does fund a lot more than other

[19:21] municipalities typically do. Um I don't

[19:24] know if that's correct or not, so maybe

[19:28] or I think Russ might have an idea here.

[19:35] [clears throat]

[19:40] Thank you. Uh, thank you for the

[19:41] question. It's a good question. Um, and

[19:43] I don't have what funding it would be in

[19:46] front of me. I don't have that

[19:47] information, but oftent times when we're

[19:49] dealing with these third parties and

[19:51] especially uh not profit organizations,

[19:54] they have access to funding. Sometimes

[19:56] we don't. And so we sometimes partner

[19:59] with them on whether it's grants and

[20:00] things like that. And I don't know where

[20:02] this money particular is coming from. We

[20:04] can look into that, but I would

[20:06] anticipate that it's a funding source

[20:08] like that. You bet.

[20:17] [clears throat]

[20:19] » Mayor Ethan.

[20:20] » Uh thank you, Mayor, and through to Tim

[20:23] and Russ. Um just on that on that note,

[20:26] um the board has been the roof has been

[20:29] um a a concern of ours for the last few

[20:33] years. uh we had financial uncertainty

[20:35] within the board knowing that we had to

[20:37] contribute 50% and I was myself curious

[20:40] about that. So I appreciate councelor

[20:41] Avery asking that question was now was

[20:43] the the year that we finally had

[20:46] certainty with what our board budget was

[20:47] that we could go forward with that. So I

[20:49] know we've been held up because of what

[20:50] our contribution has been. So I it's a

[20:54] very good question as to why it was

[20:56] contingent on the board. So that just

[20:58] just a comment. Thank you.

[21:02] » Okay. Yep. Thank you for the question.

[21:03] Um, and you know, this is definitely one

[21:07] of those items that we don't have to uh

[21:10] have an answer for right away. Um, these

[21:12] are items surplus items are, you know, a

[21:14] discussion that we'll have when the

[21:17] draft financial statements are prepared.

[21:19] Um, I'm expecting them uh closer to the

[21:22] end of April. So uh we do have some time

[21:25] to you know uh to uh look at what the

[21:29] actual surplus figure is and then and

[21:31] then maybe there there isn't a need for

[21:33] the library board contribution there and

[21:37] that is a decision that council can make

[21:38] at that time. Yeah.

[21:46] Okay. So um I so yeah I I just wanted to

[21:50] kind of go through our budgeting

[21:51] approach for this year. um just so you

[21:53] kind of understood how

[21:56] what our goals were what what but we are

[21:58] trying to uh achieve with the 2026

[22:01] operating budget. Um with that I'll kind

[22:04] of just jump into the beginning of the

[22:07] draft operating budget. Um now there is

[22:09] a cover letter attached. Um I'll kind of

[22:12] go through some of the key points here

[22:14] so that you know because this kind of

[22:16] feeds into the next well the first page

[22:19] of the operating draft budget. Um now

[22:24] the 2026 fiscal year has been balanced

[22:27] and it does assume a 0% net increase to

[22:30] residential property taxes. Um meanwhile

[22:33] the tax rate for non-residential

[22:34] properties uh is we have it set to

[22:37] remain static at $10 for every $1,000 in

[22:40] assessed value or at a mill rate of 10.

[22:44] Um which we have done the past couple of

[22:46] years. uh fiscal years 2027 and 2028 uh

[22:50] which can be evaluated as part of next

[22:52] year's budget. Um they have also been

[22:55] balanced as well. Uh but there are some

[22:57] key items in 27 and 28 um that council

[23:00] should kind of keep in mind as we um you

[23:04] know as we also look at look through

[23:06] 2026.

[23:08] Um some of the key items that I would

[23:11] like to highlight before we get into the

[23:12] budget are that um you know a lot of the

[23:17] elements of this budget um were

[23:20] reworked. So we we rather than relying

[23:23] on you know the previous CFO's data and

[23:26] his assumptions that he may have had

[23:28] when developing the budget um you know

[23:31] we kind of uh it was important for

[23:34] myself personally to really understand

[23:37] where these numbers are coming from and

[23:40] um

[23:42] uh and so it did take a little bit more

[23:45] work to to actually go back to the

[23:47] source right to um take uh you know for

[23:50] example for for property taxes, we we

[23:54] need to update those annually and we get

[23:56] assessment values from our assessor uh

[23:58] and then we use those estimates to kind

[24:00] of project out. Um so it was important

[24:02] to kind of go through all of that um for

[24:04] each of the different areas. Um, I will

[24:07] say that uh as far as like uh time

[24:12] management and where I focus most of my

[24:14] time, uh it would relate back to the

[24:17] first presentation on February 9th where

[24:19] we kind of looked at sort of those four

[24:22] three or four largest revenue items,

[24:24] right? you have taxes, uh, utilities,

[24:28] uh, rates and fees, and then you also

[24:31] have franchise fees. And, and so I did

[24:34] make sure I spent more of my time in

[24:37] those larger areas so that, you know, I

[24:40] was to have to develop more confidence

[24:43] in in what the numbers were. Um so for

[24:46] revenue forecasts uh supplemental tax

[24:49] revenues um we did look at uh building

[24:52] permit values subdivision fees the

[24:54] growth um and and we adjusted those um

[25:00] rather than just carrying forward you

[25:02] know a 3% increase or 5% increase or you

[25:05] know um we we tried to really um get an

[25:09] understanding of of those revenue items.

[25:12] Um the town is in a growth phase. Um I

[25:15] was curious. So last night I did look at

[25:18] uh when I first started at the town in

[25:20] 2018. Previous to that I worked at um an

[25:23] accounting firm where I was also the

[25:25] auditor of the town of Coldell. So I was

[25:27] curious. I looked at 2015 financial

[25:28] statements very quickly. Um and it was

[25:31] interesting to see that in 2015 the town

[25:33] of Coldell budgeted uh 13 million for

[25:36] revenues. Um so that was an interesting

[25:38] number. Um wages were about 4.5 million.

[25:42] Um and so yeah, it it was pretty amazing

[25:45] to see the amount of growth that has

[25:47] happened in in you know 10 years. So

[25:51] um and and I think based on the data

[25:55] that we're looking at, the town is still

[25:57] growing um and so will the revenues

[26:01] associated with growth. uh user fees,

[26:03] franchise fees, consumption, uh

[26:06] assessment values, all these help

[26:08] balance some of the offsetting impact uh

[26:11] that you see in like corresponding

[26:13] revenue or rising expenses. So, you

[26:15] know, [snorts] uh we looked at uh

[26:17] various benchmarking or comparisons in

[26:20] the first meeting, you know, wages as a

[26:22] percent of tax revenue. uh we looked at

[26:26] you know what are your contracted

[26:27] services and other major categories as a

[26:30] percentage of your total revenues. Um

[26:33] that all helps us to to achieve balance.

[26:36] Um so growth helps offset some of those

[26:38] increases that you have in in

[26:40] year-over-year costs. Um

[26:44] uh as far as tax assessments go uh we we

[26:47] are provided with actual assessment

[26:49] numbers. um and the fact that we sort of

[26:52] the numbers that we received in

[26:54] November, December um were a little bit

[26:56] different than the numbers that we

[26:58] received in February, but we we made

[27:00] sure to use the most updated forecasts

[27:02] in in our numbers.

[27:05] Um now this next part, uh until that

[27:08] until that fees and rates bylaw is

[27:10] passed, um you know, there is a 2%

[27:13] increase. It it's it won't have a huge

[27:15] impact on the budget. So regardless of

[27:17] whether that um changes, I I don't

[27:20] believe it will impact what you see in

[27:22] front of you for 2026.

[27:25] [snorts]

[27:25] Um expenses were adjusted uh based on

[27:29] known events as of February 20th um to

[27:34] enhance precision and accuracy. So a few

[27:37] of those items, you know, we had a full

[27:39] year of costs for, you know, natural

[27:41] gas, electricity. Um we received uh the

[27:45] 2026 invoices for insurance. Um so those

[27:49] are actual numbers. Um the only

[27:51] projections within say for example

[27:53] insurance and some of the utilities is

[27:55] that um you know we have new facilities

[27:58] that will be coming online in 2026. So

[28:01] that includes the potable water

[28:02] reservoir

[28:04] um

[28:06] as well as the storm water management

[28:08] facility. Um and then for insurance

[28:10] purposes we we do still need to look

[28:12] into some items but there there are more

[28:15] assets coming online that we um we need

[28:18] to forecast for. So there is a slight

[28:20] increase in insurance across the board

[28:22] and that that is a reason for that. Um,

[28:27] now as I mentioned earlier, we we

[28:30] monitor the transfer to capital reserves

[28:32] because you kind of you you almost want

[28:35] to see that increase year-over-year um

[28:37] to prepare for, you know, you're growing

[28:39] your assets, you're investing more in

[28:41] your capital assets. Um, I've worked on

[28:44] the annual report for the last 5 years

[28:47] and and one comment that I make in there

[28:49] is that the town of Coldell has been um

[28:54] uh investing more than $15 million a

[28:58] year in in its tangible capital assets.

[29:00] So um as that number grows uh so should

[29:05] the amount that you put away for

[29:06] reserves and for being prepared for um

[29:09] you know operating costs, life cycle

[29:12] costs, unexpected um

[29:15] uh unexpected costs. Um so we used a

[29:19] zerobased budgeting approach for many of

[29:21] the line items. Um you'll see that

[29:24] there's there's going to be several

[29:25] allocation changes. One for example is

[29:28] insurance. um insurance has kind of gone

[29:30] up across the board. Um facilities are

[29:34] um the way the previous CFO had had had

[29:37] allocated is slightly different than the

[29:39] way I had allocated. Um

[29:42] but it doesn't uh if you look at it as

[29:45] an overall basis. Um

[29:48] that should hopefully explain why why in

[29:51] some departments you might see insurance

[29:53] go up but in others it goes down. Um

[29:58] and so that is one of those allocation

[30:00] changes. Um along with wages. So wages

[30:03] and salaries. Um

[30:07] I believe we we touch on it. Oh, maybe

[30:10] not. Um

[30:12] so yeah, wages and salaries is one of

[30:15] those uh organizationwide items that we

[30:18] looked at and built from the ground up.

[30:20] Um Ashley Crab to thank for her help in

[30:24] in that. Um it was a lot of work um to

[30:27] to get the the full list of employees

[30:30] project out um you know um

[30:36] benefits uh deductions all of that uh

[30:39] across the board for the whole

[30:40] organization. Um but that has been

[30:43] worked into the 2026 and then with um

[30:47] based on the new collective agreement

[30:49] and and uh cost of living increases

[30:52] those that is one item where we have

[30:55] tried to to project out maybe not new

[30:58] positions for 27 or 28 but at least for

[31:01] uh cost of living um we have a good base

[31:04] and an understanding of those numbers

[31:06] for 2026.

[31:08] um

[31:10] two of the most significant drivers

[31:12] behind the increase in the 2026

[31:15] operating budget revenues

[31:18] um and expenses compared to fiscal year

[31:20] 2025 are um so number one would be uh

[31:26] the cost of the town's potable water um

[31:29] utilities. So whereas our consumption

[31:33] charges went up as a result of changes

[31:36] made by the city uh effective January

[31:38] 1st, 2026,

[31:40] um so did the revenues as a result of

[31:42] those changes. Um when I ran those

[31:46] numbers, I tried to account for the fact

[31:48] that if you increase the rates for

[31:50] consumption, you know, residents might

[31:52] respond by not using as much water. So I

[31:56] didn't project a too large of an

[31:58] increase in consumption. Um and then as

[32:01] well I did note that we are making those

[32:05] rate changes effective as of April 1st.

[32:07] So I I did uh adjust that as well um for

[32:10] the revenue side. Um and then along with

[32:15] the the water rate charges um municipal

[32:18] facilities also use water. Um so those

[32:21] charges had to go up. So when you see

[32:23] the M municipal utility line item that

[32:25] is our cost of water going up as a

[32:28] result of these rates going up. Um

[32:33] a close second uh in terms of relative

[32:35] impact on the town's budget is the

[32:38] growth of uh the town's non-residential

[32:40] assessment base. Um however much of that

[32:44] revenue um associated with assessment

[32:46] growth it will not be available or

[32:49] accessible in fiscal years 26 27 and 28

[32:52] due to the town's industrial park

[32:53] incentive strategy. Um so while you see

[32:56] the revenues uh go up significantly uh

[33:00] on the revenue side um it's actually

[33:05] uh with the incentive you may you you

[33:07] will not recognize or be able to uh

[33:09] utilize those revenues until um that

[33:12] incentive program uh expires.

[33:16] Um a portion of the town's 2025 surplus

[33:20] uh which we can't finalize until after

[33:22] our year end is complete. Um although we

[33:25] are getting there. Um we made sure that

[33:28] the surplus was only used for one-time

[33:31] expenses unique to fiscal year 2026. We

[33:34] didn't use uh estimated surplus amounts

[33:36] to balance the budget or to fund ongoing

[33:40] expenditures. Um this uh enabled us to

[33:44] build in expenses without needing to

[33:46] rely on any tax support in 2026 to do

[33:48] so. Um the proposed one-time expenses

[33:52] I've listed out um and summarized in the

[33:55] first two pages of the budget

[33:56] presentation. Um and and I will be going

[34:00] through each of those or I kind of have

[34:02] been as well. Um but um they are subject

[34:07] to council's approval. So, if you if you

[34:10] any of those one-time um increases or

[34:13] expenses that you note, um you uh yeah,

[34:17] please feel free to ask questions on any

[34:19] of those as they come up.

[34:21] Um

[34:23] whether or not those items are approved

[34:24] or not will should not affect the bottom

[34:26] line uh or the amount of tax support

[34:29] required to balance the budget. Um,

[34:31] alternatively, council can table some or

[34:34] all of these expenses until after

[34:37] um the fiscal year is audited and

[34:39] complete. So, until we have a final um

[34:43] audited surplus number, um we can wait

[34:48] to uh approve those and and that

[34:51] includes um those that library um amount

[34:54] that we had set aside.

[34:57] Uh so again, I kind of went through this

[35:00] already, but we had set aside one-time

[35:02] costs for training new CPOS, the

[35:04] downtown revitalization study, uh the

[35:07] roof replacement, landscaping, uh

[35:09] council chambers, um and then uh asset

[35:13] management software for 2027. So that

[35:16] will be a big focus uh moving forward.

[35:19] Uh we might we likely don't have

[35:21] capacity in 2026 to to start any of

[35:25] that. Um, however, asset management

[35:27] software will be a big help in in being

[35:29] able to, um, you know, create scenarios,

[35:33] um, plug in life cycle costs and and

[35:35] find out optimal kind of maintenance

[35:37] strategies across all of our, uh,

[35:39] classes of assets. Um, it's something

[35:42] that you just can't simply do in an

[35:43] Excel spreadsheet.

[35:49] uh for dementures interestonly payments

[35:53] uh this is related to the acquisition of

[35:55] water rights. Um now water rights um are

[35:59] are valuable asset um intangible asset.

[36:03] They they go up in value um there is an

[36:06] opportunity to purchase water rights. Uh

[36:08] we have budgeted in this 2026 28 budget

[36:12] um a 5-year uh interestonly

[36:16] uh loan. Uh like I mentioned earlier, we

[36:19] do have, you know, some revenue items uh

[36:23] from the incentive program that will be

[36:24] available further on down the line. And

[36:27] and so I would um the recommendation

[36:30] here is to, you know, finance that now

[36:32] and then and then wait for the future

[36:34] growth revenues to come in to be able to

[36:36] fund that into the future.

[36:41] Uh okay, so new items. The the draft

[36:44] 2026 operating budget includes a few new

[36:47] items, some that were previously

[36:49] discussed at the most recent strategic

[36:51] planning retreat of council. Um, built

[36:54] into the 2026 budget is $100,000 per

[36:58] year placed into a reserve for a future

[37:00] though unspecified recreational project.

[37:03] Uh, $25,000 capital reserve starting in

[37:06] 2027 for the town's rail spur. Um, now

[37:09] that is a new asset. However, it's good

[37:12] to kind of start building up a reserve

[37:14] for that for unexpected life cycle costs

[37:16] or uh unexpected costs that come up as

[37:20] as this is fairly new for the town.

[37:22] [snorts]

[37:23] Uh there is 10,000 per year that's built

[37:26] in for replacing the fire equipment

[37:28] that's used by the fire academy. Um

[37:32] and the last item I have here is an

[37:36] assistant library position that um was

[37:38] presented earlier by the Coldell Library

[37:40] Board. [snorts]

[37:42] Uh future considerations. Uh so the the

[37:46] total amount of funds that we have set

[37:48] aside uh as transferred into capital

[37:50] reserves for 2026 is just over 2.2

[37:53] million.

[37:55] Um, that's not including amounts set

[37:59] aside to capital for ongoing programs.

[38:01] For example, that doesn't include the

[38:03] 500,000 for the roads program, 200,000

[38:06] for the sewer relining um or um amounts

[38:09] that need to come out of current uh

[38:12] operating revenues to fund current

[38:14] capital items. Um this is uh future

[38:18] funds set aside for future purposes. Um,

[38:22] however, like I mentioned earlier, the

[38:24] number of assets owned by the town only

[38:25] continues to grow. Um, and and so does

[38:29] the age of our existing assets. Um,

[38:31] while year-over-year increases represent

[38:33] a positive starting point. Uh, looking

[38:36] ahead, the focus of 2027 will be the

[38:39] development of a more robust and

[38:40] data-driven asset management plan and a

[38:43] reserve strategy uh that will allow

[38:45] council to establish longer range goals.

[38:48] Um look at um

[38:51] uh look at developing longer range goals

[38:54] and and and financial um projections and

[38:59] statements and and to be able to

[39:02] identify those replacements that are

[39:04] coming down the line and to be able to

[39:07] prioritize those based on uh what what

[39:09] council determines is is uh critical.

[39:13] Uh in the event that council wishes to

[39:16] amend or reduce the newly identified

[39:18] capital reserve allocations that I've

[39:20] noted, uh administration's

[39:22] recommendation is to reallocate those to

[39:25] other reserves um rather than to use

[39:28] them for uh you know other expenses.

[39:32] Uh with that that's summarizes some of

[39:34] the key points of the budget. Um, now I

[39:41] I hope you brought your magnifying

[39:42] glass. [laughter]

[39:44] I there was no way to really I guess I

[39:46] could have tried to split this out. Um,

[39:52] what I will do is kind of summarize this

[39:54] page quickly. So, this is this is the

[39:56] 2026 to 28 budget. Um, but slotted in

[40:01] there are kind of our best estimate for

[40:04] 2025

[40:06] um unodudited number. So you can kind of

[40:08] see where you know what did we project

[40:10] or budget for 2025 uh where do we think

[40:13] we'll be and and an explanation of some

[40:17] of those differences. So um and I

[40:20] included 2024 column there that's 2024

[40:24] budget um just to just so you can see

[40:26] the the incremental growth even from

[40:29] 2024 to 25 was a pretty significant

[40:32] jump. Um, and then you can see from 25

[40:34] to 26 that's there is also another

[40:37] significant jump and and I'll try my

[40:39] best to kind of explain

[40:42] the reasons why. Um,

[40:45] so I really like how this is broken out

[40:47] because you rather than looking at

[40:49] department by department, um, just as a

[40:52] note, I I did include department by

[40:54] department, budget, line by budget line

[40:57] information in in an attempt to, um, be

[41:01] transparent, show the work, um, show how

[41:03] everything balances out. Um however this

[41:07] slide here kind of shows you from the

[41:10] highle view um of our organization what

[41:13] are our sources of revenue what are

[41:15] those major sources that council can uh

[41:17] adjust to uh sort of get the balance or

[41:21] get the budget to balance um and so

[41:24] revenues are broken out by type as well

[41:25] as expenses. So you can see

[41:28] year-over-year what are we budgeting

[41:30] for, you know, salaries as a whole for

[41:32] the town, um contracted services,

[41:34] everything else. What are what are our

[41:36] principal debt repayments and interest

[41:38] look like? Um and then as well, you

[41:41] know, what are we budgeting for reserves

[41:42] year-over-year or transfers to reserves?

[41:45] So, uh this Yeah. Okay. So, I won't get

[41:49] too ahead of myself. Um starting with

[41:52] taxes, um you can see 16.8 8 the these

[41:57] are now the assessment or t tax numbers

[42:00] are driven by uh the numbers that we

[42:02] receive for from our assessors. So they

[42:04] give us numbers showing us what uh is

[42:07] expected for residential and

[42:09] non-residential properties. uh we take

[42:11] those estimates, we use um actually just

[42:15] use 2025 mill rate um adjusted for

[42:19] inflation if we do um and then and then

[42:23] come up with an estimate for the growth

[42:24] in tax revenue. So you can see last year

[42:27] uh we budgeted for 16.8 million came in

[42:30] at 16.6. So, it didn't quite reach the

[42:33] assessor's estimates, but we know from

[42:35] the development figures and and the data

[42:37] that's provided from that department. We

[42:40] do know that, you know, that revenue is

[42:43] coming down the line. It's just

[42:44] sometimes it takes a little bit longer

[42:46] than what you you might think. Um, but

[42:50] 2026, we use the the assessor numbers uh

[42:53] that I received in midFebruary. Um and

[42:56] with that um

[43:00] [clears throat] and this number here so

[43:03] the jump from you know the actual 16.6

[43:06] million to 18.37

[43:09] uh that is mainly due to uh the simply

[43:12] growth. There's no um increased taxes on

[43:16] the residential side. Um for

[43:18] non-residential uh like I said we kept

[43:21] the mill rate at 10. So that that is um

[43:25] includes inflation in that number. Um

[43:29] but yeah this is simply due to growth.

[43:31] Um it's important to note that um you

[43:36] know these revenue numbers need include

[43:39] the amounts that we collect for

[43:42] provincial education requisitions and

[43:44] for green acres. Um so that number uh

[43:49] from that 18.377

[43:52] projected um

[43:55] the provincial requisition numbers are

[43:57] down here. So you know if you with that

[44:00] increase um I believe education is about

[44:03] 2 2.6 or 2.7 and then uh green acres was

[44:08] 0.13 or something last year.

[44:11] just under three um as a mail rate for

[44:15] um the requisitions. And then uh we know

[44:20] from the previous uh presentations that

[44:24] um the residential mill rate is about

[44:26] 6.9 last year. If we factor out

[44:28] inflation, it it falls to about 6.2. Um,

[44:32] so I'll kind of just hop around a little

[44:34] bit, but uh I hope this

[44:40] is okay. Um,

[44:42] so again, here's uh residential

[44:44] non-residential assessment growth from

[44:46] 2022 to 2026.

[44:49] Um, you can see over the 5 years,

[44:52] non-residential assessments have gone up

[44:54] 128%, residential assessments gone up by

[44:57] 35%.

[45:01] And um there is a census for 2026 and

[45:04] but however these numbers come from the

[45:06] Alberta regional dashboard. Uh

[45:08] population from 2021 to 2025 has gone up

[45:11] 6.29%.

[45:13] Okay. So we are still growing. Um,

[45:20] and then here's the split in the

[45:22] residential versus non-residential tax

[45:24] revenue. Um,

[45:26] from as far back as 2016. And you can

[45:29] see now we are closer to if I included

[45:32] 2026, we'd probably be closer to 7030

[45:36] there.

[45:39] Okay. So what does that what does our

[45:42] mill rate look like as a result of um

[45:46] you know these are 2025's figures. Um

[45:49] this is the benchmark provided um in the

[45:52] first operating budget presentation. Uh

[45:54] Colddale with the recreation tax. Uh we

[45:58] are you know somewhere we are above

[46:00] average but you know under Lethbridge

[46:02] Black falls uh slightly above Taber if

[46:05] you include that recreation tax. um and

[46:08] with a mill rate of 6.902.

[46:10] Uh when you factor out inflation of

[46:13] 2026, you get down to a mill rate of

[46:15] 6.26. Now, okay. So, um I've just kind

[46:20] of provided these numbers for council's

[46:22] reference. You know, right now the

[46:24] budget for 26 to 28 assumes no

[46:27] residential tax increase, but if they if

[46:30] council did implement a 1% tax increase,

[46:32] this is the impact to the mill rate.

[46:34] This is the impact to uh the municipal

[46:36] portion of taxes.

[46:40] And then this is the dollar impact that

[46:43] uh based on the dollar value of the

[46:44] home. Um

[46:47] the next slide will kind of show if your

[46:49] tax bill was uh this is just the

[46:51] municipal portion of tax. Again, it

[46:54] doesn't include the requisitions. Um,

[46:57] but a property of 350,000

[47:00] uh would have a municipal tax bill of

[47:02] 2.5 or 2500 uh 2536. If there was a 1%

[47:06] increase, that would be the impact. Um,

[47:09] and then you can see that for all across

[47:12] the scale there uh from a 1 to 3%

[47:15] increase.

[47:18] Okay. Um, as long as we're talking about

[47:20] taxes, I think it's important to kind of

[47:23] talk about

[47:23] » We just have a question from Councelor

[47:25] Ree.

[47:26] » Thank you, Mayor Ryan. Thank you, Tim.

[47:28] Thank you for your report. It's really

[47:30] good so far. Um, just one question with

[47:32] the provincial education tax last year.

[47:35] It went up quite a bit. And so, I'm just

[47:37] curious, what if it goes up quite a bit

[47:39] again this coming year or next year, and

[47:41] it's not accounted for, or have you

[47:44] accounted for that possibility? Uh,

[47:47] great question. Um, I what I did for the

[47:51] requisitions in the draft budget is I

[47:53] just assumed 2025's numbers. So, um,

[47:57] since we don't know what those numbers

[47:58] are yet, um, and then and I believe the

[48:00] property tax bylaw is something that's

[48:02] set by council in April, May. So, uh, we

[48:06] can look at what those changes are and

[48:07] then maybe we can make some adjustments

[48:09] then. Uh, but for now, I just assumed um

[48:12] that it would stay the same.

[48:20] Uh okay. So uh if we're talking about

[48:23] residential or just taxes in general, um

[48:26] I think it's important before discussing

[48:28] any tax increases,

[48:30] you know, you get a full picture. So um

[48:33] you know, we we raised utility rates um

[48:36] you know, for storm, water, sewer,

[48:38] garbage. Um, and then there is a

[48:41] proposed user uh rates and fees bylaw

[48:44] that does propose a 2% increase, you

[48:46] know, more or less 2% across the board.

[48:49] Um, but what what is the what does that

[48:52] look like on the

[48:54] I guess on the other side, you know,

[48:57] typically taxes are due on June 30th of

[49:00] each year. Um, but how many people at

[49:03] the end of the year December 31st, uh,

[49:06] what are those a year's balances? Um, so

[49:09] you can see after after backing out

[49:12] significant um one-time accounts

[49:15] receivable amounts that have were

[49:16] transferred to tax, you kind of sort of

[49:18] get an idea of what the changes are

[49:20] year-over-year. So you can see that the

[49:22] rear's balance is up slightly from well

[49:25] it does jump a bit from 24 to 25

[49:28] compared to uh the the recent trend

[49:30] which was actually kind of dipping a

[49:32] little bit. Um, however, this is one of

[49:34] those uh indicators that we can monitor

[49:37] moving forward. Um, you know, what does

[49:40] a what does a 1% tax increase do to this

[49:43] number? Um, it might not be perfect, but

[49:46] it it is it's a useful measurement that

[49:49] we can look at. Um,

[49:55] and so that's kind of, you know, when we

[49:57] looked at 2026,

[49:59] uh, like I said, we used assessor

[50:01] estimates. Uh, for 2027,

[50:04] um, I believe the growth estimate that

[50:08] we used for 2026 was 4.25%. Uh, so

[50:11] that's based on, um, you know, kind of

[50:13] what we assumed would happen from new

[50:15] developments coming on online. uh 2027

[50:19] and 2028 we did reduce that down to

[50:21] about 3.25% increase in residential uh

[50:25] growth or I guess that would be combined

[50:28] growth. Um so you know we we we do

[50:32] project you know it's not as big of a

[50:34] jump from 25 to 26 but we did factor in

[50:38] some growth in tax revenue for 27 and 28

[50:41] and that was kind of done as a as a way

[50:44] to balance out all three years. Um, and

[50:48] like I like I mentioned earlier, taxes

[50:50] and utilities and uh rates and fees,

[50:54] franchise fees. Uh, those are some of

[50:57] the bigger ticket items that that we

[50:59] really wanted to focus more time on. So,

[51:02] we did factor in increases in those

[51:04] areas.

[51:05] Um, so the next item is sales and user

[51:09] charges. Now this um of this 7.5 million

[51:15] uh I would say that maybe six maybe just

[51:18] over six and maybe 6.5 million is

[51:21] related to utilities right so the

[51:23] remaining one to one and a half million

[51:26] um is your revenue from facilities

[51:29] rentals um sale general sales um

[51:37] and so you can see that we budgeted

[51:39] seven just under 7.5 and we came in at

[51:43] uh right now just over 7.5. So um

[51:51] uh okay so they came in a little bit low

[51:53] or sorry they came in

[51:56] um and there are a lot of different

[51:59] offsetting things that happen in the

[52:00] year. Um just to give you an idea across

[52:03] these different categories we're looking

[52:05] at about 900 over 900 budget lines. So

[52:09] budget um that might not necessarily

[52:12] mean that's a number of accounts but um

[52:14] there are a lot lot of you know

[52:16] different accounts that make up these

[52:18] numbers. So you're going to see

[52:19] offsetting amounts. You're going to see

[52:21] increases in some facilities, decreases

[52:24] in other facilities. But in general um

[52:27] for user fees they were they came in

[52:29] about 124,000 lower than expected and

[52:32] that was offset by utility revenue. Um

[52:34] that was due to just population growth.

[52:37] Um and one indicator of that is that

[52:40] water meter fees we typically budgeted

[52:42] at 50,000 but they came in at 135,000.

[52:45] So that's kind of like new um requests

[52:49] for installation of new water meters.

[52:53] Um so with that with with that data we

[52:55] kind of um increased um you know a large

[52:59] portion of the increase that you see

[53:01] from 25 to 26 is due to the water

[53:03] consumption rates. We did have to

[53:05] increase them to um to cover the costs

[53:09] of the utility rates uh consumption

[53:12] rates going up. Um so that's about 67 or

[53:17] 670,000

[53:19] increase. Um but then also on the

[53:21] expense side you can see that I've made

[53:23] a comment here that you know um water

[53:26] purchases um goes up uh significantly as

[53:30] well which offsets that revenue.

[53:33] Um

[53:35] uh we also look at uh when we look at

[53:37] these numbers and these accounts we look

[53:39] at the past five years. So 20 22 23 24

[53:43] and 25. I guess I would include 21 as

[53:46] well. Um to kind of get uh

[53:52] to sort of also help form our estimate

[53:56] for 2026.

[53:58] Um next out of line item we have

[54:01] licenses, permits, and fees. Um so you

[54:04] can see here we budgeted 277,000 in

[54:06] 2025. uh they came in at uh just under

[54:10] 346,000. So that increase um when I look

[54:14] at the individual accounts that make up

[54:16] licenses, permits, and fees um there are

[54:19] just increases across the board. So um

[54:22] you know, we have to assume that that's

[54:23] due to growth. Um

[54:27] and a significant portion of that

[54:29] actually is related to uh possibly one

[54:32] development. So, uh, we need to make

[54:34] sure that when we develop our estimate

[54:35] for 2026, we back out kind of those

[54:37] significant items that aren't you're not

[54:39] you shouldn't expect to see

[54:40] year-over-year. Um, but we did project

[54:42] an increase of about 28,000 from 2025.

[54:46] Um,

[54:48] next item here is interest penalties and

[54:50] fines. Now, this includes revenues from

[54:53] uh photo radar, for example, when when

[54:56] that was a program. Um this includes uh

[54:59] late fees on taxes and utilities. Um you

[55:04] can see we budgeted 170,000 but they

[55:06] came in at 390 mainly because of uh

[55:10] residual photo radar income that that um

[55:13] you know we started to see even though

[55:15] we ended the program um you know we were

[55:18] still receiving photo radar income into

[55:20] I would say about September October and

[55:22] now they've kind of leveled off.

[55:26] Um, so our estimate is that it's photo

[55:29] radar income was about 140,000 and then

[55:32] there was an increase of about 80,000 in

[55:34] interest and penalties and that that

[55:36] sort of also ties into that aers's

[55:37] balance chart that I showed you as well.

[55:41] Um so for 2026 we did increase those um

[55:46] for interests penalty and interest

[55:49] penalties and fines that did we did

[55:51] increase from what we budgeted in 2025

[55:54] to uh by about 94,000

[55:57] uh making sure that we didn't include

[55:59] photo any photo radar income again in

[56:01] 2026. Um however we also factored in

[56:04] that with uh the addition of new CPOS

[56:07] that there would be some fine revenue

[56:09] expected in bylaw as well. [snorts]

[56:13] Uh long-term contracts and asset returns

[56:15] um that that is mainly franchise fees

[56:19] and investment income. So uh franchise

[56:22] fees makes up about 1.75 million of that

[56:26] 2.15.

[56:27] Um and that number will

[56:32] grow with growth. Um new accounts uh

[56:35] more consumption uh could impact it as

[56:38] well. Um however, our investment income

[56:41] we can't uh we we kept that pretty

[56:44] consistent or we didn't we didn't

[56:47] increase that as much just due to uh we

[56:50] have a lot of projects happening. There

[56:52] will be a lot of um uh cash uh outflows

[56:56] related to those. we have debentures

[56:59] um and until we start uh you know

[57:02] building back up our reserves reducing

[57:04] that uh so with that we budgeted for a

[57:08] slight increase in franchise fees and

[57:12] um as the comment says this

[57:16] we're just projecting that it should

[57:17] stay consistent with 25

[57:20] uh the next line item is other revenue

[57:22] now this is just uh rebates donations

[57:25] um

[57:28] uh not something that you can easily

[57:30] budget. You you shouldn't really budget

[57:31] for donations. Um however, if you

[57:35] increase programming and part of that

[57:36] programming is to solicit for more

[57:39] donations, we can't you know, we do

[57:41] project out a little bit of an increase

[57:43] and that's what that 15,000 increase um

[57:46] that is due to community services

[57:48] increased programming. Um

[57:54] uh next item is government transfers

[57:57] revenue. This is money that uh mainly

[58:00] operating grants. So that would include

[58:02] your 550,000

[58:04] uh for the policing plus the 370,000

[58:07] additional for the so the 550 would be

[58:10] the equity portion and then 370 would be

[58:12] the police um support grant. Um also

[58:16] included are are um transfers from other

[58:22] uh municipalities or from regional

[58:27] um

[58:29] agreements. Um

[58:34] [snorts]

[58:34] » Yes.

[58:35] » Yeah. Thank you, Mayor. Uh through to

[58:37] Tim. Uh just on that line um that uh

[58:41] there transfers from uh government.

[58:43] Would that include the local government?

[58:45] um LG what's called the LGFF acronym um

[58:48] local government uh facility I I yes the

[58:51] operating side

[58:53] » That is one grant that we do budget for

[58:56] um and and yes it is the LGFF local

[58:58] government fiscal framework grant um the

[59:00] operating side of it which is about

[59:02] 131,000

[59:03] » How much is that

[59:04] » Uh 131,000

[59:10] » Okay

[59:11] » So yes and then there are also in there

[59:13] uh library grants grants and and um

[59:21] yeah, grants operating grants are a

[59:23] little bit harder to predict for because

[59:25] you apply for them, you don't know if

[59:26] you'll get them and then and then you

[59:28] you shouldn't really budget for a grant

[59:30] if you haven't applied for it yet

[59:31] either.

[59:35] Um so you can see that

[59:38] um there is a decrease uh projected for

[59:41] 2026 of approximately 168,000. Uh a

[59:45] major portion of that is due to the new

[59:48] emergency services agreement that was uh

[59:50] signed there.

[59:54] Uh the transfers from reserves. Now this

[59:56] is uh this is an internal reserve

[59:59] transfer. It's bringing in money from

[1:00:02] your reserve accounts into your

[1:00:04] operating revenues to help offset, you

[1:00:07] know, those one one-time items. Um, it

[1:00:11] always depends on what what council has

[1:00:14] approved as far as transferring to

[1:00:16] reserves. Um, and then now these are

[1:00:19] amounts coming from reserves. So, uh,

[1:00:21] for 2026 that amount is 355,000.

[1:00:25] Um and I believe that is due to

[1:00:31] um sort of these items here. So the

[1:00:35] council onetime expenses per uh one-time

[1:00:37] CPO training cost, the downtown ARP

[1:00:40] study. Um

[1:00:42] and then also in there are amounts that

[1:00:46] we transferred to reserves in prior

[1:00:48] years. So I believe in 2024 we

[1:00:50] transferred some money into reserves to

[1:00:53] help offset the costs. um for onetime

[1:00:56] cost related to the ERP transfer. So we

[1:00:59] we we're in the we're also in the um

[1:01:03] process of switching accounting uh

[1:01:05] systems right now and so there are still

[1:01:08] costs uh carried forward into 2026 for

[1:01:10] that which we are budgeting to bring

[1:01:12] into reserves. So um that also makes up

[1:01:16] part of that 355,000 you see there.

[1:01:23] Uh so that covers the revenue side. Uh

[1:01:25] when we look at expenses uh you know the

[1:01:28] first you know the first and biggest

[1:01:30] item there is salaries, wages and

[1:01:32] benefits. So um the 2025 we budgeted 8.5

[1:01:36] million. Um and it came in at two 8.7.

[1:01:40] So just 164,000 over. Um now there are a

[1:01:44] lot of you know offsetting amounts here.

[1:01:47] There were staff um a lot of staffing

[1:01:51] changes. is there was also there were

[1:01:53] some uh

[1:01:56] additions most of which were budgeted

[1:01:58] for um

[1:02:02] however that that that can be that that

[1:02:05] number might also not be finalized as

[1:02:07] well. So, I don't want to speak too much

[1:02:08] on that. That that could be a a 2025

[1:02:11] financial statement. Um

[1:02:14] Jeff's financial statement uh discussion

[1:02:16] item. Uh for 2026, what we've done is we

[1:02:22] uh as I mentioned, we took the 2026 the

[1:02:25] current employee list, the current

[1:02:26] grids, the current um benefit rates, uh

[1:02:29] all of the deductions, everything um and

[1:02:32] calculated out from the ground up and

[1:02:34] and just slot that in for 2026. The

[1:02:37] increase from 2025 you can see is

[1:02:39] 360,000.

[1:02:41] Now a big portion of to

[1:02:43] uh the new collective agreement that was

[1:02:46] signed. So that was a 3% increase um for

[1:02:49] cost of living um as well as net uh

[1:02:55] full-time equivalent addition. So net uh

[1:02:57] so new um budget requests for new

[1:03:01] staffing. So the assistant library would

[1:03:03] be assistant librarian would be one of

[1:03:05] those. Um there are a lot of offsetting

[1:03:08] amounts in that as well. Um however the

[1:03:12] net increase or the net impact is

[1:03:15] 360,000 and and from the first budget

[1:03:19] meeting you know 240,000ish or 240ish

[1:03:23] would be related to just basic uh cost

[1:03:26] of living increases that were budgeted

[1:03:29] or that needed to be budgeted in

[1:03:32] um

[1:03:38] contracted in general services in next

[1:03:41] um now when I look at these items

[1:03:42] sometimes I look at them separately uh

[1:03:45] included in contract and general

[1:03:47] services is you know the cost of our CMP

[1:03:49] which is 2.6 6 million right now um

[1:03:52] budgeted in there. So that's included in

[1:03:54] that 6.5. Uh materials, goods, and

[1:03:57] supplies would be, you know, include

[1:03:59] like your water purchases, right? Um so

[1:04:02] we kind of look at it a few different

[1:04:03] ways. We look at it as a whole. We back

[1:04:05] out some of those items that are based

[1:04:07] on agreements um uh costs that, you

[1:04:11] know, really departments have no control

[1:04:13] over in a sense. uh just because you

[1:04:16] know recycling, garbage, um all of those

[1:04:19] fees, tipping fees come out of

[1:04:21] materials, goods and supplies as well.

[1:04:23] So when we back that all out, you know,

[1:04:25] you get a number close to 3.5 million

[1:04:27] and that would kind of be like your

[1:04:29] discretionary

[1:04:30] um what the departments have across the

[1:04:32] organization to spend on contract and

[1:04:35] general services and materials, goods

[1:04:36] and supplies. The rest of the line items

[1:04:38] here below that are are really those

[1:04:40] items that I did spend a lot of time on

[1:04:44] because those are those are items that

[1:04:47] um

[1:04:50] you know for example debenture payments

[1:04:52] you can you can easily uh project out

[1:04:55] what your debenture payments and your uh

[1:04:58] financing costs are based on what your

[1:05:00] current debentures are and expected

[1:05:01] dementures are going to be. So those

[1:05:04] numbers are pretty um

[1:05:07] uh and also you know there is no

[1:05:09] discretionary

[1:05:11] um

[1:05:12] you know payments that come out of

[1:05:13] there. So as long as uh we don't add new

[1:05:16] debentures or choose to pay off

[1:05:18] debentures early like those numbers are

[1:05:21] um fairly easy to project out into 27

[1:05:24] and 28.

[1:05:26] Um

[1:05:29] but back to

[1:05:31] uh contracted services. Um so 2025 we

[1:05:35] had budgeted uh I believe it was 2.365

[1:05:40] million for RCMP. It actually came in

[1:05:42] closer to 2.5 uh or roughly 170,000

[1:05:46] higher than expected. Um, I did just

[1:05:49] submit the RCMP report today um, for our

[1:05:53] continued funding um, through the equity

[1:05:57] uh, grant provided by the province. Um,

[1:05:59] so that that amount is kind of fixed at

[1:06:01] 550,000 for 2026 anyways. Um, but that

[1:06:04] is

[1:06:05] um,

[1:06:07] and then I used the forecast provided by

[1:06:10] RCMP to develop uh,

[1:06:14] those expenses out to

[1:06:20] We have councelor Chapman has a

[1:06:21] question.

[1:06:22] » Yeah.

[1:06:23] » Yeah. Thank you, Mayor. Tim, just two

[1:06:25] questions. One on regard the RCMP

[1:06:28] contract. Um we have no uh um

[1:06:34] control over the numbers over the um

[1:06:37] over their requisition

[1:06:39] uh for so and I see that that number is

[1:06:42] going up by approximately 100,000 every

[1:06:44] year. So, um, obviously that's something

[1:06:47] we have no control over just for for

[1:06:50] council's interest. Um, the second thing

[1:06:52] I wanted to point out, uh, regarding

[1:06:55] debentures, um, you and your team would

[1:06:58] be able to get have a really good handle

[1:07:00] moving forward as to, um, paying off

[1:07:04] some of those debentures sooner than

[1:07:06] later. uh considering some of the

[1:07:08] interest rates that might be out there

[1:07:09] or or if they're locked in, I guess you

[1:07:11] have no control, but you would have a

[1:07:13] pretty good handle on how those

[1:07:15] debentures could be paid off.

[1:07:18] [snorts] Uh yes. So, uh we the nice

[1:07:21] thing is last year uh the previous CFO

[1:07:23] had had

[1:07:26] um

[1:07:28] arranged to have a number of debentures

[1:07:30] paid off maybe one or two years early.

[1:07:32] Um, now typically if you repay a

[1:07:35] dementure early, there are penalties to

[1:07:37] do so. However, if they're sitting at

[1:07:39] higher interest rates and you have, you

[1:07:42] know, you're projecting more uh

[1:07:44] additional dementures down the line at

[1:07:45] better rates, sometimes it is a better

[1:07:47] decision to pay those off early. So,

[1:07:49] yes. Yeah.

[1:07:50] » Thank you.

[1:07:52] » And then regarding the RCMP costs,

[1:07:54] you're correct. We we have no say over,

[1:07:56] you know, if they implement new body

[1:07:59] camera system or EV for, I don't know,

[1:08:03] across the board, that type of thing.

[1:08:05] Um, I think we we do uh we can set the

[1:08:09] number of established positions. Um

[1:08:11] however you'll see in this graph here

[1:08:13] what I've assumed for the budget for 26

[1:08:16] 27 and 28 is um you know after looking

[1:08:20] at prior years and the utilization net

[1:08:23] member utilization um it's kind of

[1:08:26] hovered between 80 um 80 to 90ish% so

[1:08:30] those are the numbers that I used. I

[1:08:32] didn't want to go too far lower um just

[1:08:35] because we uh I think we have been

[1:08:37] burned in the past. Uh

[1:08:40] and as well there is um we received a

[1:08:42] letter uh from the RCMP uh regarding a 3

[1:08:45] and a half% projected retro uh that

[1:08:48] would go back to April 1st of 2025. So

[1:08:51] there is a there is an additional amount

[1:08:53] for 2026 for RCMP to to sort of cover

[1:08:56] that and as well any adjustments that

[1:08:58] might come out of um because I've

[1:09:01] noticed every period the the forecast

[1:09:04] changes just a little bit. So, um it's

[1:09:07] yeah

[1:09:14] um

[1:09:17] so that was RCMP ERP transition. Um

[1:09:21] we paid the first 75,000 implementation

[1:09:25] charge in 2025. Um the second half of

[1:09:28] that will be due in 2026.

[1:09:30] Um and but like I mentioned before that

[1:09:34] is an amount that we do have uh reserves

[1:09:36] for al so that's over here. Um uh so

[1:09:40] included in that 355 is 75,000 for one

[1:09:44] time implementation or the last half of

[1:09:48] that implementation as well as 50,000

[1:09:50] for um the sort of you know the period

[1:09:54] of time where you need to pay for both

[1:09:56] systems. So that's for um our old

[1:09:58] system.

[1:10:00] Um so there's about 125,000 from

[1:10:03] reserves out of that 355 that is related

[1:10:05] to um the transition of accounting but

[1:10:09] that was you know forecasted out by the

[1:10:12] previous CFO in 2024.

[1:10:21] Now, there are other professional

[1:10:23] contracted services that increase due to

[1:10:27] um collective agreement bargaining. Uh I

[1:10:30] made sure not to include those costs

[1:10:31] when we looked at budgeting in for 2026.

[1:10:35] So therefore, uh you see the increase

[1:10:37] from 25 to 26 is 6% or 373,000.

[1:10:43] Uh now the big portion of that is as I

[1:10:45] just showed you in the previous chart um

[1:10:48] it's the RCMP

[1:10:50] um increase uh we're projecting 266 that

[1:10:54] includes the 57,000 that I've budgeted

[1:10:57] for the retroactive pay of 3 and a

[1:10:59] half%. Um the remaining 106,000

[1:11:05] uh would be due to the revival of the

[1:11:07] public safety department. uh the 60,000

[1:11:10] for the uh downtown study and then there

[1:11:14] were some other minor changes in new

[1:11:17] budget requests. For example, one of

[1:11:19] them would be uh in police there's a

[1:11:22] increase from 10,000 to 17,500. That's

[1:11:25] the citizens on patrol um covering the

[1:11:28] vehicle maintenance costs

[1:11:33] um for materials, goods and supplies.

[1:11:37] uh when we look at 25 actual or

[1:11:40] unodudited actual to 2025 budgeted the

[1:11:43] difference there was mainly due to uh

[1:11:45] water consumption was higher than

[1:11:47] estimated I believe there were a couple

[1:11:49] of main breaks that were were unexpected

[1:11:52] um and I believe they're sort of in the

[1:11:55] similar area but those were all offset

[1:11:57] by uh you know a lower operation spend

[1:12:00] especially due to a lot of the

[1:12:01] uncertainties in um 2025 in the tail end

[1:12:05] of 2025 there. Um but when we budget for

[1:12:09] 2026 we there is an increase of 15% and

[1:12:12] that is mainly due to um that would be

[1:12:15] for the water consumption.

[1:12:18] So there you know 673

[1:12:21] uh increase in the revenue side 640,000

[1:12:24] increase on the on the expense side as

[1:12:27] well. You need to factor in that each

[1:12:29] facility also uses water as well. So

[1:12:31] those need to go up. Um,

[1:12:36] and so there, uh, as I mentioned

[1:12:38] earlier, we did go through with each

[1:12:41] department, went through line by line,

[1:12:42] looked at the past 5 years, um, looked

[1:12:45] at areas where we could possibly, um,

[1:12:48] reallocate or uh, maybe just based on

[1:12:52] historical trends, we we don't need that

[1:12:54] budget allocation there. This is one of

[1:12:56] those areas where um we were able to

[1:12:59] make those um

[1:13:04] uh to get the 2026 to 28 uh budget

[1:13:07] balanced.

[1:13:10] Uh next item, bank charge and interest.

[1:13:12] This one is it's a very small item but

[1:13:14] it grows it goes up by significant

[1:13:16] amount. Um this is just bank charges and

[1:13:20] interest. So that relates to our debit

[1:13:22] terminals, our um authorized.net online

[1:13:26] uh payment portal. Um there are fees

[1:13:29] associated with accepting credit card

[1:13:32] transactions. Uh just so council is

[1:13:33] aware, we do not allow credit card

[1:13:35] transactions at at the office. So we do

[1:13:38] not accept credit cards for uh taxes,

[1:13:41] utilities, uh business licenses, uh

[1:13:44] development permits unless they choose

[1:13:46] to pay online through our website uh

[1:13:48] where we use Pay Simply. But pay simply

[1:13:51] adds on and an administrative fee to

[1:13:53] cover that on their end. Um and we just

[1:13:56] receive the payment. Um however uh

[1:14:00] recreation fees uh they can be paid

[1:14:02] online through credit card and and those

[1:14:05] are you know uh you know we should have

[1:14:09] well this is one of those items where it

[1:14:11] is a smaller item but we should try and

[1:14:13] reflect for actual what we actually are

[1:14:16] seeing um as far as you know transaction

[1:14:19] volumes. Um, and so you'll see that for

[1:14:23] 26, we've just allocated 25,000 there.

[1:14:28] Uh, principal debt repayments, uh, I

[1:14:30] don't think I need to go into that any

[1:14:32] deeper. Um, I there's no changes since

[1:14:35] the first operating budget presentation

[1:14:38] where we went through the list of

[1:14:39] current deentures and the ones coming

[1:14:41] online in 2026. Um this

[1:14:46] uh this does include the like I said the

[1:14:49] financing costs for the water rights

[1:14:51] purchase that we're projecting. Um I

[1:14:54] believe in the first in 2026 I budgeted

[1:14:57] 60,000 and then in 2027 uh 75,000 just

[1:15:02] to make sure that u just because this

[1:15:05] isn't a dementia that we can get through

[1:15:07] the province. It has to be a dementia

[1:15:09] that we get through um like a major bank

[1:15:12] for example. So, we might not get the

[1:15:14] types of rates that we could at um

[1:15:17] through the loans to local authorities.

[1:15:21] Um other expenses, uh now this includes

[1:15:25] tax write-offs. Um that would be for

[1:15:27] volunteer firefighters as well as for

[1:15:29] the tax incentive program. Um, now this

[1:15:33] you can see the 2025 actual uh will we

[1:15:37] will only be writing off 550,000 and and

[1:15:39] part of that is because we received a

[1:15:41] pay uh payment in advance of taxes

[1:15:44] outside of that incentive program. Um

[1:15:46] but until that 2025 year end is

[1:15:48] finalized. We won't um yeah we won't be

[1:15:52] able to see what what um

[1:16:00] um but the reason why that number is

[1:16:03] increasing for 2026 is due to just the

[1:16:06] inflation. So as I mentioned earlier for

[1:16:08] non-residential portion our

[1:16:10] non-residential taxes we we don't factor

[1:16:14] out inflation in calculating the mail

[1:16:16] rate uh when we keep it at 10 which is

[1:16:19] um you know half a left bridge for

[1:16:21] example.

[1:16:23] Um

[1:16:24] so that's the only change in in was just

[1:16:27] based on the incentive program those

[1:16:29] properties going up in value.

[1:16:33] Uh as far as the next line item

[1:16:35] government transfers expense. Now, this

[1:16:37] is going to be transfers that the town

[1:16:39] of Coldell makes to other organizations,

[1:16:41] other municipalities. Uh, one of the

[1:16:44] reasons for the

[1:16:50] um overbudget. Um, we budgeted 4.6 and

[1:16:55] came in at 4.8671.

[1:16:57] Major item there is the 205,000 for the

[1:17:00] horsefly spillway. Um, that was an item

[1:17:03] that came up kind of midway through the

[1:17:06] year. um council probably remembers um

[1:17:08] that that had to come out of uh

[1:17:11] reserves, but it's a transfer that um we

[1:17:14] made [clears throat]

[1:17:14] and that's where it hit the hit the

[1:17:17] expenses.

[1:17:20] Um as far as the 2026 budget, um as I

[1:17:25] mentioned earlier, I just we kept

[1:17:27] provincial education and green acres

[1:17:29] requisition mill rates the same as they

[1:17:31] were in 2025. and we can revisit that uh

[1:17:34] in the spring with the property tax

[1:17:36] bylaw. Um although I did factor in for

[1:17:39] the growth right so if we if we are

[1:17:42] expecting growth on the tax side we

[1:17:44] should also expect a growth on the

[1:17:46] requisition side um so I just have a

[1:17:50] small note there you know decreasing the

[1:17:52] residential mill rates uh you know if

[1:17:56] requisitions go up you'll start uh

[1:18:00] you'll start seeing less taxes available

[1:18:02] for municipal purposes. Uh and then the

[1:18:05] last line there is transfers to

[1:18:06] reserves. Now this is where you know I

[1:18:09] kept a close eye on and this is the last

[1:18:11] area I would touch um when it came to

[1:18:14] preparing the 2026 to 2028 budget

[1:18:17] because this line item includes what we

[1:18:20] budget for reserves at the end of the

[1:18:22] year for capital future capital uh

[1:18:25] current capital projects um and also for

[1:18:29] operating. So that 3 point uh what that

[1:18:32] 3 million isn't all transfers to capital

[1:18:34] reserves as I mentioned we put money

[1:18:36] away for ongoing programs as well as for

[1:18:39] that also includes transfers to

[1:18:41] operating reserves for future years. Um

[1:18:46] so with that um we get to uh bottom

[1:18:51] figure which is balanced without relying

[1:18:53] on any tax increases for residential

[1:18:58] um and factoring in growth, making

[1:19:02] adjustments across the board for

[1:19:03] salaries and wages. um making certain

[1:19:06] cuts in areas uh where where they might

[1:19:08] not be needed, but then also increasing

[1:19:11] where we know for a fact that we need to

[1:19:14] budget more. Um

[1:19:17] you know, we've tried to capture as much

[1:19:18] as possible. Um but uh you know,

[1:19:21] budgeting isn't isn't a perfect science.

[1:19:24] Um but I we are pretty comfortable with

[1:19:28] presenting this budget that

[1:19:32] uh is balanced without um a request for

[1:19:36] a tax increase. Um and then and then

[1:19:38] although 27 and 28 are balanced um a few

[1:19:41] things I will note is that yes for some

[1:19:44] revenue items we projected growth. So

[1:19:47] taxes we projected 3.25% 3.25% 25%

[1:19:52] uh utilities uh just sort of like a

[1:19:57] I believe you know like a 3% maybe not

[1:20:01] the same as the growth in tax but there

[1:20:03] is a growth um factored in for rates

[1:20:07] utilities and other uh fees. Um

[1:20:14] and then license permits and fees um you

[1:20:17] can see smaller increases there. uh

[1:20:20] franchise fees. Um so this is one area

[1:20:23] where I would say you should expect

[1:20:25] growth. Um I just didn't budget those

[1:20:28] in. But there are um like I said it is

[1:20:31] balanced currently without that. And

[1:20:32] then you'll see on the expense side not

[1:20:34] everything goes up either. So um you

[1:20:37] know at the end of the day um some of

[1:20:40] these items will end up offsetting. So

[1:20:43] if you uh just for

[1:20:46] um for the sake of transparency, I

[1:20:48] included

[1:20:50] the line by line budgets for every

[1:20:53] single department. Um just to kind of

[1:20:55] show you where those allocation changes

[1:20:58] were and where those smaller requests

[1:21:00] come in. Um I tried to make a note on

[1:21:03] each page

[1:21:04] um just to show where the variances

[1:21:07] occurred um year-over-year. And you

[1:21:10] might notice if you look at one for

[1:21:12] example, you might notice that um you

[1:21:16] know the expense side doesn't really

[1:21:18] change. So this is one of those items

[1:21:19] where I just want council to be aware

[1:21:21] for example um

[1:21:25] for for revenue uh we increased where we

[1:21:28] could but for certain expense items they

[1:21:30] are the same year-over-year. Now, that

[1:21:32] is because we do allow for a little bit

[1:21:34] of flexibility within the budget for uh

[1:21:37] you know, those unexpected things that

[1:21:39] happened. Um after I looked at um like I

[1:21:44] said, after I backed out all of the

[1:21:46] organizationwide sort of fixed charges,

[1:21:49] we were left with about 3.5 million of,

[1:21:51] you know, your discretionary. Um if you

[1:21:54] allow for about a little bit of

[1:21:56] contingency, it was it was no more than

[1:21:57] 10%. Um, but within these items, you

[1:22:01] know, it's only a matter of time before,

[1:22:04] you know, $2,000 in 2025 will not get

[1:22:06] you the same amount of stuff as in 20

[1:22:08] Oh, sorry, that's 26. But, um, you know,

[1:22:12] the same amount of money is not going to

[1:22:13] get you the same things two years down

[1:22:15] the road. Um, so just to be aware, a lot

[1:22:18] of these discretionary items I did not

[1:22:20] increase um by any factor. Um,

[1:22:27] um,

[1:22:29] so yeah, I

[1:22:39] but uh certain expense items that I did

[1:22:41] increase are wages. I I sort of based on

[1:22:45] the department and the makeup of each

[1:22:47] department I did do anywhere from a 1

[1:22:50] and a half to a 3% or six actually one

[1:22:53] and a half to possibly even a four or 5%

[1:22:56] increase in wages just based on you know

[1:22:59] are they mostly union staff are they

[1:23:02] exempt are they um for example um you

[1:23:05] know if a department is all exempt then

[1:23:07] I would only increase it one and a half

[1:23:10] uh% per year type

[1:23:13] Uh for expenses, uh like I said, RCMP is

[1:23:16] one of the big ones. I I've budgeted

[1:23:18] that out to increase uh based on the

[1:23:21] forecast that received. Um and as I

[1:23:24] mentioned, you know, I did just um these

[1:23:27] are the assumptions that I made for uh

[1:23:30] net member uh utilization,

[1:23:34] right? keeping it within that 80 to 90%

[1:23:36] range um I think should should um be

[1:23:41] safe.

[1:23:43] Um couple of other slides here that I

[1:23:46] wanted to mention. There was a $150,000

[1:23:48] decrease in the emergency services

[1:23:50] agreement. However, as you can see in

[1:23:52] this chart, um you know, call volumes

[1:23:54] aren't going to magically go down as

[1:23:57] well at the same time. So there's added

[1:24:00] pressure in that department to keep

[1:24:01] things um to keep service levels

[1:24:04] maintained. Um you know that is one of

[1:24:06] the areas council can look at as well.

[1:24:09] Um

[1:24:10] » Avery has a question for you.

[1:24:12] » Yeah, thanks Tim. And this question

[1:24:14] could be for the the chief. Um so I

[1:24:17] notice our medical calls keep going up

[1:24:19] and up and up and up. Um years back the

[1:24:21] province says that was their

[1:24:23] responsibility. It seems like it's

[1:24:25] falling back onto our rate payers again.

[1:24:28] Uh, is there something we need to do as

[1:24:29] council to start lobbying to get some

[1:24:31] extra funding for this type of stuff?

[1:24:47] Uh, thank you for the question,

[1:24:48] Councelor Avery. Uh, yeah, we still see

[1:24:50] our medical uh, call volumes going up.

[1:24:54] Uh I would say that our our fire has

[1:24:56] been going up as well. Uh it hasn't the

[1:24:59] medical hasn't maybe climbed as

[1:25:01] drastically as it was at one point. Um

[1:25:03] but we are seeing that burden uh come

[1:25:06] back again. Uh it'll be a statistic that

[1:25:09] you guys will see in the year- end

[1:25:10] report upcoming. But uh we did have um

[1:25:14] 35 code reds last year. Uh but this year

[1:25:18] um

[1:25:20] serve memory serves me right, we've

[1:25:22] already had almost 15 uh in January and

[1:25:26] February. Uh so uh we've seen a lot of

[1:25:30] ambulances shut down throughout the uh

[1:25:33] year this year so far and a lot of uh

[1:25:36] knocking down ambulances to BLS. So are

[1:25:38] ambulances covering other uh communities

[1:25:41] in the last month or so. Uh so I think

[1:25:43] there is uh that ability for more

[1:25:46] lobbying either for more supports for um

[1:25:50] fire departments because they do do uh

[1:25:52] some of their direct financial supports

[1:25:55] for us as well but it's a fairly small

[1:25:57] amount uh what we do get out of that

[1:26:23] Okay. Um,

[1:26:26] okay. Some of the other slides that we

[1:26:28] may not have touched on. Um, yeah, we

[1:26:31] looked at the assessment growth,

[1:26:32] residential, non-residential tax split.

[1:26:35] Um, the current mill rates in 2025.

[1:26:39] uh the changes potential changes to the

[1:26:41] mill rate based on tax increases of 1 to

[1:26:44] 3% and the revenue impact. Um

[1:26:51] and then the impact to the resident on

[1:26:53] on the based on the value of property.

[1:26:55] Uh we looked at the taxers balance. We

[1:26:58] looked at some of the other factors that

[1:27:00] may have hit residents in 2026 already

[1:27:03] or are upcoming. Um, and then we've

[1:27:06] talked about the budget approach, which

[1:27:08] was very important to kind of explain

[1:27:11] before we even went into the budget. So,

[1:27:13] uh, we did that and now I'm on my final

[1:27:15] slide. So, um, as I mentioned, uh, the

[1:27:20] 26 to 28, um, draft operating budget is

[1:27:23] currently balanced without any plan

[1:27:25] increases to the municipal portion of

[1:27:27] residential taxes outside of growth. And

[1:27:29] these are the growth assumptions used in

[1:27:32] 2026, 2027 and 2028. Uh where we used

[1:27:36] 4.35%,

[1:27:38] 3.25% and 3.25% for growth. Uh inflation

[1:27:42] for residential assessment values in

[1:27:44] 2026 is estimated by the assessor to be

[1:27:48] 10.23%.

[1:27:50] [clears throat]

[1:27:50] Um the non-residential property

[1:27:53] assessment growth is estimated at just

[1:27:55] under 3% at 2.88 in 2026. Uh and then we

[1:27:59] did not adjust the mill rate for

[1:28:01] inflation of 9.3%.

[1:28:04] Um there's no changes to the franchise

[1:28:07] fees for 2026. We didn't project any

[1:28:09] increases to the franchise fee rates for

[1:28:11] gas or electricity. Um and then there is

[1:28:14] that fees and rates bylaw that um

[1:28:18] you know we can pass later but it it

[1:28:20] won't have any well I don't I can't

[1:28:22] assume there will be a significant

[1:28:24] impact to um the draft operating budget.

[1:28:28] Um however that is set to come back to

[1:28:31] council at a later date.

[1:28:34] Um

[1:28:36] utility rates, we've increased them for

[1:28:38] 2026 across the board. And then for

[1:28:41] consumption uh to take effect on April

[1:28:43] 1st for water and bulk sewer and at this

[1:28:47] time there are no projected increases to

[1:28:50] utility rates that are programmed into

[1:28:52] the revenues and that budget that we've

[1:28:54] seen there. So it's just simply growth.

[1:28:56] We're just kind of being slightly more

[1:28:58] aggressive in in growth. Um

[1:29:02] and then as far as capital reserve

[1:29:04] transfers, as I mentioned earlier, I

[1:29:06] would like I would like to see some kind

[1:29:08] of uh reserve strategy developed uh for

[1:29:11] 2027 and and as we move forward with

[1:29:14] asset management. Um they do decrease

[1:29:17] slightly um from 2026 through to 2028 by

[1:29:22] about 165,000 or 5%. Um but again there

[1:29:28] um you know next year well when we

[1:29:32] budget for 2027 that will be in the fall

[1:29:35] even by then even in the seven months

[1:29:37] from now till then there we'll probably

[1:29:40] have new assumptions new lots of things

[1:29:42] will have probably changed so um that is

[1:29:45] something that we can uh like I said I

[1:29:48] we keep a close eye on we don't want to

[1:29:50] see that amount decrease as we grow our

[1:29:52] asset base is the

[1:29:55] the story

[1:29:58] » Has a question.

[1:29:59] » Uh yeah, thank you, Mayor. Um Tim, um

[1:30:03] the wreck levy, I know you haven't

[1:30:06] mentioned it anywhere in here yet, but

[1:30:08] you consider that to be a rate as a a

[1:30:11] rate and fee or a tax or a levy.

[1:30:16] » Uh I believe it's a special tax. Um, and

[1:30:19] it it is included I believe in this

[1:30:22] overall

[1:30:24] uh I might have to

[1:30:25] » Yeah, it is it you do show it in there

[1:30:27] as a 2.14

[1:30:29] I think increase which

[1:30:32] » When I first read it I thought oh

[1:30:34] there's an increase but I think you're

[1:30:36] you're you're using the population or um

[1:30:39] housing growth as the increase for the

[1:30:42] levies. Am I correct on that?

[1:30:44] » Yeah, that's correct. We're not

[1:30:45] increasing, we're not setting to

[1:30:47] increase the wreck levy uh rate. Um it's

[1:30:50] just due to growth. We're just kind of

[1:30:52] adjusting that number.

[1:30:54] » Second question to you. Um with regards

[1:30:57] to these arars, like that's over half a

[1:31:00] million dollars, $560,000

[1:31:03] a year. Are we able to collect 100% of

[1:31:06] that or is that like it seems like that

[1:31:09] number is pretty constant? Uh over half

[1:31:11] a million every year. Uh yeah, so those

[1:31:15] numbers came from our tax specialist. Um

[1:31:17] she does keep a close eye on the rears.

[1:31:20] Um there are certain MGA requirements.

[1:31:22] Um

[1:31:24] you know there are notices that need to

[1:31:26] be done. There are certain steps you

[1:31:27] have to take before you know an AR's

[1:31:30] balance reaches 3 years and then you

[1:31:33] know at the end of three years then

[1:31:34] there's the tax sale process. So they're

[1:31:36] they're um

[1:31:39] from her side of things she does keep a

[1:31:41] close eye on it and she does say that

[1:31:43] the number of accounts in a rears

[1:31:46] doesn't seem to grow doesn't seem to

[1:31:49] change too significantly. So then the

[1:31:51] the balance might grow but the number of

[1:31:53] aars accounts um isn't um there's no

[1:31:57] drastic increases in that regard.

[1:31:59] » Okay. Thank you.

[1:32:00] » Yeah. [snorts]

[1:32:07] Um, so I guess a final note, keep in

[1:32:10] mind that most of the expense slide

[1:32:11] items, uh, except for the ones that we

[1:32:14] really took a closer look at those

[1:32:15] bigger items like salaries and wages,

[1:32:17] RCMP, and some of our contractual

[1:32:20] obligations. Um, we adjusted for those

[1:32:24] for 27 and 28. Um, but the ones that

[1:32:27] have not been adjusted for inflationary

[1:32:29] year-over-year costs um are some of

[1:32:31] those discretionary items. Um, but those

[1:32:34] are those will be kind of related to

[1:32:36] service levels. Um, you know, do you

[1:32:38] reduce service levels as costs go up or

[1:32:41] do you do you increase those? But

[1:32:43] keeping in mind that ongoing expenses uh

[1:32:46] are fund should be funded through

[1:32:47] ongoing revenues. So either through new

[1:32:49] growth or uh and not through surplus or

[1:32:51] from reserves. Um

[1:32:56] uh with that any future service level

[1:32:59] enhancement requests, additional

[1:33:01] operating expenses from you know the

[1:33:03] construction or purchase of new capital

[1:33:05] items uh insurance being one of them. Uh

[1:33:08] or inflationary cost pressures uh will

[1:33:11] need to be funded through an increase in

[1:33:14] tax rates or fees. Uh so this is keeping

[1:33:16] in line with that principled approach

[1:33:18] that ongoing costs should be funded by

[1:33:20] current revenues not surpluses or

[1:33:21] reserves.

[1:33:23] Um, now we do have another meeting

[1:33:26] scheduled for Thursday, February 26th.

[1:33:29] Um, maybe I'll

[1:33:32] um

[1:33:33] maybe I'll take a second here to um

[1:33:38] kind of

[1:33:40] see if there are any questions from

[1:33:42] council on specific items. Um, I do have

[1:33:44] all of my work here. I do have um these

[1:33:48] individual departments and budget budget

[1:33:50] line by budget line. Um if there's

[1:33:53] anything

[1:33:55] um you know if there any questions

[1:33:57] » We're going to take a five minute

[1:33:59] recess.

[1:34:00] » Sure.

[1:42:25] Thank you. We're have returned from our

[1:42:28] break and

[1:42:31] I'll open it up to our CFO one last

[1:42:34] time. Do you have anything else to say

[1:42:37] before I open it up to members of

[1:42:39] council for question before we go into

[1:42:41] close?

[1:42:43] » Uh, no I don't. I think I' I've talked

[1:42:46] fairly long.

[1:42:49] » So I have nothing more to add. Thank

[1:42:50] you.

[1:42:51] » Okay. Thank you.

[1:42:54] Any questions for our presenter?

[1:42:58] Seeing none, [snorts]

[1:43:01] I'm going to require a motion that

[1:43:03] council move into close session at 6:43

[1:43:07] p.m. in accordance with section 197-4-B

[1:43:11] of the Municipal Government Act to

[1:43:14] discuss matters exempt from disclosure

[1:43:16] 4. Section 19, disclosure harmful to the

[1:43:21] business interests of a third party.

[1:43:23] Section 20, disclosure harmful to

[1:43:26] personal privacy. Section 30, disclosure

[1:43:30] harmful to the economic and other

[1:43:32] interests of a public body. Who cares to

[1:43:35] make that motion?

[1:43:38] Councelor Pickering?

[1:43:40] I'll call for the vote.

[1:43:51] And that vote is carried. Thank you.

[2:17:40] Thank you. We're back in session again.

[2:17:44] So, we just um finished our budget

[2:17:47] deliberations and we had our chief

[2:17:51] financial officer Tim Koba present. Tim,

[2:17:55] great job on on that. Uh, I'm not sure

[2:17:58] how you can stand doing your job when

[2:18:02] you're looking at those spreadsheets,

[2:18:03] but power to you for that. Appreciate

[2:18:05] all the effort that your finance team

[2:18:08] put into this. So, I'm looking for one

[2:18:12] opportunity, one more opportunity for

[2:18:14] everybody if they have any questions for

[2:18:17] Tim before we look at our our motion

[2:18:21] options for budget deliberations.

[2:18:25] Councelor

[2:18:28] Avery.

[2:18:32] » Thank you, Mayor. Not a question. Um,

[2:18:34] just a statement. Tim, thank you for all

[2:18:36] your hard work. Ashley, thank you. Thank

[2:18:38] the administration team. Uh, this was a

[2:18:41] very clear, concise budget, exactly what

[2:18:44] we asked for. Um, I'm very, very

[2:18:47] impressed you had that you tore it all

[2:18:49] down and built it back up again. Thank

[2:18:51] you for all your hard work.

[2:18:54] » Thank you. Well said, councelor Avery.

[2:18:57] So, seeing no more questions, comments,

[2:19:00] uh could I enter ask member of council

[2:19:02] to entertain to make one of the motion

[2:19:05] options that councelor Avery?

[2:19:10] » Yes, mayor. I'll make a motion that we

[2:19:13] accept the budget as presented with a 0%

[2:19:16] uh tax increase.

[2:19:18] » Thank you. There's a motion on the floor

[2:19:21] by Councelor Avery. Any further

[2:19:23] discussion?

[2:19:25] Seeing none, I'll call for the vote.

[2:19:34] And that is carried unanimously.

[2:19:38] [laughter]

[2:19:40] » Okay. Well, thank you again one more

[2:19:42] time, Tim, for all that hard work. So,

[2:19:44] that concludes the open portion of the

[2:19:47] meeting. Uh we're going to return back

[2:19:50] into closed. So, I will need a motion

[2:19:52] that council move into close session at

[2:19:55] 7:20

[2:19:57] p.m. in accordance with section 197-4-B

[2:20:02] of the municipal government act to

[2:20:04] discuss matters exempt from disclosure

[2:20:07] for item 13.1 subject to section 19

[2:20:11] disclosure harmful to the business

[2:20:13] interests of a third party. Section 20,

[2:20:16] personal privacy, and section 30,

[2:20:18] disclosure harmful to the economic and

[2:20:20] other interests of the public body. Who

[2:20:22] cares to make that motion? Councelor

[2:20:25] Reese makes that motion.

[2:20:27] I'll call for the vote.

[2:20:35] And that is carried. We'll take a

[2:20:38] twominut break.

Special Council Meeting - 24 Feb 2026

Transcript