Good afternoon and welcome to our
special council meeting for February
24th, 2026.
I'll call the meeting to order at 5:00
pm.
First item on the agenda, agenda item
1.1, land acknowledgement. The town of
Coldell acknowledges [clears throat]
that we are gathered on the lands of the
Blackfoot peoples of the Canadian plains
and pays respect to the Blackfoot
people's past, present, and future while
recognizing their cultural heritage,
beliefs, and relationship to the land.
The town of Coldell is also home to
Matei District 1 foothills. Agenda item
1.2, conflict of interest declaration,
pecunary or nonpunary. Are there any in
the room this afternoon?
None declared. Thank you.
Moving on to
agenda item 2.1, acceptance of the
agenda for our meeting today for special
council meeting agenda February 24th,
2026. I have one addition under addition
agenda item 13.2 two
Colddale procedures and transacting of
business by council of the town of
Coldale. Are there any other additions
to the agenda?
Seeing none, could I get someone to
entertain making a motion that council
adopt a special council meeting for
agenda for February 24th, 2026 as
amended? Councelor Reese makes that
motion.
I'll call for the vote.
And that vote is carried.
Moving down to the agenda under new
business, we have our draft 2026 to 2028
operating budget and we have our chief
financial officer, Tim Koba, presenting.
and Tim just wanted to congratulate you
on behalf of uh council with your new
position. Thank congratulations.
So before I open it up to Tim, is there
anything you wanted to start off before
I let the library library come and do
their presentation?
» Uh no. Uh I don't have anything. Um
thank you.
» Okay. So, Kendra, we'll let the two of
you come up and uh whenever you're
settled in, you got to use your
microphone and if you could both
introduce yourself for the public record
and then you can do your presentation,
please.
» My name is Kendra Bur. I am the head
librarian at the Coldell Public Library.
» My name is Candace Langworthy. I am the
current Coell Public Library Board
Chair.
Thank you for having us here. Good
evening, mayor and council.
I'm here on behalf of the Cold Public
Library Board to speak to our 2026
budget request, specifically the
reinstatement of a full-time assistant
librarian position.
Over the past three years, our library
has experienced significant growth. Door
counts have increased 28%.
Program attendance has grown 164%.
That growth spans children, teens,
families, and adults. It reflects strong
community demand and meaningful
engagement.
We are very proud of what our small team
has accomplished during this period of
growth. But as I'm sure you can imagine,
the difficulty this has posed when
staffing levels have not increased at
the same pace as service demand. So we
have approached this request carefully
and creatively.
As you probably know from our budget
request last year, we have offset costs
where possible and reallocated funds to
minimize impact for our 2026 budget. And
thank you so much to Tim for working
together with me to do this. We are
grateful for our partnership with the
town and how this council has
consistently shown strong support for
our library and tonight we are asking
for your approval to reinstate this
position so we can continue to meet the
needs of this growing community.
» Thanks.
» Thank you.
I'll open it up to members of council.
Any questions, comments?
So, Kendra, that was a
» Cole's notes version of your ask.
» So, this position, what are they going
to be exactly doing?
» So, it would be an assistant librarian
position. They would um have
um professional oversight. They would
also have um they would be a part of
program development. They would be a
part of um community engagement.
and um eventually
um having that MLIS compliance that we
need when we hit um 10,000 for our
population.
» And what kind of uh resume do they have
to have? Like what kind of education for
something like that?
» Uh masters of library and information
science.
» Thank you. Council Avery has a question.
Thank you, mayor. Thank you for your
presentation. Um and I can appreciate
the increase in um people attending the
library. Do we know the percentage of
town versus county that are coming in?
» Yeah. So, our um our library
memberships, 87% of them are from the
town and about 13% are from the county.
» And does the county contribute any
funding towards the library?
» Yes, they do. So that the county
residents, they do pay for their yearly
membership whereas town um residents,
they they enjoy a free library card. Um
and also the county contributes to the
rural grant services. Um and that is
split between us and patribute. And
» Will the county be contributing to this
position at all?
» Uh what they contributed last year was
around 37,000.
Thank you. Any further questions,
comments for our presenters?
Well, thank you very much.
» Deputy Mayor Beakman speaks highly of
your team, so we appreciate everything
you do.
» Thank you. Appreciate it.
» You're free to go.
» Thank you.
» So, back to our 2026 to 2028 operating
budget. We have our chief financial
officer, Tim Kova, presenting. And Tim,
whenever you're ready.
» Okay. Thank you, uh, Mayor Van Rein, and
welcome, council. Um, so tonight's
meeting is meeting number two of three
that we have scheduled for the operating
budget deliberations.
Um, now this presentation, um, I will
start off by kind of summarizing what we
summarizing some of the kind of like the
the reasons for this budget in front of
you today as as well as um you know our
budgeting approach to get to uh what you
see in front of you. Um there will be a
lot of information so please feel free
to just stop me and ask if you have any
questions along the way. Um,
I guess the information I I do have two
separate um I guess PDF documents that
have been attached for the draft
operating budget and I will I will be
jumping back and forth between the two.
Um, now the first two slides that you
see in the budget presentation, these
are all points that are covered um in
our in the cover letter that's attached
to the draft operating budget. Um these
are items that I will speak to um
individually um as we go through um kind
of like the the overall summary of the
2026 budget uh 2026 to 28 budget. Um so
these first two slides I'm just going to
real quick skip through those ones. Um,
and I think it's kind of important to
maybe go through um, our budgeting
approach first so that council has an
understanding of, you know, the reasons
why we uh, did the budget the way we did
and and sort of just to let council know
that we we kept in mind uh, council's
objectives in in their strategic um, you
know, what what they wanted to see from
the town um, and and kind of what the
their expectations were for 2026.
Um [snorts] now just to clarify this
budget is mainly focused on 2026. Uh we
we when we approach departments for
their asks we asked them to focus mainly
on 26. Um there are some numbers that we
uh have budgeted out 27 and 28th for
growth and um you know there are certain
agreements that that go up um and so
those have been reflected and I'll I'll
make it very clear which which items
those are and uh uh like I said again if
you have questions feel free to stop me.
Um so the 26 to 28 operating budget uh
we first met in October, November with
each department to get an idea of what
their requests would be for 2026.
Um we what I did first is you know we we
worked in those requests based on um
sort of the data that the previous CFO
had populated you know for 26 and 27
when he prepared last year's budget. Um
however, in order to get and and he did
an excellent job at um projecting out
makes making sure things were included
and and we were uh prepared for the
future uh by setting aside you know
transfers through capital reserves and
and making sure that uh you know
utilities were self-supported and taxes
were funding ongoing expenses. Um
however for myself uh and being new to
this role my first year presenting an
operating budget um I we we really
wanted to get a a really good
understanding um so to get a base level
understanding of you know what services
we are providing what what costs are
there and then as well along the way we
also um
you know uh I also looked at what uh the
alloc ations were and um you know we did
adjust allocations kind of across the
board. So you might notice that some
expenses might jump, some might go down
significantly
um but that's just due to a change in
the allocation. So there are some
categories uh such as salaries and wages
um you know natural gas and power
municipal utilities uh debentures, bank
charges and interest and insurance for
example that affect the whole
organization and the way that the
previous CFO had those allocated out.
you know, I may I may have made some
tweaks, but um overall I can tell you
kind of what the increases are across
those um specific items. Um and then
there are items that departments have uh
you know more uh discretion over. So you
I I would be talking about things like
contracted services, purchases of
supplies, materials, uh construction
materials. Um and those items, you know,
that's where we met with the departments
and went through line by line to figure
out, you know, are these where they
should be? Should we increase certain
amounts, decrease certain amounts? Um
and and it was a we we did have more
meetings in um 2026. Um, so those are
follow-up meetings uh in January,
February um to get to the budget that
you see in front of you today. So it it
is kind of a rework from the ground up
for a lot of items. Um there's a lot of
allocation changes. Um, however, I think
the main uh message or the main uh goal
of this budget was to present something
to council that was um, you know, that
gave us an understanding of, you know,
the town's operations and and to provide
um, a budget that didn't uh, impact
residents or that that had a 0% uh,
residential tax increase for at least
the 2026 year. And that was important
because of a few items. Um, you know, as
council is aware, we we approved a
utility rate bylaw that had utility rate
increases that we weren't expecting. Um,
there are um there is a rates and fees
bylaw that that went through first
reading. Um, but that one also has some
slight increases in it. So, you know,
considering everything, um, we wanted to
take an approach that, um, would soften
the impact to residents. You know, we
don't want to see someone come in and
then and then see sudden increases
across the board. So, um, we did look
very carefully at all of our projections
for both revenue and, uh, for expenses.
uh we went line by line making sure that
onetime costs that were in 2025 uh were
not being carried forward so uh there
weren't any duplicates. Um
and then you know one of the one of the
principles that we kind of followed um
and and one that we carry forward from
the previous CFO is to ensure that we're
not relying on surplus funds to fund
annual costs. So that's a big one. um
you know if if uh ongoing costs are
going up they should be funded um
through ongoing revenues um and [snorts]
it it took a bit of work and it also
required a little bit of work on getting
the year end caught up. So there was um
there was a period in January where uh
we did have to get November and December
uh numbers kind of as best we could. Um
we still have the year end uh that needs
to be uh well the file needs to get to
the auditors by the end of this week. So
it is still in progress. So the numbers
that I'm reporting here on 2025 actual
are unodudited and those numbers are
well they will change. Um however I I
tried to reflect as best I could what
what those changes would be. Um,
so on this slide here that we're on,
I'll kind of just go through um some of
those items. Uh, we are projecting at
least a surplus of about 325,000.
Uh we've allocated those that those
surplus funds to kind of sort of cover
uh now we passed a 2026 to 2030 capital
budget and there was one item in there
for the library roof replacement uh for
13,000 that we said would be funded
through uh surplus. Um so we do have a
surplus. So that is in there right
there. Um just one note to make is that
the library board is also contributing
uh 50% of the cost of that uh renovation
or that roof replacement. Um some of the
other items that are coming out of
surplus to fund the 2026 one-time
expenses uh would be uh 16k for uh
council expenses. uh 26,000 for um
additional costs related to upfront
costs related to uh training new CPOS.
Um we've allocated 60,000 for downtown
area restructure plan and supporting
studies. Um now that item there there is
there is a possibility that we could get
grant funding for that one. However,
we're we can't budget for things that we
aren't sure we're receiving and grant
operating grants are one of those. Um
and then we also allocated uh 60,000
towards the wage contingency. Um that is
an operating reserve that's set up to uh
cover you know one-time fluctuations and
wages based on events in the year. Um so
there's currently 40,000 in that
reserve. So, we would add 60,000 and
that is there to be able to draw from if
uh you know uh based on events in 2026.
Um or if we don't need those funds, they
can they can be used in future years as
well. But, uh we've set aside 60,000 for
that. And then obviously these are items
that council would have approval over.
Um but we're we're just trying to kind
of project out what might be needed in
2026, what might be needed even beyond
that. So, the last item there is 150,000
set aside for uh landscaping at
Centennial Park, which would uh likely
be a capital item. Um, but I've included
that there just to kind of give you a
full picture and to kind of tie that
into
um the the first page in the operating
budget that you'll see after the cover
letter. Um the goal was um throughout
this process to get a good idea of 2026
to 28 uh focusing mainly on 2026.
Um and again we want to make sure that
we're not uh you know borrowing from the
future to um to make 2026 work. So, one
of the main things that I looked at was,
you know, how is our transfers to
capital reserves being impacted by a lot
of the changes that we made. So,
» Councelor Avery has a question.
» Yeah.
» Thank you, Mayor. Thanks, Tim. Um, this
presentation has now tweaked something
for me and maybe the CEO has the answer,
but um, so why are we asking the library
board to contribute 50% of maintenance
on a building that belongs to the town?
We don't ask that from any other our um
non not forprofit or other organizations
that are using town facilities to pay
for repairs, i.e. the hub. Um I don't
see anything in there where we're asking
um that organization to pay for roof
repairs. So I'm just wondering why u
we're not budgeting fully for this and
asking library board to contribute.
Uh maybe the CO has a better response
than I do, but I I do believe that as
far as municipalities and funding
libraries go, um the town of Coldell
does fund a lot more than other
municipalities typically do. Um I don't
know if that's correct or not, so maybe
or I think Russ might have an idea here.
[clears throat]
Thank you. Uh, thank you for the
question. It's a good question. Um, and
I don't have what funding it would be in
front of me. I don't have that
information, but oftent times when we're
dealing with these third parties and
especially uh not profit organizations,
they have access to funding. Sometimes
we don't. And so we sometimes partner
with them on whether it's grants and
things like that. And I don't know where
this money particular is coming from. We
can look into that, but I would
anticipate that it's a funding source
like that. You bet.
[clears throat]
» Mayor Ethan.
» Uh thank you, Mayor, and through to Tim
and Russ. Um just on that on that note,
um the board has been the roof has been
um a a concern of ours for the last few
years. uh we had financial uncertainty
within the board knowing that we had to
contribute 50% and I was myself curious
about that. So I appreciate councelor
Avery asking that question was now was
the the year that we finally had
certainty with what our board budget was
that we could go forward with that. So I
know we've been held up because of what
our contribution has been. So I it's a
very good question as to why it was
contingent on the board. So that just
just a comment. Thank you.
» Okay. Yep. Thank you for the question.
Um, and you know, this is definitely one
of those items that we don't have to uh
have an answer for right away. Um, these
are items surplus items are, you know, a
discussion that we'll have when the
draft financial statements are prepared.
Um, I'm expecting them uh closer to the
end of April. So uh we do have some time
to you know uh to uh look at what the
actual surplus figure is and then and
then maybe there there isn't a need for
the library board contribution there and
that is a decision that council can make
at that time. Yeah.
Okay. So um I so yeah I I just wanted to
kind of go through our budgeting
approach for this year. um just so you
kind of understood how
what our goals were what what but we are
trying to uh achieve with the 2026
operating budget. Um with that I'll kind
of just jump into the beginning of the
draft operating budget. Um now there is
a cover letter attached. Um I'll kind of
go through some of the key points here
so that you know because this kind of
feeds into the next well the first page
of the operating draft budget. Um now
the 2026 fiscal year has been balanced
and it does assume a 0% net increase to
residential property taxes. Um meanwhile
the tax rate for non-residential
properties uh is we have it set to
remain static at $10 for every $1,000 in
assessed value or at a mill rate of 10.
Um which we have done the past couple of
years. uh fiscal years 2027 and 2028 uh
which can be evaluated as part of next
year's budget. Um they have also been
balanced as well. Uh but there are some
key items in 27 and 28 um that council
should kind of keep in mind as we um you
know as we also look at look through
2026.
Um some of the key items that I would
like to highlight before we get into the
budget are that um you know a lot of the
elements of this budget um were
reworked. So we we rather than relying
on you know the previous CFO's data and
his assumptions that he may have had
when developing the budget um you know
we kind of uh it was important for
myself personally to really understand
where these numbers are coming from and
um
uh and so it did take a little bit more
work to to actually go back to the
source right to um take uh you know for
example for for property taxes, we we
need to update those annually and we get
assessment values from our assessor uh
and then we use those estimates to kind
of project out. Um so it was important
to kind of go through all of that um for
each of the different areas. Um, I will
say that uh as far as like uh time
management and where I focus most of my
time, uh it would relate back to the
first presentation on February 9th where
we kind of looked at sort of those four
three or four largest revenue items,
right? you have taxes, uh, utilities,
uh, rates and fees, and then you also
have franchise fees. And, and so I did
make sure I spent more of my time in
those larger areas so that, you know, I
was to have to develop more confidence
in in what the numbers were. Um so for
revenue forecasts uh supplemental tax
revenues um we did look at uh building
permit values subdivision fees the
growth um and and we adjusted those um
rather than just carrying forward you
know a 3% increase or 5% increase or you
know um we we tried to really um get an
understanding of of those revenue items.
Um the town is in a growth phase. Um I
was curious. So last night I did look at
uh when I first started at the town in
2018. Previous to that I worked at um an
accounting firm where I was also the
auditor of the town of Coldell. So I was
curious. I looked at 2015 financial
statements very quickly. Um and it was
interesting to see that in 2015 the town
of Coldell budgeted uh 13 million for
revenues. Um so that was an interesting
number. Um wages were about 4.5 million.
Um and so yeah, it it was pretty amazing
to see the amount of growth that has
happened in in you know 10 years. So
um and and I think based on the data
that we're looking at, the town is still
growing um and so will the revenues
associated with growth. uh user fees,
franchise fees, consumption, uh
assessment values, all these help
balance some of the offsetting impact uh
that you see in like corresponding
revenue or rising expenses. So, you
know, [snorts] uh we looked at uh
various benchmarking or comparisons in
the first meeting, you know, wages as a
percent of tax revenue. uh we looked at
you know what are your contracted
services and other major categories as a
percentage of your total revenues. Um
that all helps us to to achieve balance.
Um so growth helps offset some of those
increases that you have in in
year-over-year costs. Um
uh as far as tax assessments go uh we we
are provided with actual assessment
numbers. um and the fact that we sort of
the numbers that we received in
November, December um were a little bit
different than the numbers that we
received in February, but we we made
sure to use the most updated forecasts
in in our numbers.
Um now this next part, uh until that
until that fees and rates bylaw is
passed, um you know, there is a 2%
increase. It it's it won't have a huge
impact on the budget. So regardless of
whether that um changes, I I don't
believe it will impact what you see in
front of you for 2026.
[snorts]
Um expenses were adjusted uh based on
known events as of February 20th um to
enhance precision and accuracy. So a few
of those items, you know, we had a full
year of costs for, you know, natural
gas, electricity. Um we received uh the
2026 invoices for insurance. Um so those
are actual numbers. Um the only
projections within say for example
insurance and some of the utilities is
that um you know we have new facilities
that will be coming online in 2026. So
that includes the potable water
reservoir
um
as well as the storm water management
facility. Um and then for insurance
purposes we we do still need to look
into some items but there there are more
assets coming online that we um we need
to forecast for. So there is a slight
increase in insurance across the board
and that that is a reason for that. Um,
now as I mentioned earlier, we we
monitor the transfer to capital reserves
because you kind of you you almost want
to see that increase year-over-year um
to prepare for, you know, you're growing
your assets, you're investing more in
your capital assets. Um, I've worked on
the annual report for the last 5 years
and and one comment that I make in there
is that the town of Coldell has been um
uh investing more than $15 million a
year in in its tangible capital assets.
So um as that number grows uh so should
the amount that you put away for
reserves and for being prepared for um
you know operating costs, life cycle
costs, unexpected um
uh unexpected costs. Um so we used a
zerobased budgeting approach for many of
the line items. Um you'll see that
there's there's going to be several
allocation changes. One for example is
insurance. um insurance has kind of gone
up across the board. Um facilities are
um the way the previous CFO had had had
allocated is slightly different than the
way I had allocated. Um
but it doesn't uh if you look at it as
an overall basis. Um
that should hopefully explain why why in
some departments you might see insurance
go up but in others it goes down. Um
and so that is one of those allocation
changes. Um along with wages. So wages
and salaries. Um
I believe we we touch on it. Oh, maybe
not. Um
so yeah, wages and salaries is one of
those uh organizationwide items that we
looked at and built from the ground up.
Um Ashley Crab to thank for her help in
in that. Um it was a lot of work um to
to get the the full list of employees
project out um you know um
benefits uh deductions all of that uh
across the board for the whole
organization. Um but that has been
worked into the 2026 and then with um
based on the new collective agreement
and and uh cost of living increases
those that is one item where we have
tried to to project out maybe not new
positions for 27 or 28 but at least for
uh cost of living um we have a good base
and an understanding of those numbers
for 2026.
um
two of the most significant drivers
behind the increase in the 2026
operating budget revenues
um and expenses compared to fiscal year
2025 are um so number one would be uh
the cost of the town's potable water um
utilities. So whereas our consumption
charges went up as a result of changes
made by the city uh effective January
1st, 2026,
um so did the revenues as a result of
those changes. Um when I ran those
numbers, I tried to account for the fact
that if you increase the rates for
consumption, you know, residents might
respond by not using as much water. So I
didn't project a too large of an
increase in consumption. Um and then as
well I did note that we are making those
rate changes effective as of April 1st.
So I I did uh adjust that as well um for
the revenue side. Um and then along with
the the water rate charges um municipal
facilities also use water. Um so those
charges had to go up. So when you see
the M municipal utility line item that
is our cost of water going up as a
result of these rates going up. Um
a close second uh in terms of relative
impact on the town's budget is the
growth of uh the town's non-residential
assessment base. Um however much of that
revenue um associated with assessment
growth it will not be available or
accessible in fiscal years 26 27 and 28
due to the town's industrial park
incentive strategy. Um so while you see
the revenues uh go up significantly uh
on the revenue side um it's actually
uh with the incentive you may you you
will not recognize or be able to uh
utilize those revenues until um that
incentive program uh expires.
Um a portion of the town's 2025 surplus
uh which we can't finalize until after
our year end is complete. Um although we
are getting there. Um we made sure that
the surplus was only used for one-time
expenses unique to fiscal year 2026. We
didn't use uh estimated surplus amounts
to balance the budget or to fund ongoing
expenditures. Um this uh enabled us to
build in expenses without needing to
rely on any tax support in 2026 to do
so. Um the proposed one-time expenses
I've listed out um and summarized in the
first two pages of the budget
presentation. Um and and I will be going
through each of those or I kind of have
been as well. Um but um they are subject
to council's approval. So, if you if you
any of those one-time um increases or
expenses that you note, um you uh yeah,
please feel free to ask questions on any
of those as they come up.
Um
whether or not those items are approved
or not will should not affect the bottom
line uh or the amount of tax support
required to balance the budget. Um,
alternatively, council can table some or
all of these expenses until after
um the fiscal year is audited and
complete. So, until we have a final um
audited surplus number, um we can wait
to uh approve those and and that
includes um those that library um amount
that we had set aside.
Uh so again, I kind of went through this
already, but we had set aside one-time
costs for training new CPOS, the
downtown revitalization study, uh the
roof replacement, landscaping, uh
council chambers, um and then uh asset
management software for 2027. So that
will be a big focus uh moving forward.
Uh we might we likely don't have
capacity in 2026 to to start any of
that. Um, however, asset management
software will be a big help in in being
able to, um, you know, create scenarios,
um, plug in life cycle costs and and
find out optimal kind of maintenance
strategies across all of our, uh,
classes of assets. Um, it's something
that you just can't simply do in an
Excel spreadsheet.
uh for dementures interestonly payments
uh this is related to the acquisition of
water rights. Um now water rights um are
are valuable asset um intangible asset.
They they go up in value um there is an
opportunity to purchase water rights. Uh
we have budgeted in this 2026 28 budget
um a 5-year uh interestonly
uh loan. Uh like I mentioned earlier, we
do have, you know, some revenue items uh
from the incentive program that will be
available further on down the line. And
and so I would um the recommendation
here is to, you know, finance that now
and then and then wait for the future
growth revenues to come in to be able to
fund that into the future.
Uh okay, so new items. The the draft
2026 operating budget includes a few new
items, some that were previously
discussed at the most recent strategic
planning retreat of council. Um, built
into the 2026 budget is $100,000 per
year placed into a reserve for a future
though unspecified recreational project.
Uh, $25,000 capital reserve starting in
2027 for the town's rail spur. Um, now
that is a new asset. However, it's good
to kind of start building up a reserve
for that for unexpected life cycle costs
or uh unexpected costs that come up as
as this is fairly new for the town.
[snorts]
Uh there is 10,000 per year that's built
in for replacing the fire equipment
that's used by the fire academy. Um
and the last item I have here is an
assistant library position that um was
presented earlier by the Coldell Library
Board. [snorts]
Uh future considerations. Uh so the the
total amount of funds that we have set
aside uh as transferred into capital
reserves for 2026 is just over 2.2
million.
Um, that's not including amounts set
aside to capital for ongoing programs.
For example, that doesn't include the
500,000 for the roads program, 200,000
for the sewer relining um or um amounts
that need to come out of current uh
operating revenues to fund current
capital items. Um this is uh future
funds set aside for future purposes. Um,
however, like I mentioned earlier, the
number of assets owned by the town only
continues to grow. Um, and and so does
the age of our existing assets. Um,
while year-over-year increases represent
a positive starting point. Uh, looking
ahead, the focus of 2027 will be the
development of a more robust and
data-driven asset management plan and a
reserve strategy uh that will allow
council to establish longer range goals.
Um look at um
uh look at developing longer range goals
and and and financial um projections and
statements and and to be able to
identify those replacements that are
coming down the line and to be able to
prioritize those based on uh what what
council determines is is uh critical.
Uh in the event that council wishes to
amend or reduce the newly identified
capital reserve allocations that I've
noted, uh administration's
recommendation is to reallocate those to
other reserves um rather than to use
them for uh you know other expenses.
Uh with that that's summarizes some of
the key points of the budget. Um, now I
I hope you brought your magnifying
glass. [laughter]
I there was no way to really I guess I
could have tried to split this out. Um,
what I will do is kind of summarize this
page quickly. So, this is this is the
2026 to 28 budget. Um, but slotted in
there are kind of our best estimate for
2025
um unodudited number. So you can kind of
see where you know what did we project
or budget for 2025 uh where do we think
we'll be and and an explanation of some
of those differences. So um and I
included 2024 column there that's 2024
budget um just to just so you can see
the the incremental growth even from
2024 to 25 was a pretty significant
jump. Um, and then you can see from 25
to 26 that's there is also another
significant jump and and I'll try my
best to kind of explain
the reasons why. Um,
so I really like how this is broken out
because you rather than looking at
department by department, um, just as a
note, I I did include department by
department, budget, line by budget line
information in in an attempt to, um, be
transparent, show the work, um, show how
everything balances out. Um however this
slide here kind of shows you from the
highle view um of our organization what
are our sources of revenue what are
those major sources that council can uh
adjust to uh sort of get the balance or
get the budget to balance um and so
revenues are broken out by type as well
as expenses. So you can see
year-over-year what are we budgeting
for, you know, salaries as a whole for
the town, um contracted services,
everything else. What are what are our
principal debt repayments and interest
look like? Um and then as well, you
know, what are we budgeting for reserves
year-over-year or transfers to reserves?
So, uh this Yeah. Okay. So, I won't get
too ahead of myself. Um starting with
taxes, um you can see 16.8 8 the these
are now the assessment or t tax numbers
are driven by uh the numbers that we
receive for from our assessors. So they
give us numbers showing us what uh is
expected for residential and
non-residential properties. uh we take
those estimates, we use um actually just
use 2025 mill rate um adjusted for
inflation if we do um and then and then
come up with an estimate for the growth
in tax revenue. So you can see last year
uh we budgeted for 16.8 million came in
at 16.6. So, it didn't quite reach the
assessor's estimates, but we know from
the development figures and and the data
that's provided from that department. We
do know that, you know, that revenue is
coming down the line. It's just
sometimes it takes a little bit longer
than what you you might think. Um, but
2026, we use the the assessor numbers uh
that I received in midFebruary. Um and
with that um
[clears throat] and this number here so
the jump from you know the actual 16.6
million to 18.37
uh that is mainly due to uh the simply
growth. There's no um increased taxes on
the residential side. Um for
non-residential uh like I said we kept
the mill rate at 10. So that that is um
includes inflation in that number. Um
but yeah this is simply due to growth.
Um it's important to note that um you
know these revenue numbers need include
the amounts that we collect for
provincial education requisitions and
for green acres. Um so that number uh
from that 18.377
projected um
the provincial requisition numbers are
down here. So you know if you with that
increase um I believe education is about
2 2.6 or 2.7 and then uh green acres was
0.13 or something last year.
just under three um as a mail rate for
um the requisitions. And then uh we know
from the previous uh presentations that
um the residential mill rate is about
6.9 last year. If we factor out
inflation, it it falls to about 6.2. Um,
so I'll kind of just hop around a little
bit, but uh I hope this
is okay. Um,
so again, here's uh residential
non-residential assessment growth from
2022 to 2026.
Um, you can see over the 5 years,
non-residential assessments have gone up
128%, residential assessments gone up by
35%.
And um there is a census for 2026 and
but however these numbers come from the
Alberta regional dashboard. Uh
population from 2021 to 2025 has gone up
6.29%.
Okay. So we are still growing. Um,
and then here's the split in the
residential versus non-residential tax
revenue. Um,
from as far back as 2016. And you can
see now we are closer to if I included
2026, we'd probably be closer to 7030
there.
Okay. So what does that what does our
mill rate look like as a result of um
you know these are 2025's figures. Um
this is the benchmark provided um in the
first operating budget presentation. Uh
Colddale with the recreation tax. Uh we
are you know somewhere we are above
average but you know under Lethbridge
Black falls uh slightly above Taber if
you include that recreation tax. um and
with a mill rate of 6.902.
Uh when you factor out inflation of
2026, you get down to a mill rate of
6.26. Now, okay. So, um I've just kind
of provided these numbers for council's
reference. You know, right now the
budget for 26 to 28 assumes no
residential tax increase, but if they if
council did implement a 1% tax increase,
this is the impact to the mill rate.
This is the impact to uh the municipal
portion of taxes.
And then this is the dollar impact that
uh based on the dollar value of the
home. Um
the next slide will kind of show if your
tax bill was uh this is just the
municipal portion of tax. Again, it
doesn't include the requisitions. Um,
but a property of 350,000
uh would have a municipal tax bill of
2.5 or 2500 uh 2536. If there was a 1%
increase, that would be the impact. Um,
and then you can see that for all across
the scale there uh from a 1 to 3%
increase.
Okay. Um, as long as we're talking about
taxes, I think it's important to kind of
talk about
» We just have a question from Councelor
Ree.
» Thank you, Mayor Ryan. Thank you, Tim.
Thank you for your report. It's really
good so far. Um, just one question with
the provincial education tax last year.
It went up quite a bit. And so, I'm just
curious, what if it goes up quite a bit
again this coming year or next year, and
it's not accounted for, or have you
accounted for that possibility? Uh,
great question. Um, I what I did for the
requisitions in the draft budget is I
just assumed 2025's numbers. So, um,
since we don't know what those numbers
are yet, um, and then and I believe the
property tax bylaw is something that's
set by council in April, May. So, uh, we
can look at what those changes are and
then maybe we can make some adjustments
then. Uh, but for now, I just assumed um
that it would stay the same.
Uh okay. So uh if we're talking about
residential or just taxes in general, um
I think it's important before discussing
any tax increases,
you know, you get a full picture. So um
you know, we we raised utility rates um
you know, for storm, water, sewer,
garbage. Um, and then there is a
proposed user uh rates and fees bylaw
that does propose a 2% increase, you
know, more or less 2% across the board.
Um, but what what is the what does that
look like on the
I guess on the other side, you know,
typically taxes are due on June 30th of
each year. Um, but how many people at
the end of the year December 31st, uh,
what are those a year's balances? Um, so
you can see after after backing out
significant um one-time accounts
receivable amounts that have were
transferred to tax, you kind of sort of
get an idea of what the changes are
year-over-year. So you can see that the
rear's balance is up slightly from well
it does jump a bit from 24 to 25
compared to uh the the recent trend
which was actually kind of dipping a
little bit. Um, however, this is one of
those uh indicators that we can monitor
moving forward. Um, you know, what does
a what does a 1% tax increase do to this
number? Um, it might not be perfect, but
it it is it's a useful measurement that
we can look at. Um,
and so that's kind of, you know, when we
looked at 2026,
uh, like I said, we used assessor
estimates. Uh, for 2027,
um, I believe the growth estimate that
we used for 2026 was 4.25%. Uh, so
that's based on, um, you know, kind of
what we assumed would happen from new
developments coming on online. uh 2027
and 2028 we did reduce that down to
about 3.25% increase in residential uh
growth or I guess that would be combined
growth. Um so you know we we we do
project you know it's not as big of a
jump from 25 to 26 but we did factor in
some growth in tax revenue for 27 and 28
and that was kind of done as a as a way
to balance out all three years. Um, and
like I like I mentioned earlier, taxes
and utilities and uh rates and fees,
franchise fees. Uh, those are some of
the bigger ticket items that that we
really wanted to focus more time on. So,
we did factor in increases in those
areas.
Um, so the next item is sales and user
charges. Now this um of this 7.5 million
uh I would say that maybe six maybe just
over six and maybe 6.5 million is
related to utilities right so the
remaining one to one and a half million
um is your revenue from facilities
rentals um sale general sales um
and so you can see that we budgeted
seven just under 7.5 and we came in at
uh right now just over 7.5. So um
uh okay so they came in a little bit low
or sorry they came in
um and there are a lot of different
offsetting things that happen in the
year. Um just to give you an idea across
these different categories we're looking
at about 900 over 900 budget lines. So
budget um that might not necessarily
mean that's a number of accounts but um
there are a lot lot of you know
different accounts that make up these
numbers. So you're going to see
offsetting amounts. You're going to see
increases in some facilities, decreases
in other facilities. But in general um
for user fees they were they came in
about 124,000 lower than expected and
that was offset by utility revenue. Um
that was due to just population growth.
Um and one indicator of that is that
water meter fees we typically budgeted
at 50,000 but they came in at 135,000.
So that's kind of like new um requests
for installation of new water meters.
Um so with that with with that data we
kind of um increased um you know a large
portion of the increase that you see
from 25 to 26 is due to the water
consumption rates. We did have to
increase them to um to cover the costs
of the utility rates uh consumption
rates going up. Um so that's about 67 or
670,000
increase. Um but then also on the
expense side you can see that I've made
a comment here that you know um water
purchases um goes up uh significantly as
well which offsets that revenue.
Um
uh we also look at uh when we look at
these numbers and these accounts we look
at the past five years. So 20 22 23 24
and 25. I guess I would include 21 as
well. Um to kind of get uh
to sort of also help form our estimate
for 2026.
Um next out of line item we have
licenses, permits, and fees. Um so you
can see here we budgeted 277,000 in
2025. uh they came in at uh just under
346,000. So that increase um when I look
at the individual accounts that make up
licenses, permits, and fees um there are
just increases across the board. So um
you know, we have to assume that that's
due to growth. Um
and a significant portion of that
actually is related to uh possibly one
development. So, uh, we need to make
sure that when we develop our estimate
for 2026, we back out kind of those
significant items that aren't you're not
you shouldn't expect to see
year-over-year. Um, but we did project
an increase of about 28,000 from 2025.
Um,
next item here is interest penalties and
fines. Now, this includes revenues from
uh photo radar, for example, when when
that was a program. Um this includes uh
late fees on taxes and utilities. Um you
can see we budgeted 170,000 but they
came in at 390 mainly because of uh
residual photo radar income that that um
you know we started to see even though
we ended the program um you know we were
still receiving photo radar income into
I would say about September October and
now they've kind of leveled off.
Um, so our estimate is that it's photo
radar income was about 140,000 and then
there was an increase of about 80,000 in
interest and penalties and that that
sort of also ties into that aers's
balance chart that I showed you as well.
Um so for 2026 we did increase those um
for interests penalty and interest
penalties and fines that did we did
increase from what we budgeted in 2025
to uh by about 94,000
uh making sure that we didn't include
photo any photo radar income again in
2026. Um however we also factored in
that with uh the addition of new CPOS
that there would be some fine revenue
expected in bylaw as well. [snorts]
Uh long-term contracts and asset returns
um that that is mainly franchise fees
and investment income. So uh franchise
fees makes up about 1.75 million of that
2.15.
Um and that number will
grow with growth. Um new accounts uh
more consumption uh could impact it as
well. Um however, our investment income
we can't uh we we kept that pretty
consistent or we didn't we didn't
increase that as much just due to uh we
have a lot of projects happening. There
will be a lot of um uh cash uh outflows
related to those. we have debentures
um and until we start uh you know
building back up our reserves reducing
that uh so with that we budgeted for a
slight increase in franchise fees and
um as the comment says this
we're just projecting that it should
stay consistent with 25
uh the next line item is other revenue
now this is just uh rebates donations
um
uh not something that you can easily
budget. You you shouldn't really budget
for donations. Um however, if you
increase programming and part of that
programming is to solicit for more
donations, we can't you know, we do
project out a little bit of an increase
and that's what that 15,000 increase um
that is due to community services
increased programming. Um
uh next item is government transfers
revenue. This is money that uh mainly
operating grants. So that would include
your 550,000
uh for the policing plus the 370,000
additional for the so the 550 would be
the equity portion and then 370 would be
the police um support grant. Um also
included are are um transfers from other
uh municipalities or from regional
um
agreements. Um
[snorts]
» Yes.
» Yeah. Thank you, Mayor. Uh through to
Tim. Uh just on that line um that uh
there transfers from uh government.
Would that include the local government?
um LG what's called the LGFF acronym um
local government uh facility I I yes the
operating side
» That is one grant that we do budget for
um and and yes it is the LGFF local
government fiscal framework grant um the
operating side of it which is about
131,000
» How much is that
» Uh 131,000
» Okay
» So yes and then there are also in there
uh library grants grants and and um
yeah, grants operating grants are a
little bit harder to predict for because
you apply for them, you don't know if
you'll get them and then and then you
you shouldn't really budget for a grant
if you haven't applied for it yet
either.
Um so you can see that
um there is a decrease uh projected for
2026 of approximately 168,000. Uh a
major portion of that is due to the new
emergency services agreement that was uh
signed there.
Uh the transfers from reserves. Now this
is uh this is an internal reserve
transfer. It's bringing in money from
your reserve accounts into your
operating revenues to help offset, you
know, those one one-time items. Um, it
always depends on what what council has
approved as far as transferring to
reserves. Um, and then now these are
amounts coming from reserves. So, uh,
for 2026 that amount is 355,000.
Um and I believe that is due to
um sort of these items here. So the
council onetime expenses per uh one-time
CPO training cost, the downtown ARP
study. Um
and then also in there are amounts that
we transferred to reserves in prior
years. So I believe in 2024 we
transferred some money into reserves to
help offset the costs. um for onetime
cost related to the ERP transfer. So we
we we're in the we're also in the um
process of switching accounting uh
systems right now and so there are still
costs uh carried forward into 2026 for
that which we are budgeting to bring
into reserves. So um that also makes up
part of that 355,000 you see there.
Uh so that covers the revenue side. Uh
when we look at expenses uh you know the
first you know the first and biggest
item there is salaries, wages and
benefits. So um the 2025 we budgeted 8.5
million. Um and it came in at two 8.7.
So just 164,000 over. Um now there are a
lot of you know offsetting amounts here.
There were staff um a lot of staffing
changes. is there was also there were
some uh
additions most of which were budgeted
for um
however that that that can be that that
number might also not be finalized as
well. So, I don't want to speak too much
on that. That that could be a a 2025
financial statement. Um
Jeff's financial statement uh discussion
item. Uh for 2026, what we've done is we
uh as I mentioned, we took the 2026 the
current employee list, the current
grids, the current um benefit rates, uh
all of the deductions, everything um and
calculated out from the ground up and
and just slot that in for 2026. The
increase from 2025 you can see is
360,000.
Now a big portion of to
uh the new collective agreement that was
signed. So that was a 3% increase um for
cost of living um as well as net uh
full-time equivalent addition. So net uh
so new um budget requests for new
staffing. So the assistant library would
be assistant librarian would be one of
those. Um there are a lot of offsetting
amounts in that as well. Um however the
net increase or the net impact is
360,000 and and from the first budget
meeting you know 240,000ish or 240ish
would be related to just basic uh cost
of living increases that were budgeted
or that needed to be budgeted in
um
contracted in general services in next
um now when I look at these items
sometimes I look at them separately uh
included in contract and general
services is you know the cost of our CMP
which is 2.6 6 million right now um
budgeted in there. So that's included in
that 6.5. Uh materials, goods, and
supplies would be, you know, include
like your water purchases, right? Um so
we kind of look at it a few different
ways. We look at it as a whole. We back
out some of those items that are based
on agreements um uh costs that, you
know, really departments have no control
over in a sense. uh just because you
know recycling, garbage, um all of those
fees, tipping fees come out of
materials, goods and supplies as well.
So when we back that all out, you know,
you get a number close to 3.5 million
and that would kind of be like your
discretionary
um what the departments have across the
organization to spend on contract and
general services and materials, goods
and supplies. The rest of the line items
here below that are are really those
items that I did spend a lot of time on
because those are those are items that
um
you know for example debenture payments
you can you can easily uh project out
what your debenture payments and your uh
financing costs are based on what your
current debentures are and expected
dementures are going to be. So those
numbers are pretty um
uh and also you know there is no
discretionary
um
you know payments that come out of
there. So as long as uh we don't add new
debentures or choose to pay off
debentures early like those numbers are
um fairly easy to project out into 27
and 28.
Um
but back to
uh contracted services. Um so 2025 we
had budgeted uh I believe it was 2.365
million for RCMP. It actually came in
closer to 2.5 uh or roughly 170,000
higher than expected. Um, I did just
submit the RCMP report today um, for our
continued funding um, through the equity
uh, grant provided by the province. Um,
so that that amount is kind of fixed at
550,000 for 2026 anyways. Um, but that
is
um,
and then I used the forecast provided by
RCMP to develop uh,
those expenses out to
We have councelor Chapman has a
question.
» Yeah.
» Yeah. Thank you, Mayor. Tim, just two
questions. One on regard the RCMP
contract. Um we have no uh um
control over the numbers over the um
over their requisition
uh for so and I see that that number is
going up by approximately 100,000 every
year. So, um, obviously that's something
we have no control over just for for
council's interest. Um, the second thing
I wanted to point out, uh, regarding
debentures, um, you and your team would
be able to get have a really good handle
moving forward as to, um, paying off
some of those debentures sooner than
later. uh considering some of the
interest rates that might be out there
or or if they're locked in, I guess you
have no control, but you would have a
pretty good handle on how those
debentures could be paid off.
[snorts] Uh yes. So, uh we the nice
thing is last year uh the previous CFO
had had
um
arranged to have a number of debentures
paid off maybe one or two years early.
Um, now typically if you repay a
dementure early, there are penalties to
do so. However, if they're sitting at
higher interest rates and you have, you
know, you're projecting more uh
additional dementures down the line at
better rates, sometimes it is a better
decision to pay those off early. So,
yes. Yeah.
» Thank you.
» And then regarding the RCMP costs,
you're correct. We we have no say over,
you know, if they implement new body
camera system or EV for, I don't know,
across the board, that type of thing.
Um, I think we we do uh we can set the
number of established positions. Um
however you'll see in this graph here
what I've assumed for the budget for 26
27 and 28 is um you know after looking
at prior years and the utilization net
member utilization um it's kind of
hovered between 80 um 80 to 90ish% so
those are the numbers that I used. I
didn't want to go too far lower um just
because we uh I think we have been
burned in the past. Uh
and as well there is um we received a
letter uh from the RCMP uh regarding a 3
and a half% projected retro uh that
would go back to April 1st of 2025. So
there is a there is an additional amount
for 2026 for RCMP to to sort of cover
that and as well any adjustments that
might come out of um because I've
noticed every period the the forecast
changes just a little bit. So, um it's
yeah
um
so that was RCMP ERP transition. Um
we paid the first 75,000 implementation
charge in 2025. Um the second half of
that will be due in 2026.
Um and but like I mentioned before that
is an amount that we do have uh reserves
for al so that's over here. Um uh so
included in that 355 is 75,000 for one
time implementation or the last half of
that implementation as well as 50,000
for um the sort of you know the period
of time where you need to pay for both
systems. So that's for um our old
system.
Um so there's about 125,000 from
reserves out of that 355 that is related
to um the transition of accounting but
that was you know forecasted out by the
previous CFO in 2024.
Now, there are other professional
contracted services that increase due to
um collective agreement bargaining. Uh I
made sure not to include those costs
when we looked at budgeting in for 2026.
So therefore, uh you see the increase
from 25 to 26 is 6% or 373,000.
Uh now the big portion of that is as I
just showed you in the previous chart um
it's the RCMP
um increase uh we're projecting 266 that
includes the 57,000 that I've budgeted
for the retroactive pay of 3 and a
half%. Um the remaining 106,000
uh would be due to the revival of the
public safety department. uh the 60,000
for the uh downtown study and then there
were some other minor changes in new
budget requests. For example, one of
them would be uh in police there's a
increase from 10,000 to 17,500. That's
the citizens on patrol um covering the
vehicle maintenance costs
um for materials, goods and supplies.
uh when we look at 25 actual or
unodudited actual to 2025 budgeted the
difference there was mainly due to uh
water consumption was higher than
estimated I believe there were a couple
of main breaks that were were unexpected
um and I believe they're sort of in the
similar area but those were all offset
by uh you know a lower operation spend
especially due to a lot of the
uncertainties in um 2025 in the tail end
of 2025 there. Um but when we budget for
2026 we there is an increase of 15% and
that is mainly due to um that would be
for the water consumption.
So there you know 673
uh increase in the revenue side 640,000
increase on the on the expense side as
well. You need to factor in that each
facility also uses water as well. So
those need to go up. Um,
and so there, uh, as I mentioned
earlier, we did go through with each
department, went through line by line,
looked at the past 5 years, um, looked
at areas where we could possibly, um,
reallocate or uh, maybe just based on
historical trends, we we don't need that
budget allocation there. This is one of
those areas where um we were able to
make those um
uh to get the 2026 to 28 uh budget
balanced.
Uh next item, bank charge and interest.
This one is it's a very small item but
it grows it goes up by significant
amount. Um this is just bank charges and
interest. So that relates to our debit
terminals, our um authorized.net online
uh payment portal. Um there are fees
associated with accepting credit card
transactions. Uh just so council is
aware, we do not allow credit card
transactions at at the office. So we do
not accept credit cards for uh taxes,
utilities, uh business licenses, uh
development permits unless they choose
to pay online through our website uh
where we use Pay Simply. But pay simply
adds on and an administrative fee to
cover that on their end. Um and we just
receive the payment. Um however uh
recreation fees uh they can be paid
online through credit card and and those
are you know uh you know we should have
well this is one of those items where it
is a smaller item but we should try and
reflect for actual what we actually are
seeing um as far as you know transaction
volumes. Um, and so you'll see that for
26, we've just allocated 25,000 there.
Uh, principal debt repayments, uh, I
don't think I need to go into that any
deeper. Um, I there's no changes since
the first operating budget presentation
where we went through the list of
current deentures and the ones coming
online in 2026. Um this
uh this does include the like I said the
financing costs for the water rights
purchase that we're projecting. Um I
believe in the first in 2026 I budgeted
60,000 and then in 2027 uh 75,000 just
to make sure that u just because this
isn't a dementia that we can get through
the province. It has to be a dementia
that we get through um like a major bank
for example. So, we might not get the
types of rates that we could at um
through the loans to local authorities.
Um other expenses, uh now this includes
tax write-offs. Um that would be for
volunteer firefighters as well as for
the tax incentive program. Um, now this
you can see the 2025 actual uh will we
will only be writing off 550,000 and and
part of that is because we received a
pay uh payment in advance of taxes
outside of that incentive program. Um
but until that 2025 year end is
finalized. We won't um yeah we won't be
able to see what what um
um but the reason why that number is
increasing for 2026 is due to just the
inflation. So as I mentioned earlier for
non-residential portion our
non-residential taxes we we don't factor
out inflation in calculating the mail
rate uh when we keep it at 10 which is
um you know half a left bridge for
example.
Um
so that's the only change in in was just
based on the incentive program those
properties going up in value.
Uh as far as the next line item
government transfers expense. Now, this
is going to be transfers that the town
of Coldell makes to other organizations,
other municipalities. Uh, one of the
reasons for the
um overbudget. Um, we budgeted 4.6 and
came in at 4.8671.
Major item there is the 205,000 for the
horsefly spillway. Um, that was an item
that came up kind of midway through the
year. um council probably remembers um
that that had to come out of uh
reserves, but it's a transfer that um we
made [clears throat]
and that's where it hit the hit the
expenses.
Um as far as the 2026 budget, um as I
mentioned earlier, I just we kept
provincial education and green acres
requisition mill rates the same as they
were in 2025. and we can revisit that uh
in the spring with the property tax
bylaw. Um although I did factor in for
the growth right so if we if we are
expecting growth on the tax side we
should also expect a growth on the
requisition side um so I just have a
small note there you know decreasing the
residential mill rates uh you know if
requisitions go up you'll start uh
you'll start seeing less taxes available
for municipal purposes. Uh and then the
last line there is transfers to
reserves. Now this is where you know I
kept a close eye on and this is the last
area I would touch um when it came to
preparing the 2026 to 2028 budget
because this line item includes what we
budget for reserves at the end of the
year for capital future capital uh
current capital projects um and also for
operating. So that 3 point uh what that
3 million isn't all transfers to capital
reserves as I mentioned we put money
away for ongoing programs as well as for
that also includes transfers to
operating reserves for future years. Um
so with that um we get to uh bottom
figure which is balanced without relying
on any tax increases for residential
um and factoring in growth, making
adjustments across the board for
salaries and wages. um making certain
cuts in areas uh where where they might
not be needed, but then also increasing
where we know for a fact that we need to
budget more. Um
you know, we've tried to capture as much
as possible. Um but uh you know,
budgeting isn't isn't a perfect science.
Um but I we are pretty comfortable with
presenting this budget that
uh is balanced without um a request for
a tax increase. Um and then and then
although 27 and 28 are balanced um a few
things I will note is that yes for some
revenue items we projected growth. So
taxes we projected 3.25% 3.25% 25%
uh utilities uh just sort of like a
I believe you know like a 3% maybe not
the same as the growth in tax but there
is a growth um factored in for rates
utilities and other uh fees. Um
and then license permits and fees um you
can see smaller increases there. uh
franchise fees. Um so this is one area
where I would say you should expect
growth. Um I just didn't budget those
in. But there are um like I said it is
balanced currently without that. And
then you'll see on the expense side not
everything goes up either. So um you
know at the end of the day um some of
these items will end up offsetting. So
if you uh just for
um for the sake of transparency, I
included
the line by line budgets for every
single department. Um just to kind of
show you where those allocation changes
were and where those smaller requests
come in. Um I tried to make a note on
each page
um just to show where the variances
occurred um year-over-year. And you
might notice if you look at one for
example, you might notice that um you
know the expense side doesn't really
change. So this is one of those items
where I just want council to be aware
for example um
for for revenue uh we increased where we
could but for certain expense items they
are the same year-over-year. Now, that
is because we do allow for a little bit
of flexibility within the budget for uh
you know, those unexpected things that
happened. Um after I looked at um like I
said, after I backed out all of the
organizationwide sort of fixed charges,
we were left with about 3.5 million of,
you know, your discretionary. Um if you
allow for about a little bit of
contingency, it was it was no more than
10%. Um, but within these items, you
know, it's only a matter of time before,
you know, $2,000 in 2025 will not get
you the same amount of stuff as in 20
Oh, sorry, that's 26. But, um, you know,
the same amount of money is not going to
get you the same things two years down
the road. Um, so just to be aware, a lot
of these discretionary items I did not
increase um by any factor. Um,
um,
so yeah, I
but uh certain expense items that I did
increase are wages. I I sort of based on
the department and the makeup of each
department I did do anywhere from a 1
and a half to a 3% or six actually one
and a half to possibly even a four or 5%
increase in wages just based on you know
are they mostly union staff are they
exempt are they um for example um you
know if a department is all exempt then
I would only increase it one and a half
uh% per year type
Uh for expenses, uh like I said, RCMP is
one of the big ones. I I've budgeted
that out to increase uh based on the
forecast that received. Um and as I
mentioned, you know, I did just um these
are the assumptions that I made for uh
net member uh utilization,
right? keeping it within that 80 to 90%
range um I think should should um be
safe.
Um couple of other slides here that I
wanted to mention. There was a $150,000
decrease in the emergency services
agreement. However, as you can see in
this chart, um you know, call volumes
aren't going to magically go down as
well at the same time. So there's added
pressure in that department to keep
things um to keep service levels
maintained. Um you know that is one of
the areas council can look at as well.
Um
» Avery has a question for you.
» Yeah, thanks Tim. And this question
could be for the the chief. Um so I
notice our medical calls keep going up
and up and up and up. Um years back the
province says that was their
responsibility. It seems like it's
falling back onto our rate payers again.
Uh, is there something we need to do as
council to start lobbying to get some
extra funding for this type of stuff?
Uh, thank you for the question,
Councelor Avery. Uh, yeah, we still see
our medical uh, call volumes going up.
Uh I would say that our our fire has
been going up as well. Uh it hasn't the
medical hasn't maybe climbed as
drastically as it was at one point. Um
but we are seeing that burden uh come
back again. Uh it'll be a statistic that
you guys will see in the year- end
report upcoming. But uh we did have um
35 code reds last year. Uh but this year
um
serve memory serves me right, we've
already had almost 15 uh in January and
February. Uh so uh we've seen a lot of
ambulances shut down throughout the uh
year this year so far and a lot of uh
knocking down ambulances to BLS. So are
ambulances covering other uh communities
in the last month or so. Uh so I think
there is uh that ability for more
lobbying either for more supports for um
fire departments because they do do uh
some of their direct financial supports
for us as well but it's a fairly small
amount uh what we do get out of that
Okay. Um,
okay. Some of the other slides that we
may not have touched on. Um, yeah, we
looked at the assessment growth,
residential, non-residential tax split.
Um, the current mill rates in 2025.
uh the changes potential changes to the
mill rate based on tax increases of 1 to
3% and the revenue impact. Um
and then the impact to the resident on
on the based on the value of property.
Uh we looked at the taxers balance. We
looked at some of the other factors that
may have hit residents in 2026 already
or are upcoming. Um, and then we've
talked about the budget approach, which
was very important to kind of explain
before we even went into the budget. So,
uh, we did that and now I'm on my final
slide. So, um, as I mentioned, uh, the
26 to 28, um, draft operating budget is
currently balanced without any plan
increases to the municipal portion of
residential taxes outside of growth. And
these are the growth assumptions used in
2026, 2027 and 2028. Uh where we used
4.35%,
3.25% and 3.25% for growth. Uh inflation
for residential assessment values in
2026 is estimated by the assessor to be
10.23%.
[clears throat]
Um the non-residential property
assessment growth is estimated at just
under 3% at 2.88 in 2026. Uh and then we
did not adjust the mill rate for
inflation of 9.3%.
Um there's no changes to the franchise
fees for 2026. We didn't project any
increases to the franchise fee rates for
gas or electricity. Um and then there is
that fees and rates bylaw that um
you know we can pass later but it it
won't have any well I don't I can't
assume there will be a significant
impact to um the draft operating budget.
Um however that is set to come back to
council at a later date.
Um
utility rates, we've increased them for
2026 across the board. And then for
consumption uh to take effect on April
1st for water and bulk sewer and at this
time there are no projected increases to
utility rates that are programmed into
the revenues and that budget that we've
seen there. So it's just simply growth.
We're just kind of being slightly more
aggressive in in growth. Um
and then as far as capital reserve
transfers, as I mentioned earlier, I
would like I would like to see some kind
of uh reserve strategy developed uh for
2027 and and as we move forward with
asset management. Um they do decrease
slightly um from 2026 through to 2028 by
about 165,000 or 5%. Um but again there
um you know next year well when we
budget for 2027 that will be in the fall
even by then even in the seven months
from now till then there we'll probably
have new assumptions new lots of things
will have probably changed so um that is
something that we can uh like I said I
we keep a close eye on we don't want to
see that amount decrease as we grow our
asset base is the
the story
» Has a question.
» Uh yeah, thank you, Mayor. Um Tim, um
the wreck levy, I know you haven't
mentioned it anywhere in here yet, but
you consider that to be a rate as a a
rate and fee or a tax or a levy.
» Uh I believe it's a special tax. Um, and
it it is included I believe in this
overall
uh I might have to
» Yeah, it is it you do show it in there
as a 2.14
I think increase which
» When I first read it I thought oh
there's an increase but I think you're
you're you're using the population or um
housing growth as the increase for the
levies. Am I correct on that?
» Yeah, that's correct. We're not
increasing, we're not setting to
increase the wreck levy uh rate. Um it's
just due to growth. We're just kind of
adjusting that number.
» Second question to you. Um with regards
to these arars, like that's over half a
million dollars, $560,000
a year. Are we able to collect 100% of
that or is that like it seems like that
number is pretty constant? Uh over half
a million every year. Uh yeah, so those
numbers came from our tax specialist. Um
she does keep a close eye on the rears.
Um there are certain MGA requirements.
Um
you know there are notices that need to
be done. There are certain steps you
have to take before you know an AR's
balance reaches 3 years and then you
know at the end of three years then
there's the tax sale process. So they're
they're um
from her side of things she does keep a
close eye on it and she does say that
the number of accounts in a rears
doesn't seem to grow doesn't seem to
change too significantly. So then the
the balance might grow but the number of
aars accounts um isn't um there's no
drastic increases in that regard.
» Okay. Thank you.
» Yeah. [snorts]
Um, so I guess a final note, keep in
mind that most of the expense slide
items, uh, except for the ones that we
really took a closer look at those
bigger items like salaries and wages,
RCMP, and some of our contractual
obligations. Um, we adjusted for those
for 27 and 28. Um, but the ones that
have not been adjusted for inflationary
year-over-year costs um are some of
those discretionary items. Um, but those
are those will be kind of related to
service levels. Um, you know, do you
reduce service levels as costs go up or
do you do you increase those? But
keeping in mind that ongoing expenses uh
are fund should be funded through
ongoing revenues. So either through new
growth or uh and not through surplus or
from reserves. Um
uh with that any future service level
enhancement requests, additional
operating expenses from you know the
construction or purchase of new capital
items uh insurance being one of them. Uh
or inflationary cost pressures uh will
need to be funded through an increase in
tax rates or fees. Uh so this is keeping
in line with that principled approach
that ongoing costs should be funded by
current revenues not surpluses or
reserves.
Um, now we do have another meeting
scheduled for Thursday, February 26th.
Um, maybe I'll
um
maybe I'll take a second here to um
kind of
see if there are any questions from
council on specific items. Um, I do have
all of my work here. I do have um these
individual departments and budget budget
line by budget line. Um if there's
anything
um you know if there any questions
» We're going to take a five minute
recess.
» Sure.
Thank you. We're have returned from our
break and
I'll open it up to our CFO one last
time. Do you have anything else to say
before I open it up to members of
council for question before we go into
close?
» Uh, no I don't. I think I' I've talked
fairly long.
» So I have nothing more to add. Thank
you.
» Okay. Thank you.
Any questions for our presenter?
Seeing none, [snorts]
I'm going to require a motion that
council move into close session at 6:43
p.m. in accordance with section 197-4-B
of the Municipal Government Act to
discuss matters exempt from disclosure
4. Section 19, disclosure harmful to the
business interests of a third party.
Section 20, disclosure harmful to
personal privacy. Section 30, disclosure
harmful to the economic and other
interests of a public body. Who cares to
make that motion?
Councelor Pickering?
I'll call for the vote.
And that vote is carried. Thank you.
Thank you. We're back in session again.
So, we just um finished our budget
deliberations and we had our chief
financial officer Tim Koba present. Tim,
great job on on that. Uh, I'm not sure
how you can stand doing your job when
you're looking at those spreadsheets,
but power to you for that. Appreciate
all the effort that your finance team
put into this. So, I'm looking for one
opportunity, one more opportunity for
everybody if they have any questions for
Tim before we look at our our motion
options for budget deliberations.
Councelor
Avery.
» Thank you, Mayor. Not a question. Um,
just a statement. Tim, thank you for all
your hard work. Ashley, thank you. Thank
the administration team. Uh, this was a
very clear, concise budget, exactly what
we asked for. Um, I'm very, very
impressed you had that you tore it all
down and built it back up again. Thank
you for all your hard work.
» Thank you. Well said, councelor Avery.
So, seeing no more questions, comments,
uh could I enter ask member of council
to entertain to make one of the motion
options that councelor Avery?
» Yes, mayor. I'll make a motion that we
accept the budget as presented with a 0%
uh tax increase.
» Thank you. There's a motion on the floor
by Councelor Avery. Any further
discussion?
Seeing none, I'll call for the vote.
And that is carried unanimously.
[laughter]
» Okay. Well, thank you again one more
time, Tim, for all that hard work. So,
that concludes the open portion of the
meeting. Uh we're going to return back
into closed. So, I will need a motion
that council move into close session at
7:20
p.m. in accordance with section 197-4-B
of the municipal government act to
discuss matters exempt from disclosure
for item 13.1 subject to section 19
disclosure harmful to the business
interests of a third party. Section 20,
personal privacy, and section 30,
disclosure harmful to the economic and
other interests of the public body. Who
cares to make that motion? Councelor
Reese makes that motion.
I'll call for the vote.
And that is carried. We'll take a
twominut break.