[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:00] Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Committee for the Hall of Tuesday, December 9, 9 a.m. for our budget discussions. Can I have a confidential agenda, please? Councillor Griezmann, it's a confidential hall, so all in favour? I'm not opposed. Thank confirmation of the minutes of November 12th and November 25th. Councillor Collins, all in favour? We have no presentations and delegations.
[0:30] and with us here today is Gary, our financial genius, with a 2020 budget for discussion.
[0:38] Gary, take it away. Yes, you have no monetary with you. Well, that's fine.
[0:49] Good morning, Council. Preparation of the budget, I'd like to thank our staff team
[0:55] who put a budget together. It's just not one person, although there is a leader
[0:59] and that's Gary. And I have a special thanks to you and your team
[1:03] putting this together. You had a challenge this year and you were able to, the challenge
[1:08] was 5% to try not to go over 5% and you did that so I appreciate that. During our committee
[1:17] of the whole meeting, it allowed us to discuss and listen to Marin Council on their thoughts
[1:22] moving forward. Council has been concerned over tax increases, especially for those on fixed
[1:27] income and the challenge us to also come in under under five if possible. For us to get
[1:32] their staff to propose some reductions which probably hasn't happened a lot in this town,
[1:37] but it is now there are some reductions in the budget because we haven't spent the money that
[1:40] it gave us in the past so we're giving it back. We're very busy at the district and we always have
[1:47] to have to be very careful too. I'm adding too many capital budgets. You add all these capital
[1:52] budget to tax board, then you don't deliver it. It's best to deliver projects as soon as possible
[1:59] because you're taxing people right away. And so I just wanted to tell everyone that's one
[2:05] of the ways we actually did keep the budget down a little bit was to only do what we really could
[2:11] afford.
[2:14] We have a few major projects ongoing right now, Child Care Facility, the protective services
[2:20] building. And of course, there's a project that we don't think and talk about a lot, but it's
[2:25] the planning department and all the work that they still have to do to meet the provincial
[2:30] legislation that was proposed this year. Today's budget reflects some community concerns,
[2:36] such as speeding and accessibility. It addresses next year's election, which we may have to have too.
[2:42] Hopefully not. Community events, et cetera. Also was immensely helpful that a local resident donated
[2:48] to $200,000 to the district and specifically to the fire department and we get to replace
[2:54] a vehicle that we've been having some issues with breakdown.
[2:57] So that person wants to remain anonymous and but I just wanted to make sure that everybody
[3:02] knows there's everybody is out there trying to help us as best we can and I'll be quite
[3:06] frank without that $200,000 it would have been a little bit more on taxation for our community.
[3:14] Two issues that still need to be addressed in the future is asset management, and we'll
[3:19] do a lot of work in 2026 on that.
[3:22] And policing.
[3:23] Now people say, oh, what's the big deal with policing?
[3:26] Of course, clona is out of the regional model, and that's where they used to manage all
[3:31] of the policing.
[3:32] So now we're going to have our own detachment in West clona.
[3:35] I was told initially through a review that our costs might not go up too much, but I'm
[3:41] could hold my breath on that until I see the real numbers. And Gary has slowly put some
[3:47] money aside over the years, just a little contingency because we're not sure about what's
[3:52] going to happen with the RCMP and our cost, so he's been preparing for that, which I thank
[3:56] him again because that'll allow West to keep the tax increases as affordable as we can.
[4:05] And I'll leave it there because I don't want to spoil all the great news you're going to
[4:08] tell us about today, Gary. So thank you very much, Council and staff.
[4:14] Thank you, Joe.
[4:18] Good morning, Marin Council. I wanted to introduce Alanna Haskins.
[4:22] She's an accountant. She's replaced a former employee and Delaney, our Deputy Director of Finance,
[4:30] would be here as not as under the weather today. So she's just listening in as we go through this.
[4:37] and we'll get started.
[4:40] So I'm presenting the proposed 2026 Provisional Budget today as recommended by our CAO Joe
[4:45] Kriron.
[4:46] Once we are completed today and have council agreement on the budget and rate, request
[4:51] for decision will come forward to council's regular meeting this afternoon.
[4:56] Golden.
[4:59] Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
[5:00] Before we get started, may I ask a question of Gary?
[5:08] I think this is brilliant. It is easy to read, it is easy to follow. The one thing for
[5:14] me that is missing is the 2005 Actuals. You are comparing budget with budget. Shouldn't
[5:22] we have a statement of Actuals in that?
[5:29] We have not before the Actuals come forward when we do the financial statements at the end
[5:34] of the year.
[5:36] So I haven't done it in the previous. No.
[5:48] All right. Continue on. So I want to talk a little bit how we got here, how we, why are
[5:53] we here today, or how would we get to today? So the process started in August where the
[5:57] directors met to review items from council discussions over the past year and at the community
[6:02] of the whole. In alignment with council's strategic priorities, directors discussed areas
[6:08] and programs that require additional funding and or decreases to certain programs.
[6:14] Directors and prepared a list of priority 1 and priority 2 items for operations and capital.
[6:19] This list, which included both increases and decreases to the budget, was reviewed with
[6:24] the CAO and each director spoke to the reasons items were on the list.
[6:29] From this discussion, priority 1 items were added to department budgets to assist in determining
[6:35] proposed 2026 tax rate. There was some back and forth as the discussion was about an austerity
[6:41] budget for 2026.
[6:46] So, a little bit about the process. We'll review the book. Table of contents
[6:56] we'll go through the summary. Basically, the most important page of the budget, I would think.
[7:03] We'll talk about reserves, we'll go through operating capital priorities, the operating
[7:12] budget, capital budget, and a little bit about utilities.
[7:16] It's the same layout we've used in prior years, and thank you Councillor Connan for noting
[7:21] it's easy to read, and that's what we try to do is just make it easy to follow.
[7:28] At this point, I'd also like to acknowledge Kirsten Jones' contribution to the 2026
[7:34] provisional budget.
[7:35] She is responsible for assembling the information in an easy-to-follow format, layout, and adding
[7:41] the visual content.
[7:42] She does an excellent job with this, and so I thank her for helping the finance department
[7:46] keeping the book readable, without her it would be a bunch of spreadsheets with numbers,
[7:50] and not a lot of fun.
[7:52] So,
[8:00] so the proposed 2026 tax rate increases 4.87%.
[8:06] This is comprised of 1.2% of reserve contributions to a future expenditure reserve and 3.67% to fund
[8:13] operating requests total of 4.87.
[8:17] The future expenditure reserve was approved by Council beginning in 2024.
[8:22] Without an emergency reserve, the district is at risk of being able to, unable to fund
[8:29] an emergency event, this would include items related to events such as the forest fires that
[8:33] it would experience this past summer, or possible upcoming by-election. Each of these examples
[8:40] given would not be in any budget, but would require a budget amendment and a funding source.
[8:45] We'll talk more about this reserve in section B.
[8:51] The operating portion of 3.67% is to fund budget
[8:55] addition for programs and services, the district can control this year.
[8:59] For example, the fire department, recreation services, snow clearing, parks maintenance,
[9:05] by-law services, corporate and council services.
[9:07] It does not include items that the district cannot control, such as police services,
[9:12] or transit, or taxes collected for other governments.
[9:15] These items will come forward with the final budget in April 2026.
[9:20] The additions include the contract negotiated with the QP staff in 2025,
[9:26] General Cost Increases to Services, and Budget Request.
[9:30] And there's also some budget decreases brought forward that we'll see in the priority one items.
[9:35] The district continues to use surpluses from prior year's budgets to keep the current year's tax rate lower.
[9:41] For 2026, we will be using 418,000 from prior year surpluses.
[9:47] And that's down from the 2025 amount used of 430,000.
[9:55] So what does the 4.87 tax increase mean to a Peachland homeowner?
[10:00] So we compare this to the typical average value-dissessed, valued house for a Peachland.
[10:10] And that assessment was down 1.5%, 13,200, from 890,700 to 877,500.
[10:19] Now, this information for the current years was based on the BC Assessment Preview
[10:28] role, which was issued on October 31st, 2025.
[10:31] It can change at certain times, but that's what we're basing it on.
[10:37] That's the figure that we have but you, so a typical home and pizza line, assuming their
[10:44] assessment was 890,000, for 2025 we'll see a $80 tax increase, annual tax increase.
[10:53] That is $60 and 67 cents per month.
[10:57] The prior year increase was $111.
[11:01] If a home's assessment value is higher, or lower than average, the taxes and the percentage
[11:06] change will be different.
[11:16] So,
[11:21] just for a bit of a different perspective, a 1% tax increase to the overall budget in
[11:27] Peachland is approximately 80,000.
[11:30] Colona just read last week, 2 million.
[11:34] So quite a significant difference between the two.
[11:38] We still have the same amount of work to do.
[11:39] They just do a larger volume of it, same reporting requirements.
[11:44] It's also like to note that all our capital requests are funded from our asset renewal reserves,
[11:50] which are taxation.
[11:52] It's just not directly this year, so it's still taxation.
[11:56] And no change to the parcel tax is collected for the protective services building.
[12:03] If you note from last year, the plan was this year to increase it another hundred dollars.
[12:10] We're still in the planning stages, so we're not increasing that to potentially next year.
[12:18] I won't be before 2027.
[12:26] These are the revenues that we've got just a comparison budgeted figures year over year.
[12:37] So the property taxes, that's $394,000, some of that larger variances there, and there's one for
[12:45] a decrease in government transfers, and that relates to provincial funds received and reported
[12:53] as income in prior years, and that was to assist in prior provincial housing initiatives, which we
[13:00] won't have budgeted for in 2026. Taxes collected for other governments, the bottom
[13:07] 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 items there are four estimates
[13:18] and they also reported on the expense
[13:21] side.
[13:22] So we just estimated at this time we don't have the final figures from the regional
[13:26] district or for the hospital or the school taxes and those.
[13:30] So we've estimated those and they offset, so there's no effect on this year's taxes.
[13:39] the other revenue from own sources. Could you explain that a little bit more and
[13:43] why there's an over a quarter million dollar drop?
[13:50] That was to do with the revenue that we had to grant money that we had to recognize as
[14:00] revenue in prior years and we don't have it in 2026. I know it's grant money but
[14:07] But it's not in the Grants line, we have to recognize as Revenue and that's where it was.
[14:11] So, that's to do with some of the provincial initiatives required.
[16:02] Going forward, the message from the provincial government is that there's limited grant money available. Canada has experienced more tariffs, and less opportunities for trade with the US, and all levels of government are feeling the effects. Since the mic was off, I just want to start at the beginning there's budget requests are in alignment with council priorities. This council has been exceptionally good with obtaining grants for the betterment of the community and the examples that I use are the childcare center and the west side trail.
[16:29] into the millions of dollars, tens of millions of dollars there.
[16:37] Budget timeline, I said it started in August, well I started in August and we started
[16:42] meeting with the Departments in September, Provisional Budget is December, the Public Open
[16:51] House with Budget, with Council is in February, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, Readings of the 5-Year Financial
[17:00] plan in the tax rate bylaws is in April. And final adoption of budget and tax rate
[17:06] bylaws is in May. The statutory requirement is in May 15th filing for those bylaws. And
[17:13] then once that's passed, the property tax notices are mailed to residents in June.
[17:25] Are there any questions for Gary about this part, part A? I don't think so. So let's move
[17:32] on to section B. Oh, yes, calls the Ingram, just so refresh all of us. So this is the budget for
[17:41] January through December of 2026, but the tax notices and the taxes don't get collected
[17:47] to the middle of the year. So, how is it we survive for the first half of the year?
[17:56] I can't say we don't spend any money because we do, but we have cash flow, you know, we manage
[18:01] But they're cashless, we have cash to get us through, and so it carries over and there's
[18:07] excess cash, we know the rest of the pie.
[18:11] Go on to go on.
[18:14] I would remind my colleague that we also have borrowing authority from the local credit
[18:20] union, which we've come to use.
[18:24] We've never had to use, don't anticipate doing so now.
[18:29] Yeah, I have to say, Gary, the percentage is great.
[18:34] The tax increase we're looking at.
[18:35] I think that's what this Council wanted, and now we will go to more into the details
[18:40] of that budget.
[18:41] But as far as I am concerned, I'm very happy with this budget.
[18:45] Thank you.
[18:47] Thank you.
[18:48] I want to talk a little bit about contributions to reserves.
[18:51] You've heard me speak a lot about reserves and contributions and how you know what we use them for.
[19:01] So this chart here is just to show what we anticipate contributing to reserves over the next five years.
[19:12] Fire Department equipment, we've got an ongoing commitment of 140,000.
[19:16] That may have to increase as we get closer to purchasing that.
[19:20] That's in a couple years, speaking with Chief Cummings that we're probably going to have
[19:26] to increase it possibly next year to just flatten that out so it's not as significant.
[19:32] The cost of replacement equipment, it's a proper unit is 1.5 million, 1.6 and we don't
[19:42] have that much in the budget yet, but we're getting close.
[19:48] But part of this is also the planning, so small contributions to reserve over a period of time starts to build up and it's a good thing for the district that doesn't hit us and that leads us into the policing reserve.
[20:01] We started last year with a $25,000 contribution.
[20:05] That is included in this year's budget in that rate amount, the $25,000.
[20:09] dollars, so that will help the impact when we get to the 15,000 population size, but
[20:21] also as CO, Joe mentioned, the change in police services transitioning from Kelowna to
[20:29] West Kelowna is going to have an impact as well.
[20:33] So we're making sure that we have funding available, so it doesn't, we don't get a big hit with
[20:38] that. General capital asset renewal, that's annual contribution. That comes from,
[20:46] prior years it was a parcel tax, and now it's in taxation, so there's a kind of an increase
[20:50] every year that occurs with that. And a contribution to reserve for future expenditures. So I talked
[20:57] about this earlier. Council started this in 2024. The first year we added 75,000. The second
[21:06] year was two, I can't remember the 150,000 and this year we've changed a little bit, we're
[21:15] going to use a 1.2% of our residential tax rate that we need and it works up to 120,000.
[21:25] So that's what we're pulling in there and that's why I mentioned earlier the portion of the
[21:31] increases related to contribution to reserves and it could be used for, by keeping it kind
[21:38] of a general for future expenditures, you know, Council can direct it to be used for any
[21:44] number of things.
[21:45] It's not tied into only one usage, so.
[21:49] Water fund, again, there's some water improvements, a contribution there every year and that's,
[21:57] comes through taxation and as well as the water capital asset renewal. We continue to run a deficit
[22:09] in the water fund and we're working on the water rates and we anticipate having that done in
[22:14] the first quarter of this year. So hopefully it's back before the final budget and you can make a
[22:20] decision there. The taxpayer shouldn't bear the funding for water usage or water rates
[22:29] or the water utility. The usage of the people who use it, which is essentially the taxpayers,
[22:36] should bear that. So if you use more, you pay more. And that's how that'll be. So we'll continue
[22:43] your work on that and similar with the sewer deficit. So, some of these arise, it's allocation
[22:54] of expenses to the utilities from general operations. We can't operate, you know, council
[23:02] makes some decisions over the water or sewer so the portion of those costs might go to those
[23:07] utilities, same with administration. So,
[23:12] we are contributing, you know, netting, you
[23:17] know, close to a million dollars a year, to those reserves. And we use the, a lot of
[23:25] the asset capital requests are being funded from the general capital asset renewal, the
[23:31] water improvements, the water capital asset renewal, and the sewer capital asset renewal.
[23:35] And you'll see that when we go through the capital items moving
[23:41] on to the reserve.
[23:43] So these are, we don't have the final balances yet for 2025.
[23:51] So they're estimated and try to give council and the community an overview of the balances
[23:59] in our reserve funds and what we're using the reserve funds for.
[24:04] So the first one is the community to works fund.
[24:06] We're going to use some of that funding for the Turpanier Bench Road Paving.
[24:12] The growing community funds, we have to spend this in by 2027, I believe it is the last
[24:19] year.
[24:20] We've got about 70,000 left that we haven't committed to anything, and so it's a little
[24:26] bit of interest, not as much as it was when it was $2.8 million, but we're not fully finished
[24:33] some of the projects, so that's there and that may come available, maybe it's possible
[24:39] by final budget will have an extra 70,000 that we could use and direct the money to
[24:45] something there.
[24:49] Pacing reserve, excuse me, told you we had 25,000 a year, so estimated balance at the end
[24:56] to 2026, a 65,000.
[25:00] Prior to Markman Reserve, we're at 650.
[25:02] So if we're talking 1.5, we're about 50% there.
[25:07] So we need more.
[25:08] I think originally when they funded for it,
[25:10] it was going to be around $1,800 to $1,000,000 for a unit.
[25:16] And like a lot of other things, especially coming out
[25:20] of the States, or the US to cost or increase more.
[25:30] General capital asset renewal reserve. So this is where a significant portion of our asset capital assets are purchased or capital projects.
[25:40] We have contributions of $448,000. We have a number of expenditures and we can get into more of the detail as we go through a line by line item.
[25:52] Non-development road reserve, no contribution there, it's 142, parks and equipment, 64,000,
[26:02] sewer capital renewal reserve, 683,000, water capital asset renewal reserve, there's a
[26:15] couple of projects there, Barney Lane Pressure Reducing Station, and this will come up in the
[26:19] items and the EUR clean PRB stations and planning for that those are the expenditures coming out of there
[26:26] and then the water system improvements reserve have got water meter replacement
[26:33] asking for another 500,000 this year.
[26:36] The calls are cool.
[26:38] If I may, Mr. Mayor, thank you.
[26:43] The Bony Lane pressure valve costs, we did a number of changes to make it easier for
[26:55] the replacement and stuff. I'm a little surprised that what's the, do we know what the entire
[27:04] cost of that project is? Because what we're talking about here is simply an increase to
[27:10] amount. So whatever the gross amount is, it's quite huge.
[27:18] Through the mayor, it's close to 900,000
[27:21] estimated, although this budget increase of 500,000 in itself is an estimate before we go to tender
[27:28] on the redesign. So we are hoping that the redesign is made it easier for the contractors and they're
[27:36] more comfortable with the risk and the cost will come down from that. But this increase is based
[27:41] based on the first tender prices that we received.
[27:46] Any chances can they get any less?
[27:50] I won't commit to that, but I'm asking for that extra 500,000 and hoping to give some of that back after we tender.
[27:59] Okay. Thank you.
[28:03] Yes,
[28:20] the unspensed surplus.
[28:22] After we fund this year's, or the 2026, operating expenses, we anticipate a balance
[28:30] of 450,000, and there could be a potential for a, well, we should have a surplus from
[28:37] this year as well, so from 2025.
[28:40] Just for clarification, with surplus, you mean we have more revenue than expenses at the
[28:45] end of the year?
[28:45] Is that what you mean with surplus?
[28:47] Correct.
[28:49] Yes, correct.
[28:51] Our expenses did not exceed revenue that we brought in.
[28:55] So we put that into a surplus.
[28:57] And then we use it to reduce taxes in future years.
[29:00] Yeah.
[29:00] I think that's smart enough.
[29:02] Also in room.
[29:03] So.
[29:05] But the estimated balance on December 31st, 2025 would include the 2025 surplus.
[29:11] Or you're saying it does not.
[29:13] It does not include it, I don't have that amount yet, so there is.
[29:17] I don't want to guess, so the potential is, it should go up.
[29:20] Okay.
[29:22] And I can report that at the end of when we do our financial statements.
[29:28] Yeah.
[29:31] Development cost charges, I guess we need to be about 4.3 million.
[29:39] Future expenditures reserve.
[29:42] So this is the amount that we, the 1.2% I spoke about, 225,000 to date at another 120 this year, 345,000.
[29:54] So if you think back three years ago, we had zero.
[29:56] So, with Council's direction, we've
[30:00] Add a little bit every year. And that's it's it's a really nice cushion. It makes me feel better because when I get requests for, hey, this project's gone over or something like that. Now we have a source of funding that we can go to to do it if there's something happens. So it's just important to have it really sort of for me comes to light when we had those fires and the province is tending not to pay for as much stuff as they used to.
[30:27] their resident to pay for those things. So this is another source that we may need within the community.
[30:34] So any
[30:41] questions about section B?
[30:44] Seeing none.
[30:47] Let's move on.
[30:50] Section C.
[30:52] It's the operating capital priority summary. So this is just a chart of how we're funding items.
[30:59] items, the source of funding for our budget requests or taxation, there's reserves, and
[31:06] we'll get into the line by line items as we go through them.
[31:12] Temptation reserves, there's grants, grant funding there that we're using, some
[31:21] other
[31:23] funding there, utilities, community works fund, those are the items there.
[31:28] In the budget book, there's priority two items that I have not put up on the screen here.
[31:42] Next item I'd like to speak about is the,
[31:47] say
[31:52] the grants, this is page 21 in the book
[31:54] if you want to flip to that.
[31:59] So,
[32:03] we distributed $63,150 grants in 2025, and we budgeted $72,233 for 2026, so there's always
[32:17] a need in the community, so there may be some requests that come later on that we can council
[32:22] can distribute.
[32:23] Okay Gary, it's my understanding in the social security council that these grants
[32:28] doesn't need to be applied for anymore, we're going to change that by law, and it will
[32:32] be granted for the next four years to each of these different community groups.
[32:38] It improves their capacity of budgeting for the next four years, and also it takes them
[32:43] a lot of time to prepare for these grant applications.
[32:48] These are community groups that have proven themselves, I think it was council's will that
[32:53] But these ones that are on here will receive these in the next four years.
[32:59] Don't think that?
[33:01] Yes, thank you.
[33:02] And as they are pre-approved and it's an important part of a lot of these groups, annual budgets.
[33:16] Is this one of the items that we're looking at making an early payment, like the payments in
[33:21] in January as opposed to in June.
[33:26] Correct. Yes, that came to Council last June.
[33:32] So yeah, we'll be making some payments in January this year.
[33:35] That'll be going out. And I think the, I just want to confirm.
[33:39] I think that the term was three years and that ends in 2026.
[33:43] And then we'll, so for 2027, it'll be the new one starting.
[33:49] That's correct. That was my understanding.
[33:51] So maybe we need to, we simply discuss that bylaw to, I think it might be my preference
[33:58] to do it for the next three years, 26, 27, 28, because that gives them certainty.
[34:05] If you have to do it again in 2027, then it defeats the purpose in my eyes.
[34:10] So let's discuss this with council when the bylaw comes up in the future.
[34:15] Councilor Grateman?
[34:16] Just to make notice something for my recollection, these terms were supposed to run alongside
[34:25] of council terms so that the re-application would be upon new council appointments.
[34:33] And then that way the council of the day has the opportunity to make the decision whether
[34:38] to fall under guidelines or to fall under what council of today has decided to do.
[34:44] So, I think, personally, pushing it past council elections.
[34:52] I personally have no problems with that because we need to give certainty to these groups.
[34:57] If you only do it for one year, what is the certainty?
[35:00] We need to tell them, no, you're fine for the next three years.
[35:02] We do that on a lot of occasions that we go over boundaries of councils.
[35:06] I think this is a very important issue for our groups.
[35:10] And I think it's important that we give them that security for at least three to four years.
[35:16] Councilor Connan and Councilor Ingraham.
[35:18] Sorry.
[35:19] One last question, please, and thank you.
[35:21] The last question that I have is, are we taking into account that these numbers may rise
[35:27] or fall based on expenditures that are uncontrollable?
[35:33] Because are we just going to assume these numbers and take a chance every year that somebody
[35:39] may or may not come back to us with an unforeseen expenditure that is beyond expectations, we
[35:45] will know those happen. This is the grant that they were getting, and if in their expenditures,
[35:52] something happens, and they need to take care of their expenditures. This is what our council of
[35:56] councils will give them to help their budgeting. Okay, so next council moving forward, we'll have
[36:02] to deal with this for three years of their term. I just think. Councilwoman, I'm Councilman.
[36:07] Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I will just simply go into endorse the idea that we should link this to a council term, that's all.
[36:16] I'll just point out that we've approved the grants for 2026 and there will be a new council.
[36:25] Soon enough into 2026 and we can have a meeting to discuss and say pre-approved for the next four years.
[36:36] Thank you, Council Cons. Six and a half a dozen of the other. It's not like we're going to say no
[36:41] next term anyway, right? It's only whether we adjusted it all depending on the individual groups needs.
[36:51] Thank you. Any more about this part of the section C? Can we go to section D then? Or is there something else
[37:01] I just want to make sure that we clarify this.
[37:06] So these are the 2025 brands that we paid out.
[37:09] So 2026 will pay out, but just so you know the R-Space Society started at 21, went to
[37:14] 14, and went to 7.
[37:17] So they're only going to get 7,000 in 2026.
[37:19] That was under Council's direction at three-year term.
[37:24] So.
[37:24] So I don't think that's what we discussed, that's we visit this after in another meeting
[37:30] because I don't think that we are on the same page with this.
[37:32] So we have funding for that, but I'm just saying this isn't the, these are the amounts
[37:38] that were paid out in 2025.
[37:40] Okay, perfect, thanks.
[37:42] Okay,
[37:52] now we're getting into section D. This is the fun stuff.
[37:57] So no, dear, so the process will be, I'm not going to speak to any of the discussion
[38:04] here. The green sheets are priority ones. I'll speak to the priority one item. What the title of
[38:14] it is, the amount and the funding. There's no questions. I'll move on to the next one. When I say
[38:23] questions, yeah, some questions. If council wants to discuss it further than that, we'll star it.
[38:30] And then we'll, at the end, when we've gone through all the budget requests right to the end of the utilities,
[38:36] then we'll come back and revisit all those.
[38:38] There may be some pre-P1 items that you want to change the amount, maybe move it one way or the other,
[38:45] same with the P2 items.
[38:46] So, is that fair enough?
[38:48] So, same procedures as prior years.
[38:52] Okay,
[38:55] so we're on page 28.
[38:56] First,
[39:05] I am the 2026 election, $14,000 from taxation,
[39:14] legal fees, $13,000 from taxation.
[39:23] Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
[39:26] Legal fees, I'm assuming that's kind of based on past years, expenditures.
[39:31] One thing that I would suggest is that you either up the budget for that in coming years
[39:37] or creative reserve for it because at some point we're going to need representation for
[39:42] undripped challenges. So we have a voice in those negotiations and that's going to involve
[39:48] substantial legal fees that we've never incurred on that level before. So, food for thoughts,
[39:54] sewing a seed, but based on how it's been going around the province, I would expect legal fees
[40:00] to go up quite a bit at some point. It's hard to say when. So, whether that's a budget item,
[40:05] and we're creating a little bit of a reserve for it,
[40:08] it's coming, I think.
[40:22] Next item is page 32.
[40:27] Legion 100 anniversary event grant $10,000 taxation.
[40:34] Community events and hence funding, $15,000 taxation.
[40:45] Page 36,
[40:51] stormwater master plan phase one, 50,000 from a grant.
[40:58] It's a grant dependent project, but doesn't occur, we don't want to stay in the budget.
[41:08] Engineering series credit, so here's a reduction of $4,000, we determined that we don't need
[41:15] that.
[41:23] Page 40,
[41:27] we have new washrooms.
[41:30] So we've reduced the, by not asking for $20,000, we're reducing the level of service, we're
[41:41] closing in the in the winter. So if council decides do they want to keep it open in the winter,
[41:47] it's going to be a $20,000 hit. So that's how this one works.
[41:52] Just for the public at home, in the past once we had quite a few acts of journalism
[41:59] in both of our washrooms that are costing us $1,000,000. We know who's doing it. They were
[42:06] reprehended by the RCMP. They were back on our streets two days later. So and then they've
[42:13] underized the other portion we think at dots. So we do have a problem here. It costs us a lot of money
[42:19] and each funderism is extra taxation on our population. Just for that our residents are aware of this,
[42:26] if we have no budget for this. So if it happens, we need to take it out of money that we
[42:33] would use for something else.
[42:35] And so that's going on, and it's very hard to stop it.
[42:40] Council Ingraham.
[42:41] But is the vandalism restricted to the winter months?
[42:44] Or is it a year-round problem?
[42:49] So I'm sure that there's still people walking along Beach Avenue
[42:54] and the winter that having the washrooms available
[42:57] would be an important thing.
[43:00] Absolutely, but there are a few people who use the washrooms, but it's not like the
[43:04] big season.
[43:05] The big season, it's very busy.
[43:07] So what we determined is that we could save about 20 grand through genitorial fees and
[43:15] stuff like that.
[43:18] Bottom line is as final as it could happen whenever.
[43:21] When it happens in the summer, it doesn't matter.
[43:23] We're so busy, we need the washroom to open, it's so busy.
[43:25] There are some part of parties out there, and I think we're going to leave one, is it
[43:30] one washroom, does one washroom stay open near the museum, I can't remember,
[43:36] do we put
[43:38] a board of parties out there, right in the winter?
[43:40] So there you go, we got a board of parties, it's not the best thing in the winter, but for
[43:45] the one or two people that may use them during the day, it probably saves a lot of money if
[43:48] we close them.
[43:50] And I get it, because that's what we get, we get one or two people complaining, and then
[43:54] I got to come here and ask for 20 grand to fix everything.
[43:56] It's a tough call and I would suggest that we close them in the winter and we'll keep an eye on too, right?
[44:03] I mean down the road we might be getting some cameras on them. Maybe that'll dissuade people from doing the nasty things, but the person that's doing it, they're nuts, no matter what we do, they're nuts, and they can be told many times not to do it, and somehow they end up back here and do it again, and we're getting frustrated just like the RCMP.
[44:21] Councillor Wolfe. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We're related to people,
[44:25] banalism, those people and cars. We've talked about putting cameras up on
[44:30] beach, both the front and the back. I'm referring to Princeton in 13th. When is that
[44:36] coming? Where is that?
[44:43] Thank you. You were through your
[44:45] worship. Report will be coming back to council early in 2026 for the installation of
[44:52] accounts. If I may, if the report's favorable, there is money in here for that somewhere.
[45:01] There is nothing budgeted in the document that you have today, but we still have to research the costs and request would come to council with the reports in early 2026.
[45:17] Okay, yeah, thanks. We have a bit of money tucked away, like in case of urgent issues that come up, so that's how we would fund it.
[45:30] Seeing no more, you can move on, Gary.
[45:36] Okay, it's going item 40, our page 40, rental revenue increase in addition to 50,400
[45:45] to taxation.
[45:53] Is it?
[45:53] These are the two homes that we have that we're having.
[45:55] It's revenue.
[45:56] We didn't.
[45:57] We added and included it.
[45:58] So, it decreases our tax for the residents, correct?
[46:03] So, you need to be very careful what you say here, so it's normally not standing.
[46:07] This will reduce the tax budget on our presence.
[46:15] Shouldn't that be under the revenue column then?
[46:17] As opposed to taxation.
[46:37] Page 46.
[46:46] FTE training officer.
[46:49] 48,000 from Grant and revenue 48,000.
[46:54] 750.
[46:58] So a nothing competition this year?
[47:00] Correct.
[47:02] Thank you.
[47:33] Gary, I don't think we're going to oppose reductions.
[47:39] Garbage and recycling disposal credit, $4,000.
[47:46] Page 54,
[47:50] questions from counter-guism.
[47:52] Just for a clarification, the garbage and recycling disposal credit,
[47:57] does that mean that our residents are actually stepping up to the plate
[48:01] and putting appropriate things into garbage and waste disposal,
[48:05] So, we're not being dinged to the fine.
[48:09] No.
[48:11] I was so sorry.
[48:12] Sorry.
[48:13] This is the bins that the district uses for our garbage pickup.
[48:18] Okay.
[48:20] Super safe disposal bins, waste management bins.
[48:24] So, when you pick up the garbage from the commercial ones.
[48:28] Yeah.
[48:29] Thank you.
[48:32] Page 54, park staff, one FTE taxation, $79,092.
[48:48] Park's contract service is credit, $10,000 reduction in taxation.
[49:01] Operating budget is a P2s and planning and development.
[49:05] I want to speak to those.
[49:06] Page 58,
[49:11] is there anything there that council would like to
[49:22] So we're going to move on now to section E, capital budget.
[49:27] So no more questions on the D items. I think Councilor Collins has a question.
[49:33] Sorry. Can we just touch on Wurf and bouquet policy review just for a second?
[49:39] So I'm clear we are doing that and that's the cost.
[49:42] No, we are not doing that. It's quite a two because we are doing in 2027. And part of
[49:49] it is that the partners are already overwhelmed with other work for province and so on and
[49:54] other projects we are for running. So I think this is the best we do with this is in 2027.
[50:07] Don't you agree? On page 59 then. So this is shown as priority two. But it says that there's
[50:17] mandate that we must do this by June of next year, so I'm confused. Is it something that we have
[50:24] to do or we don't have to do?
[50:27] It's a bonus density, the bonus density by law amendment,
[50:32] so I think it's reduced by 50,000. We're still doing that, correct? No. Okay.
[50:37] Oh, do we have to do it? I don't think so. But Darren has the explanation for this
[50:43] Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
[50:47] We have no additional funding from the province to complete this task, so although it is a
[50:53] mandate from the province, we will wait for the phone call and discuss with them and perhaps
[51:00] seek an extension if necessary.
[51:02] The fact of the matter is the way that the province, when these mandates, ruled forward, the funding
[51:09] mechanism was based on a small base amount plus a per capita amount based on population.
[51:14] Obviously, then the smaller communities were hit harder with having less resources and
[51:18] then less funding to carry out the same amount of work was very challenging. So we're looking
[51:23] forward to having that conversation and perhaps seeking an extension. I do want to note that the
[51:30] bonus density regulations we do have in our bylaw are based on financial analysis. They're linked
[51:36] to our existing community amenity policy, as well we're currently working on updating that
[51:43] or those regulations as part of our dress project or downtown revitalization implementation
[51:50] strategy. So we anticipate getting to this work just not on the time frame established by the
[51:54] province and I think that will address their concerns. The last thing I would note is if you will
[52:01] Mr. Mayor, we've not enact or we have, despite the fact that we have bonus density regulations in our
[52:06] zoning they've never been employed so like what's the priority I guess is the another point we want
[52:11] to make. Thank you. Seems like lies action on our part but is there because it's legislated, is
[52:19] there a penalty in detailed in that legislation for failing to comply? I'm not aware of any penalty.
[52:30] I would ask or I wouldn't know it. So the remark was that we're going to send you to jail for three
[52:35] months to give you a rest. I'll do my time for the community, Mr. Mayor.
[52:41] I think it's very important that if professors ask us to do things and we don't have the financial
[52:46] means for it, they should pay for it. We don't pay for it. So be it. We will see what they
[52:52] say and then it's up to us as politicians to go and speak with the ministers and see what we
[52:58] can arrange for them. But if these are things that are being put on smaller communities that
[53:02] are in almost, we don't have that money, I guess, more small
[53:06] communities in this case. I think six or seven of them are in
[53:10] the same boat. They cannot do this. There's no money. So
[53:14] because if they also do so many things, we only have so much
[53:17] money. So if the branch of government wants us to do these
[53:20] things, we'll give us the money. Councilor Boffing.
[53:24] Leave the steaksist, but to reflect on Councillor Ingraham's
[53:28] comment, what you have said is the government has just to do
[53:31] something and haven't given us the money to do it. Rick said what happens if they find us and
[53:37] then we'll say we don't have the money to pay the fine either.
[53:43] I don't believe there'll be a fine.
[53:45] We are doing it. We're just not doing it on the timeline that they've prescribed and we will get
[53:49] to it. It's a recommendation of the jurisdiction of becoming forward early in the new year. We're
[53:53] going to continue this conversation. So in due course. And the indications we got on the UB
[53:58] is that from the Ministry of Housing that our town is doing whatever we can, and we are
[54:04] doing more than we are needing to satisfy their needs. So, I think we will have any
[54:09] problems with this. They are content with our efforts. That was a quote that we got on that meeting.
[54:17] Councillor Conn. In terms of risk management, we seem to be satisfied that our course of action
[54:24] and it's not going to bring the heavens down on us.
[54:29] We'll be no heavens coming down on us.
[54:34] Move on.
[54:42] Okay, we're in the capital budget section E.
[54:46] Page 63.
[54:52] Swim Bay dot surface replacement.
[54:55] 65,000 from reserve.
[55:00] Community center parking lot,
[55:02] safety and capacity improvements,
[55:04] $10,000 from reserve.
[55:06] Just a question, Moe Devin,
[55:07] Maybe that's Jason can answer that.
[55:09] Are we also going to indicate the parking spots that are only for the community center because it's not a problem.
[55:15] So people only park here in the community center.
[55:18] Is that the intention?
[55:20] Yes, through you, Mr. Mayor. Yes, we are.
[55:21] It's part of that project.
[55:23] And how are going to enforce that?
[55:25] That's just my second question.
[55:28] The enforcement will be through our by-law department.
[55:32] And just further to your question, there will be signs indicating who can park where.
[55:36] But yes, through a by-law department.
[55:38] Is there a possibility that when people are using our community center, that they register their number plate?
[55:46] Something like that, so we have something if we need to do some action?
[55:52] Mayor, we're not anticipating any issues that by-law couldn't handle but certainly we could have number registration and other methods if we're not able to contain the parking.
[56:04] Thank you.
[56:05] Perfect.
[56:05] Thank you.
[56:09] Continuing on.
[56:10] Page 64.
[56:15] Thank you.
[56:17] The question I got here, 25% of that is coming from a donation that our space is supposed
[56:25] to be raising.
[56:29] I'm just wondering, are we going to be providing a mechanism similar to what we did for the
[56:36] the peer project where the district would be receiving those money so that the donors can get a charitable donation tax receipt, because the arts council can give tax donations, but this is an our space relationship, not an arts council, so I'm just wondering if we're going to do something similar where the donations could be flowed through the district so the people can get tax receipts like we did with the peer.
[57:06] I haven't been part of their discussions of how they're going to fund that $25,000, but certainly,
[57:10] we could do that. But again, I don't want to be issuing receipts for $5. So, we'll figure that out.
[57:21] For your information, I will be going from now on to the R space meetings. And when I spoke with
[57:27] them, I think a few months ago, when they were raising this, I think it's arch council is going to use
[57:31] their capability to give tax receipts and then donate it to the R space. I think it's
[57:40] something I get that I set it up. But they would not be able to give. So if necessary,
[57:47] they need to go to another mechanism. And I will ask them to contact Gary, but we cannot give
[57:54] a tax receipts for five dollars. It needs to be a minimum. But I will bring it up in the next
[57:59] meaning with our space. Okay.
[58:07] Yes, Gordon.
[58:10] Just for a little bit of context, what we learned
[58:12] from our space and the letter that they wrote us was they were going to be fundraising using
[58:16] a 5050 draw method and they received their license through PC gaming. So it was done more on a
[58:23] lottery system than individual donations. It's our understanding, but
[58:29] based on my experience from
[58:32] I'm trying to do fundraising for the HUB project.
[58:34] I know how difficult the 50-50 methodology is
[58:38] and that I would suspect that a large portion
[58:41] of that $25,000 is going to come from donations.
[58:51] Okay, moving on.
[58:54] Page 66,
[58:58] Japan A bench road paving.
[59:01] Total of 350,000 from community works
[59:04] and 100,000 from reserve.
[59:09] Well, it's free.
[59:12] Yeah, I'm just curious when we were discussing the reserves in the community works reserve had about $350,000 some was coming in about the same amount that's coming out just curious why this 100,000 is coming from a different reserve instead of from that reserve leaving it at $250,000 instead of leaving it at $350,000.
[59:39] Because the comment here is that next year when we get community works, it'll go from one
[59:45] to the other.
[59:46] So I'm just curious why, since we are showing that there's going to be 350,000 in the community
[59:53] works reserved, why we just use it right now.
[59:57] It's an estimated balance. There are some other...
[1:00:00] Projects that we funded from the community works fund that they're not complete yet. I don't know what funds will have available. So we want to manage that, but we want to get the project done this year. So that's the idea. It is my information that as soon as we prove this budget in principle, that the RFP would go out for Japan, your bench road so they can be done as soon as possible in the new year. And we have to wait for the community works fund anyway for a few more
[1:00:29] months. So it's just to bring those months, but you want to start a project as soon as possible,
[1:00:36] preferably beginning of spring. So it's finished together with the other ongoing
[1:00:43] depending on your instruction works. So that's the intention.
[1:00:50] Okay, moving on, page 68. Facility maintenance. This is a $100,000 contribution to our facilities.
[1:01:00] The
[1:01:05] AC replacement, HVAC, air-conditioning replacement for swim bay for state life car
[1:01:10] station, $20,000 from grant funding.
[1:01:18] Page 69, air-conditioning replacement for the 50-plus center, $15,000 from grant funding.
[1:01:27] Community center, HVAC replacement, $40,000 from grant funding.
[1:01:37] page 71.
[1:01:41] Replace IT switches wireless access points in district facilities.
[1:01:47] $35,000 from Reserve.
[1:01:56] Page 73.
[1:02:01] This is a grant application for CE-PF.
[1:02:08] It's for turn out gear. $30,000 grant funding.
[1:02:14] The utility 21 replacement, $200,000 donation revenue.
[1:02:26] Page 75,
[1:02:29] beach avenue bus stop benches, $10,000 from reserve.
[1:02:37] Beach avenue bike racks, $15,000 from reserve.
[1:02:43] Page 76, speed monitor signs, $20,000 from reserve.
[1:02:53] Yes, councilor vision.
[1:02:54] Thank you, Mr. Master, you to carry the speed monitor signs.
[1:03:00] Are these the digital ones or these just speed signs just for clarification?
[1:03:06] There are the digital ones that speed and we're going to make them mobile so we can move them around.
[1:03:11] Because it's one of the biggest complaints we get from the community.
[1:03:14] I'll be honest with you, when you have a speed limit of 30 kilometers per hour, it's pretty hard not to speed.
[1:03:19] but so that's what it's for is some of those areas we've had some issues up at
[1:03:24] Turner Park a part of that road so that's kind of the plan. I'm not sure it'll
[1:03:28] solve all the problems but once people start seeing those signs maybe a little
[1:03:32] adjusted behavior. Thank you.
[1:03:36] Thank you Mr. Mayor have we applied to the road safety division at ICBC for grants
[1:03:43] for these things? I haven't I know that you if you talk to ICBC
[1:03:47] We will.
[1:03:52] Yeah.
[1:03:53] Thank you, Councillor Gullah, for bringing that up, because ICBC does has money for this,
[1:03:56] so maybe if you buy for this, it will not need to reserve money.
[1:04:03] Just to give them a little bit of a plug, the ICBC Road Safety Group is particularly effective
[1:04:10] and its return on investment is something calculated in the order of 8 to 1, so if you've got
[1:04:17] a case to make, they will probably turn up the cash.
[1:04:27] We move on.
[1:04:27] The inquiry already took on.
[1:04:29] No.
[1:04:29] No.
[1:04:30] No.
[1:04:31] No.
[1:04:31] No.
[1:04:32] No.
[1:04:34] No.
[1:04:36] No.
[1:04:38] No.
[1:04:38] Council would like to ask some questions. I'm open to that.
[1:04:45] Yeah, as far as I'm concerned, these are things we can wait until 27 to discuss, but I will
[1:04:50] look at my council if they have any other ideas about this.
[1:04:59] Council comments, very disassist, mean that on 13th, we're not doing anything for speed
[1:05:04] or, we're not doing anything new for speed, they're not doing anything new for speed.
[1:05:08] Yes, these are new measures, correct?
[1:05:10] Yeah.
[1:05:13] Yeah, the only ones I wanted to address are the bigger ticket items and wanted to understand.
[1:05:24] So, you know, the DCC project, deferring that, what are the implications and the asset
[1:05:33] management plan deferral again.
[1:05:35] And we definitely want to try to keep the tax increases low as possible.
[1:05:41] But when we had that asset management meeting and we all looked at what we all just shook our head.
[1:05:47] How bad the situation was and what we needed to start doing to fix it and
[1:05:52] shook our heads at how prior councils were irresponsible by not doing anything.
[1:05:57] And I'm just concerned that we're admitting that we're going to be irresponsible by not doing anything ourselves.
[1:06:03] and wonder, I just think we should discuss that a little bit because it's, first of all,
[1:06:12] I don't think it's irresponsible. We still are in these DC projects and asset management,
[1:06:16] we still need to go to a lot of discussions and we can, all the discussions will have a resolution
[1:06:24] going forward, but it can start in 2027. It doesn't need to start in 2026. We are taking our responsibility,
[1:06:31] but there's a lot of work to do before it can even make these decisions.
[1:06:35] So whatever going to happen, it will be in the 2027 budget if we need it to be.
[1:06:40] Councillor Cone, Councillor Englisman.
[1:06:42] In defense of our councils, the presentation made some eight or ten years ago
[1:06:50] gave us three options in terms of amounts that we were putting in reserves
[1:06:56] and the level of risk that we were prepared to undertake.
[1:07:02] it was a considered decision at the time that was unanimously supported. It may turn out because
[1:07:10] of higher than anticipated inflation rates and supply chain increases that the cost of escalated
[1:07:19] beyond what was originally anticipated. But it wasn't a decision that was taken lightly at the time.
[1:07:25] and I would suggest that it's appropriate to revisit it, but it was a considered decision.
[1:07:38] Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The second sentence and the paragraph under the plan recommendations
[1:07:45] actually does point out that the district currently invests $1 million annually.
[1:07:49] So I think that is a line of dediligence that we are actually considering this.
[1:07:54] We are putting away funding for it, and should we get additional funding?
[1:07:59] Should we miraculously actually have a money tree that grows somewhere in town?
[1:08:03] We may be able to add more to it, but at this point in time with the risk low versus
[1:08:11] high, what we went through with that meeting, we're doing due diligence at minimum, which
[1:08:18] I think is key, not doing anything would put us in a far worse position, but I think doing anything more is going to actually put us into a financial strain that may impact other services that we require to have done.
[1:08:33] So I don't think we're neglecting this or we're not doing due diligence just by addressing that and that alone.
[1:08:43] Yes, I've been told to speak first, Council Member, yes, I can go, Joe.
[1:08:48] In my opening comments, it was round asset management.
[1:08:53] I missed the last meeting because I was deal with RCMP and I've told Jason I want to sit
[1:08:57] down and go through it.
[1:08:58] I mean, I think at the time they said we have a like a $6 million deficit or something
[1:09:02] like that.
[1:09:02] Anyway, well, that's in a perfect world where you're going to do everything.
[1:09:05] What we need to do is we need to spend much more time on that plan and come up with peach lands plan for asset management.
[1:09:15] No community will ever be able to afford baby clona because they have two million bucks a year per one percent, but most misspellies can't afford it.
[1:09:23] I was actually hopeful that maybe by the time final budget comes around, depending on how things fall out, we might be able to put a little something in final budget.
[1:09:32] But our biggest thing is going to be to spend time trying to get grants to rebuild some of our very old
[1:09:38] Infrastructure I'll say buildings right we're going to be hopefully building new fire hall students
[1:09:43] So that'll come off the asset management list with any luck someday somebody will want to build us a city hall for our land downtown
[1:09:49] So we're going to have to attack asset management from a bunch of different ways
[1:09:53] But we're not there yet because we haven't finalized
[1:09:57] Council's plan moving forward, so your marks are quite good, is that we need to focus on
[1:10:03] it. Just give us a little bit more time until the plan's done and then we'll have to
[1:10:07] come up with a real good plan and the real good plan will have to include non-taxiation.
[1:10:12] We'll have to get out there and hustle and get some more dough on asset management.
[1:10:19] I apologize if my words were a little bit too harsh initially but I just wanted to make
[1:10:23] that we discussed it because it is important and we're not going to be able to put a $7.7 million
[1:10:32] every year away but we need to be putting away more because as I recall from the general asset,
[1:10:41] renewal, reserve, we're taking out a little bit more than we're putting in this year so it's going
[1:10:48] actually going down a little bit and we have, I forget what the number was, whether it was
[1:10:55] 8 million or 28 million dollars worth of assets right now that are already past their current
[1:10:59] lifetime so we're, I don't want us to run into situation where we avoid increasing the taxes this
[1:11:09] year and in a few years when something happens, we have to raise it 40% because we've hit that kind
[1:11:16] of a situation and just want to make sure we discuss it and if we're able to find something
[1:11:22] to put into that asset management with that final budget, that would be a good thing.
[1:11:27] Thank you, Council.
[1:11:28] Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
[1:11:31] A little further to that discussion about asset management plan ideas.
[1:11:35] What would be helpful from an annual budget reporting perspective would be to say, here's a number
[1:11:41] of new housing units you have.
[1:11:43] Here's the assessed total value of them and here's the additional tax revenue so you mentioned we had
[1:11:48] 30 new housing units in the last year approximately so as far as an asset management plan
[1:11:54] We should be looking. Hey, here's the chunk of money. We got what percentage of that do you want to allocate
[1:11:58] Towards asset management planning, right? Because that's something municipalities do that leads to that discussion and there's that extra chunk of change
[1:12:07] That we could direct towards that on a on a percentage basis
[1:12:12] Right, on a final note, I think, as George mentioned, a lot of misbodies are in this case, they're there, okay.
[1:12:23] It will be up to our prevention and federal government to help out the small misbodies because we cannot, this burden, we cannot bear.
[1:12:31] So it's up to us to advocates and lobby for more money for our town when we need it.
[1:12:38] And I think we've been doing a good job of that, we keep on doing that.
[1:12:43] sometimes you get the money sometimes you don't, but you need to keep the fire on their feet
[1:12:48] and keep it going. I think for the moment that I'm seeing is that we're still quite good
[1:12:55] infrastructure for the next five years, so let's try to get more money from other sources and
[1:13:01] maybe other revenue streams and look at that and the post of the property taxes that come in extra
[1:13:06] maybe we could look at that and put a little bit more away into asset management
[1:13:11] And there are different things we're doing here, so that's just because in the next month when we finalize the asset management project and see where to come up with some ideas and not only us, if people have ideas, just bring them to us.
[1:13:27] Yeah, because we do not know everything, no, should we?
[1:13:30] but if people have some ideas that help auto communities,
[1:13:34] well, bring it to us and we will consider it.
[1:13:37] So, on that note, council go ahead and I'll go to Gary.
[1:13:41] Thanks, Mr. Mayor.
[1:13:42] Just wanted to mention, if you recall our meeting
[1:13:45] with the Ministry of Environment,
[1:13:47] they said they have emergency environmental funds
[1:13:49] in case we have a major burst of a sewer line
[1:13:52] or a pump that goes out.
[1:13:55] So put that in your back pocket and keep that
[1:13:57] for when the rubber meets the road, right? It's funding, right? It's there. Thank you for
[1:14:05] reminding me. Go on, Gary. Thank you, Council, for that discussion. That's great and staff
[1:14:14] have been considering all those items. We have been contributing over the years as Councillor
[1:14:19] Condon noted and concert Gleism noted and that's the the annual funds that we took
[1:14:27] in parcel taxes put into taxation and that continues on this year we've got
[1:14:31] a contribution of 448 but we're pulling out 405,000 so we've got a little bit
[1:14:36] left in there but some years we do take more and some so it's it's not a lot but
[1:14:41] that's that's our main source of funding you know same with the water and
[1:14:46] That will come that works out with our water rate review, you build in when you have to do some
[1:14:51] replacements, you're kind of building in into the rates early, different times. So that'll be
[1:14:58] discussion. The other thing I'm
[1:15:00] I wanted to notice that this year for the first time since I've been here, we've got money for a budget for facility maintenance and that preventive maintenance will also help extend the life of some of the facilities that are raging. So that's going to be an ongoing amount. If we needed, it's there. If we don't need it, we don't spend it. But it's available for us. So that will help extend the life of some of the facilities as well. So I think collectively we're doing some
[1:15:29] some good things. We're not going to hit the seven million a year, but we need to focus
[1:15:35] on the items that we need to fix immediately and we'll do that. So yeah, it'll be a good
[1:15:41] discussion going forward. So thank you for that.
[1:15:49] Anything else in the P2s?
[1:15:54] You can move
[1:15:55] voluntary.
[1:15:58] All right.
[1:16:05] We're in to 83.
[1:16:11] Yeah. A Bonnie Lane Pressure Reducing Station cost
[1:16:14] increase 450,000 firm reserve.
[1:16:20] York Lane PRB Station 100,000 firm reserve this year. 900,000
[1:16:26] in 2027.
[1:16:33] Page 84, water meter, water meter replacement on going request for another $500,000 from
[1:16:40] Reserve.
[1:16:42] There's just a question here, once this is done, is it 100% done, they're all replaced
[1:16:48] after this last investment or are still left?
[1:16:52] Still left, but and then in 15 years we'll start over.
[1:16:57] It's also common.
[1:16:58] Was any of this done under warranty?
[1:17:06] Before
[1:17:09] Sean left, he indicated to me that some are under warranty and we are getting
[1:17:14] a deal outweigh.
[1:17:16] So thank you.
[1:17:18] Councillor Ewer.
[1:17:19] Do we have any kind of a feel for how replacing these water meters has actually improved our revenue
[1:17:27] from water because of the ones that weren't working and everything?
[1:17:30] The
[1:17:33] meters as they get old and start to fail, they start reading low.
[1:17:39] So you want to put, before that happens, you want to put your meters in because you're
[1:17:42] losing revenue.
[1:17:43] So I can tell you right now that our revenue will undoubtedly increase because it's going
[1:17:48] to read properly.
[1:17:54] You can move on, Derek.
[1:17:55] Okay, moving on,
[1:17:58] section E, sorry,
[1:18:04] section F, Utilities Budget,
[1:18:14] page 90,
[1:18:19] this is the Peach
[1:18:20] John Creek, emergency response contingency plan, $20,000 from utility.
[1:18:33] A little bit more explanation on what that is.
[1:18:37] Are we talking about the dam or are we just talking about the Elma the Lake, or what is that?
[1:18:44] Three Mr. Mayor, so the emergency response and contingency plan is not for our dam, it's for a water system, and the health of our water system.
[1:18:55] and so how we're treating it at the plant, interior health,
[1:18:58] once regular updates on how we're managing our system.
[1:19:02] Normally, this is something we could do in-house
[1:19:05] in slower times, and the $20,000 is to get assistance
[1:19:10] from consultants to completed in a timely fashion.
[1:19:14] Are we there, Gary?
[1:19:19] Because I have nothing more left in my book.
[1:19:21] It's white.
[1:19:22] No, it's a pretty small book.
[1:19:23] I just want to bring up one thing.
[1:19:25] so October 31st, we had a Mr. Moneybags came in. I was hoping he'd leave some money with us,
[1:19:32] but he didn't leave us any money.
[1:19:36] But we're hoping that would happen, but I did get some new shoes
[1:19:40] out of it. So, at least that. So,
[1:19:46] that's it. We have no items to bring forward to this.
[1:19:49] No, for start items. I think Gary, I will speak for Danza. We're very happy with the budget.
[1:19:56] I think that when we had our workshop, we were very clear what we wanted, and it's clear
[1:20:02] to me that you did everything that we asked for.
[1:20:05] So I have Councillor Griezmann who will have a comment.
[1:20:09] Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for you to carry.
[1:20:12] In the beginning of our book, you went over the fact that BC Assessment Authority has actually
[1:20:21] decreased for 2026 horses 2025 and I do know that Councillor Condon had sent an email
[1:20:28] that wouldn't have been publicly provided or public information.
[1:20:33] Can you just give a brief explanation for our residents as to the theory behind property
[1:20:41] value decrease and taxation increase?
[1:20:45] Some people do truly believe that if their property taxes are sorry their property values
[1:20:50] are decreased, that means they shouldn't be required to pay as much in taxes, because
[1:20:55] they believe that increases are tied solely to values of property.
[1:21:02] So just for the general public, because I actually thought your explanation that you gave
[1:21:06] to the council was wonderful, and I really think that's something that should actually go
[1:21:10] out to the public.
[1:21:13] Okay, I can have a coffee here.
[1:21:15] I can.
[1:21:15] Wonderful.
[1:21:16] default, repeat that.
[1:21:20] An overall decrease in property assessment value does not have any impact on what needs
[1:21:24] to be collected through property taxes.
[1:21:27] The fluctuation and average house price only impacts the distribution of property taxes.
[1:21:32] If the residential assessment average decreases, then properties with an assessment increase
[1:21:37] or even a decrease that is smaller than the average decrease will experience a higher than
[1:21:43] average increase in property taxes.
[1:21:45] So, there's many factors that go into it.
[1:21:48] It's not based on assessed value.
[1:21:51] Based on the assessment values from the BC Assessment Preview Roll, dated October 31, 2025, residential property values have declined overall.
[1:22:00] While other property classes, mostly business, have increased, which places more tax burden on these classes and less on residential.
[1:22:09] Additionally, for this year, we added more residential properties, 30 properties.
[1:22:14] That's the most I've seen since I've been here, and I'm happy to see that, because it lessens the impact for others, eh?
[1:22:22] So this increase in tax will, so that is why the 4.87 results in an estimated increase of 3.8 for the average residential property.
[1:22:31] Since business Israel allocated a larger percentage of the overall burden, and the residential
[1:22:37] properties are sharing across more individual properties.
[1:22:41] The size of the pie is determined by the budget, and the residential slice is smaller than
[1:22:46] last year and split between more properties.
[1:22:50] So thank you for the explanation.
[1:22:54] Seeing no more questions, I'm going to ask for extra information of a mover.
[1:23:00] Councilor Ingram, we don't need a second there, all in favor.
[1:23:03] And then it's on our agenda for this afternoon.
[1:23:06] So thank you Gary.
[1:23:07] Thank you to everyone who took part in this budget and we'll see each other at 3PM.
[1:23:13] Thank you.
[1:23:15] adjourned.