[0:19] There, your mic's on. Can we start again? We can, by saying welcome, everyone. We'll call this meeting to order. And first, we'll have our territorial acknowledgement. I would like to acknowledge that our gathering today is taking place in McMaghi, the traditional, unseated, and ancestral territory of the McMaghi people. I would also like to acknowledge that Nova Scotia has another unique people. These are the indigenous blacks of Nova Scotia, who's legacy and contribution stayed back over 400 years, predating confederation of this land.

[0:49] We are all treaty people. So the first order of business is to get a motion to approve the agenda. Can we get a mover?

[0:58] Councillor Furlund. I move that will be approved the agenda. Thank you. Do we have a seconder?

[1:02] Councillor Chambers. Seconder. Thank you. All those in favour? Signify by saying aye.

[1:08] Motion carried. That's great. Is there any errors or revisions on the minutes of January 15, 2025?

[1:15] I'm not

[1:18] hearing none, I'll consider them accepted.

[1:21] All right, we'll go right into our third quarter financial report, and I believe Sarah, you're going to present the results, right?

[1:51] Thank you, your worship.

[1:52] So this is the third quarter financial report for the period of April 1st, 2024 to December 31st, 2024.

[2:00] So as we move through with the report, I won't explain the introduction page or the organizational structure, but

[2:05] if we go to the page with a graph on it.

[2:11] So this page is basically just a graphical representation

[2:13] of the same information on the next two pages.

[2:16] So I'm not gonna get into the details here.

[2:18] We'll get into the real number details

[2:20] on the next page and the next two pages, actually.

[2:26] Perfect.

[2:27] So looking at this page, this is a schedule of operations

[2:30] also known as an income statement

[2:31] for the General Operating Fund.

[2:35] So this is for the first nine months, April to December.

[2:40] and you'll see it had the total general operating fund is showing a surplus of $528,028 at the end of December.

[2:48] So we'll go through separately the revenues and expenditures.

[2:52] I'm going to explain as I did in the last meeting just for kind of a recap because some of our groupings are a little different than what some are used to.

[2:59] So I'll explain a little bit about what's in them as I talk about the variance.

[3:04] So, in the taxes section under revenues taxes includes residential and commercial tax revenue, uniform charges for the waste water treatment facility and solid waste, as well as de-transfer tax.

[3:16] And you'll see we have extra revenue for that category of $171,046, and really that all relates to excess de-transfer tax that we've received up to the end of December that is over and above what we budgeted for.

[3:31] We've had a number of large commercial sales this year that really is the bulk of why our

[3:41] D transfer tax revenue is quite a bit over budget.

[3:44] And those are things we like to be conservative on D transfer tax.

[3:47] And things like large commercial sales, we wouldn't want a budget for those per say on

[3:51] and go forward and then not have sales like that.

[3:54] They're not something that you can really rely on.

[3:57] The next category I'll touch on is sale of services.

[4:00] So, sale of services include such things as sewer metered revenue, sewer flat revenue,

[4:08] as well as criminal record checks, revenue that we get from Nova Scotia Power off of our

[4:15] turbine when it works over at the treatment facility, and solar that we have at our stadium

[4:21] reservoir and the treatment plant as well.

[4:25] So, you'll see that we're just slightly under budget on sale of services revenue by $3,157.

[4:33] That is from criminal record checks have come in less than we had expected, less revenues.

[4:40] That's due to some declining service providers that we have and that they haven't been giving.

[4:48] It's much criminal record check work to our police department to do.

[4:52] kind of been declining a bit ever since COVID kind of really took place.

[4:57] As well, you've probably noticed that our turbine over at the treatment plant hasn't been spinning as it should have been.

[5:05] We've had a lot of issues with it this year, and parts are getting more and

[5:09] more rare as just like anything in technology, it becomes harder and harder to do.

[5:16] So, those have both been under budget, but we've also received an increase in sewer meter consumption, so a bit more consumption than we had anticipated, so that has made that amount less of an impact than it would have been.

[5:33] The next section, other revenue from own sources.

[5:36] So this is things like fines, rentals which could be room rentals.

[5:42] It could be rentals of office space, like over at the Community Credit Union Business

[5:49] Innovation Center.

[5:54] Interest earned on our outstanding bank account balances, as well as interest on outstanding

[5:59] accounting accounts receivable as well as advertising revenue. So advertising revenue

[6:03] is like advertising revenue at the stadium, like the dash rewards and stuff like that.

[6:09] So other revenue from own sources, we have exceeded our budget to the tune of 216,000 and

[6:16] most of that is an investment income, so more interest earned on our right accounts.

[6:20] Again, as you know, interest rates right now are at high, although they're starting to decline.

[6:26] But it's also in a budget that we're very conservative on, because if we increase our

[6:32] budget to meet the interest rates now, then we're going to have to claw it back significantly,

[6:38] excuse me, in the coming years as rates go down.

[6:42] And that would be more problematic to budgeting going forward.

[6:46] We've also received a bit more interest on outstanding taxes.

[6:50] the value of our assessment rolls is a bit higher, and so that leads to some additional interest,

[6:57] not certainly not very much of that 216,000.

[7:02] Just for a point of interest, unconditional transfers,

[7:06] that's our municipal financial capacity grant that we get from the province, so that's a fixed

[7:11] amount that comes in every year, something that we don't have any control over, but we'll fall

[7:17] within budget. Conditional transfers are grants that we get from outside agencies. So, for

[7:24] example, the Department of Justice gives us grants for two-street crime positions,

[7:30] as well as a crime prevention officer in the police department. We have grants for the Office

[7:35] of Healthcare Professionals Recruitment Fund, also known as our community navigator, as well

[7:47] Those conditional transfers, it's also including grants that we get from the federal government

[7:53] for summer students.

[7:56] And we're slightly under budget, and that's because our summer student grant came in less

[8:00] than we had budgeted for.

[8:01] That one is very up in the air.

[8:04] One year they could give us 10,000, and one year they give us 4,000, and we apply for the

[8:08] same thing every year, and there's no rhyme or reason, so it's a guess every year.

[8:14] And other transfers, what that is, that is transfers in from our operating reserve.

[8:19] So things that are one time expenses, not an ongoing expense.

[8:27] So for example, this year, the 35,000 that you see in the variance, that was a grant in

[8:35] the works that counts the previous council had approved after the budget was set.

[8:39] And so you'll see a corresponding expense below of the same amount.

[8:44] And it was agreed to take that out of the operating reserve.

[8:48] So it won't affect the bottom line, it's just money coming in to help offset expense.

[8:54] And in the budget of $33,750, that was a grant that was, we had earmarked in the operating reserve for Maggie's place.

[9:04] which was the final year of the rent for their building just over on Lawrence Street.

[9:11] And if you look at last year and you say the $589,000, my goodness, what is that?

[9:15] That is balloon payment for the stadium adventure that finished last year.

[9:21] The balloon payment was $542,560 and we had funded that from the operating reserve and

[9:30] and that completed that adventure,

[9:31] so there's no longer any adventure

[9:32] on the stadium right now.

[9:35] So that's the revenue section.

[9:37] So that totals with revenues,

[9:40] more revenues coming in than budgeted by $413,294.

[9:46] And moving down to the expenditure side.

[9:51] In wages and benefits,

[9:53] you'll see that we are slightly under budget by $17,000.

[9:57] We had some vacant positions

[9:59] that have been offset somewhat by some overages in over time and part time positions,

[10:07] as well as vacations that were paid out for staff who had left or retired.

[10:15] We have administrative costs that was under budget by $47,596.

[10:21] Both half of this is in professional development that's been under budget so far for the year,

[10:26] As well as some savings and conferences and liability insurance came under budget.

[10:33] You'll see as I go through some of the different sections, our insurance is liability building

[10:39] and vehicle, and liability was under, I think building was over and vehicle was in between.

[10:50] But as a nethole, we were just slightly under budget by I think a few thousand dollars.

[10:55] So, although one's over in one section, there's savings and others to offset.

[11:01] As well, we had in here advertising for the election that wasn't needed.

[11:08] And then moving on to the next section, you're building a facility cost for over budget by $42,786.

[11:16] We have property taxes in here for the solar farm up in the industrial park, that the property was exempt.

[11:24] and then PVSC turned around and made it taxable because we have a lease on the property.

[11:31] So therefore, we're required to pay taxes on it, even though we lease it out to nosecoach

[11:36] power.

[11:38] So that's something that we weren't aware of, and so it's been budgeted for going forward,

[11:45] but this year it was an un-budgeted expenditure.

[11:49] As well, electrical is over budget mostly in the stadium at this time.

[11:53] I'm kind of hoping as the year moves on that it might smooth out a little bit.

[12:00] And then building insurance in this category is over by 10,000, which pretty much offsets

[12:05] the liability in shorts that was under by 11 in the last category.

[12:10] And then moving on to vehicle and equipment costs for over budget by 26,000.

[12:14] A lot of this is in vehicle and equipment repairs.

[12:18] The police department has had an awful time this year with repairs on their vehicles,

[12:23] such as headlights, brakes, and even recently motors in their cars.

[12:29] We've also had some overtures in fuel, operational equipment, a cooler in the stadium canteen,

[12:37] along with a little bit of savings and vehicle insurance, and some small other ones to help

[12:42] offset these are over just slightly.

[12:47] Materials and supplies is under budget by 15,000, mostly in just general materials,

[12:53] asphalt, manholes, and pipe.

[12:56] Grants to organizations, you'll see over budget by 95,000 dollars.

[13:00] 35,000 of that is the in the works grant that I talked about above, which is offset

[13:05] by that other transfers, 35,000, as well as the 60,000 dollars from the

[13:10] Christy Foundation in here, and that was for the grant to little league that we did back in December.

[13:16] So the Christy Foundation grant is offset down below in the cost recovery, so I'll get to that in just a second.

[13:23] Under other municipal costs, we're over budgeted by $18,000.

[13:27] So we have some overages and professional services for the inter- municipal service agreement.

[13:32] The boundary change out upper church street.

[13:38] in the new shot development area, as well as tipping fees for residential and

[13:44] our residual and organic fees of $4,100.

[13:51] As well, our host hold hazardous waste event expenses have come in over budget.

[13:55] That's something that's just been creeping and creeping year after year.

[13:59] And it's a very expensive program to put on.

[14:02] But we do have some savings in that category of under community events, as well as program

[14:10] instruction.

[14:11] So those help to offset those overages somewhat.

[14:16] Under fiscal services, and if you're saying what is fiscal services, fiscal services is

[14:21] assessment that we're required to pay to the province, to PBSC, housing, library education

[14:29] along with valuation allowance if we do allowances for

[14:34] uncollectable taxes at the end of the year,

[14:36] as well as our adventure principal and interest payments.

[14:39] So that's what's in that category.

[14:41] So you'll see in that category,

[14:42] we're under budget by $68,000.

[14:45] Corrections is under budget by $78,000.

[14:50] And this is our, that's not corrections,

[14:53] it's housing, sorry.

[14:56] We no longer pay corrections.

[14:58] Housing.

[15:00] Budget by 78,000. Lesson over it's for the library for some one time funding this year of $12,000. They had requested additional funding after we had approved our budget. So the total additional funding to the library is $16,000. But up to the end of December, it's $12,000 that we've paid them.

[15:20] Under the tax exemptions category, this category has two components to it. One is a low income rebate that we give to

[15:31] to households with an income of $28,000 and the rebate is $450.

[15:38] The other component is tax exemptions to not-for-profit organizations and things like that with

[15:47] a policy and application.

[15:51] And so in this category, we're under budget by $15,000.

[15:55] And that is all relating to the low-income tax reductions.

[15:58] and so we had 99 applicants and we budgeted for 133.

[16:03] So this is in par to what we've been receiving the last number of years.

[16:09] Since COVID, our applications have kind of dwindled a little bit.

[16:12] It seemed like maybe during COVID, when the SERB money was available,

[16:19] we had less applicants, but even after that ended,

[16:22] we still haven't got the numbers back up to what they were before that.

[16:27] So that's something that we'll be looking at in this upcoming budget year to change those levels and under cost recovery.

[16:37] We don't budget a whole lot in this section because a lot of this is unknown.

[16:43] So some of the things in the actuals and in the variance of 133,000.

[16:48] So 60,000 and that is the Christie Foundation.

[16:51] There's also 68,000 that we've received for workers' compensation and

[16:56] short-term disability recoveries for employees who have been off.

[17:01] And then there's various small grants, like recreation type grants community

[17:05] living grants that are offset with small expenditures up above in the expenses.

[17:12] So that takes us to our surplus of 528,000.

[17:17] And I just want to break it down for you, so

[17:23] I'll break it down by kind of rate type.

[17:28] So within this general operating budget we have five sections that all have a breakeven

[17:37] overall annual budget.

[17:39] Sewer, solid waste, the mandatory provincial contribution area rate, the community's forward

[17:44] area rate and the general operating fund.

[17:46] So those all make up the 528,000 surplus.

[17:49] So I'll tell you kind of from each section what it is and what makes it up.

[17:55] So for the sewer budget, it has a surplus at the end of December of $3,209.

[18:02] Mainly made up of seasonal vacancy and some additional meter revenue minus our wind

[18:09] turbine revenue that is under budget.

[18:12] it. Solid waste is over by $4,013 at the end of December, and that's really all in

[18:19] tipping fees and in solid waste tipping fees. The mandatory provincial contribution area

[18:25] rate is under budget, has a surplus of $69,322 at the end of December, and that's all in

[18:33] housing, a little bit in assessment 3000, and then the library overage of $12,000 reduces

[18:40] it to the 69. The community sport area rate has a surplus of $30,248, mostly in half in community

[18:49] events and the other in the low income tax reduction rebate. And the general fund has a surplus

[18:57] of $429,263. About half of this is indeed transfer tax and the other half's investment income and

[19:06] And there's various other small amounts that kind of make up the difference.

[19:10] So that totals the whole 528,000 in a kind of few different ways to look at it.

[19:15] Any questions for I go forward?

[19:17] I have one, and it relates to the checks we issue to companies that are taking advantage of the benefit that we,

[19:30] Yeah, based on, you know, they built it, and we're going to only charge some 10 percent.

[19:35] Is the tax number a net, or is it the total, and then somewhere else, we're showing the check payment to that company?

[19:45] Yeah, so good question.

[19:46] The taxes section would have their full assessment, and the full tax bill are full revenue.

[19:54] And then down below, in the fiscal services section, there's an expense in there that we

[20:00] It would be for, it was called phase-in commercial assessment.

[20:04] Right, okay.

[20:05] And in there every year, we put the amount that it's going to be based on the calculation for all of those different commercial accounts and what their amount is for the year.

[20:14] Okay, thank you.

[20:15] And so usually that one, unless something new comes up somehow ahead of when we thought it would, which usually doesn't happen, it will break even.

[20:27] So you won't hear me talk loaded in a variance because what we budget is what we paid. Okay. So thank you. I'm good

[20:34] Any other questions?

[20:36] Just a question on the taxi assumptions we budgeted it for

[20:44] Here's I think you were saying for

[20:48] 133 applicants and we're down the 99

[20:50] Yeah, is that because I don't know if there's an answer here, but I'm just wondering is that because we're moving

[20:57] more towards more people renting rather than people's income going up.

[21:04] I'm just wondering if it's a good analogy could be it's hard to say because

[21:10] when we're coming into the next budget and we start looking at that I think

[21:15] it's one of the items we want to look at anyway but I'm just wondering if it's

[21:18] a percentage of people that are now renting is going up therefore they're not

[21:23] eligible obviously for that tax assumption. First the landlord that was probably not

[21:28] Exactly, and that would be something that we hired to capture in terms of knowing like I know every year we send out applications to anyone who had applied the year prior and received it.

[21:41] They automatically get sent one, but we also don't get responses back like say in 2020 when less people responded, we don't know why either.

[21:52] right, did their income change, did they rent now?

[21:55] You know, it's very difficult budget for it.

[21:57] It is, absolutely, and especially in terms of when we look at possibly changing it,

[22:03] you have no idea what your next threshold is.

[22:05] Like, if you're on the cusp of, you know, 30 more people or 80 more people, right?

[22:12] Like, it's really hard to know.

[22:14] Okay, thank you.

[22:15] See, I guess if I wasn't in addition to what I was going to say, I wouldn't think it would have

[22:21] have anything to do with less people renting, or more people renting, because the number

[22:27] of, we're building more rental housing, we're not eliminating much home ownership.

[22:33] And it's those homeowners that would be applying for this fund.

[22:38] So I think it's more probably around the income threshold.

[22:42] There's just not that many people that own a home that make less than 28,000 that want to

[22:48] a father applying for the fund is probably,

[22:50] or they don't want to share their financial information,

[22:53] because they have to show us their fee for or something

[22:56] like that.

[22:58] Well, I was going to just make two brief comments.

[23:03] One is the stadium debenture.

[23:06] Sarah said we took it out of the operating reserve,

[23:08] and that's 100% true.

[23:10] But the source of that operating reserve that year

[23:12] was we had a bit, basically, both the same amount

[23:15] of that and the surplus.

[23:16] So we put it in the operating reserve

[23:17] and then we took it immediately, basically, to pay off that debenture on the stadium.

[23:24] And the next, the other thing I was going to just mention with regard to the D transfer tax.

[23:28] And again, Sarah is 100% correct.

[23:31] Probably almost all of that surplus is in relation to the fact that the soby's mall sold.

[23:37] And what's the other mall, the dollar and the mall sold twice within a couple of months of each other.

[23:44] And that's almost all of that surplus.

[23:46] So, really, if that didn't happen, we'd be right on budget.

[23:50] So, it's very difficult to budget for those things.

[23:55] Okay.

[23:56] Councilor Wells?

[23:57] Just go back, going back to the rebate, and moving up the threshold, and I know,

[24:05] I guess there's supposed to be a discussion for another time, but I know in other communities

[24:08] I've been on, if we are budgeting a certain amount, if there's more applicants, if you can

[24:14] You can pro-rate it and say, you know, you can apply for this much, but it may be pro-rated, so if you have 200 applicants, you might get 80% of that, or if there's not as many applicants, then they might even get more than that.

[24:25] If you have a budget, and you send sticks to your budget, if maybe people can get more, if not as many people apply, or more people get a little bit less.

[24:35] So just something to think about as well moving into it.

[24:37] There are some minus penalties as I was doing some research that have a tiered approach, so some may put the income level up higher, but then the rebate amount you get reduces down, but if your income was lower, you get a much higher rebate, so there's a tier that way too that can work.

[24:56] The variance is yet a lot of backstoring all of them, which was awesome.

[25:01] The interest rate, for example, just using that as an example, you said that the rates

[25:04] are higher right now, and they're going to come down, and that's why we're budgeting

[25:06] the way we budget.

[25:08] But if you win the lot of tomorrow, is that information, like, procedure, not procedural

[25:12] as, but documented so that the next budget doesn't make those mistakes that we're trying to

[25:16] avoid by tempering them, the way we're tempering them now?

[25:20] In terms of same-vestmining, how does that continue to the next budget, if you weren't here, I guess is the question.

[25:33] I would hope my predecessor would do the same thing. Well, Jason wouldn't want to do anything differently, but you have such a grasp on the back story.

[25:42] How is that handled over to the next person?

[25:44] Yes, and good question.

[25:46] There isn't anything procedurally in place for that, but I mean, one thing we do is look

[25:50] at trends as well.

[25:51] And if you look back, you know, 2019, we were earning for a year what we earned in one

[25:59] month now.

[26:00] So I mean, you look at that as an example, like, and it's, you know, we've moved our budget

[26:07] up slightly over the last five years, but, you know, there may be a time when we have

[26:14] to scroll back down significantly, I hope we don't go that low again, but it's something

[26:21] that if you bring your budget in line to where it is today, then you most definitely have

[26:26] to find 100,000 or more in the next year or two, and that's not an easy feat to keep

[26:32] finding.

[26:33] You're better off to be conservative and have money that you know you'll just take a side

[26:38] into the reserve at the end of the year.

[26:41] I'm not familiar with budget very well so I'm just kind of a normal thing that I'd expect

[26:45] from your position moving forward from everyone or is that a serious, I don't know.

[26:49] No, it should be normal from everyone.

[26:50] Yeah, okay.

[26:51] I think everybody should have the same logic.

[26:54] I hope you win a lot of, so thank you.

[26:55] Yeah.

[26:56] Well, that would be lovely.

[26:58] I'd have to buy tickets first though.

[27:01] If there's no more questions, we'll keep going.

[27:03] Perfect.

[27:03] Okay.

[27:04] So we'll scroll to the next page.

[27:06] So, this is the same information for expenditures from the previous page, except it's laid out by departmental view instead, instead of by the other categories.

[27:19] So,

[27:25] if we look at the corporate services, actuals and budget, you'll see that we were slightly over budget by $8,600.

[27:32] dollars. This is where the cost for the professional services for the inter- municipal service agreement,

[27:38] the boundary changes that I touched on on upper church street, on the Shaw property. That's where

[27:44] those are, so those weren't anticipated. But they're offset somewhat by our vacant manager of financial

[27:52] services position that we had that was vacant from April until June. In the police department, you'll

[27:57] see their over budget by $13,000, this all relates to vehicle repairs.

[28:03] As I mentioned before, they had major issues with headlights continuing to be a problem for

[28:12] them as well as breaks and as of most recently motors, which wouldn't hit in this side, but

[28:17] we'll definitely see other expenses in the fourth quarter for those.

[28:23] In the fire department, we were under budget by $9,300, really nothing in particular,

[28:30] just some smaller savings in various categories.

[28:34] In communications and IT, we were under budget by $18,000.

[28:38] Our election costs are in this department, and they were under by $11,000.

[28:43] And we had some other savings in conferences and some other small areas.

[28:47] The operations budget was over by $46,000.

[28:52] We had some expenses that weren't planned for for a computer hardware at the Community

[28:57] Credit Union Business Innovation Center for a camera and sound mixer.

[29:02] Those were replacements due to a break in and theft.

[29:06] We had building repairs at the Community Credit Union Business Innovation Center for the

[29:12] The elevators, $17,000 are library, $11,000 for each back in heating, building insurance

[29:22] was over, but as I mentioned before, overall insurance is under, as well as the household

[29:28] hazard waste events in solid waste education, they fall under this budget.

[29:33] So those are all of the areas that put operations over.

[29:37] The recreation facilities is under by 22,000.

[29:41] Their under budget in wages and benefits, mostly for a park summer student as well as a vacant seasonal and some last over time then anticipated.

[29:53] There are some overages in electrical at the stadium, but those get offset with some other building savings.

[30:00] Community living department is under budget by 53,000. We have wages and benefits that were under by 30,000. We have an employee who is out on long-term disability, as well we had some savings in some student wages. And we had some cost recovery in here for programming grants. They'll be offset within the fourth quarter. And some short-term disability recovery as well.

[30:29] The planning department, their variance, their surplus,

[30:32] us on expenses is just various small amounts. In the sewage budget, they were under on expenses

[30:39] by just shy of 11,000. Mostly savings in wages and benefits for a vacancy and some small

[30:46] savings in min costs and materials. Solid waste is the tipping fees for the residual solid

[30:56] waste,

[30:59] and are there community support area rate, slightly over budget by $4,100.

[31:04] This is the grant in the works of $35,000 is in here, but it's not shown as $35,000 because

[31:10] there were some savings and special events and the low income tax reduction.

[31:14] They reduce the expense side down, so, but that's all in amongst there.

[31:19] And then down below in the mandatory expenses, we have housing under budget by $78,000, and

[31:24] the regional library over by 12, which I said before, the total amount will be 16,000

[31:30] of additional funding after the end of the year.

[31:34] Any questions on that view?

[31:38] No?

[31:39] Okay.

[31:43] We'll move along to the next page.

[31:48] So this is the same statement, but this is the schedule of operations for the Water Operating

[31:52] Fund.

[31:52] So the Water Operating Fund is regulated through the Utility and Review Board for the

[32:01] So our water rates are all regulated through the UIRP, and this is the last year of our

[32:08] rate study that we're in, ending in March 2025.

[32:13] So you'll see in the water utility, so it's for the first nine months as well, ending

[32:17] December, and we have a surplus of $45,000.

[32:22] It seems much smaller than in the general fund, but for the water utility, this is perfectly

[32:26] normal and right in line with where we usually fall.

[32:29] So in the revenue side, we have $30,818 more than budgeted, so sale of services, so what that is, that's water installations, so new water installations on properties in town, and their connection fees.

[32:46] So we had $6,800 more, we had new services on the Tindall Road as well as a new long-term care facility, those are just kind of highlighting a few of them.

[32:56] We received a bit more interest on our outstanding water receivables, and our metered sales, we have more consumption than expected.

[33:07] In the expenditure section, wages and benefits is slightly over by $4,200.

[33:13] Most of this relates to a little bit of extra overtime.

[33:17] And administrative costs is under by $60, $5, $6,200, really various small amounts that just add up to that.

[33:28] Building a facility costs is under by $11,000.

[33:32] We're under on electrical and vehicle and equipment costs are over by $3,300.

[33:38] This is repairs to a dump truck and you'll see coming up in the capital budget we have a new dump truck coming in soon.

[33:45] So hopefully that will eliminate the repair is going forward and the materials and supplies is over by $5,700.

[33:53] This is in gravel and concrete and other municipal costs, which is like professional services and

[33:58] contracts and agreements in this budget is under buying almost $9,900 and

[34:04] it's really in those two professional services and contracts and agreements.

[34:08] So that brings us to our surplus of $45,000, any question?

[34:17] Okay,

[34:28] so this is our consolidated statement of financial position, otherwise known as the balance sheet.

[34:33] So this is for April 1st, to December 31st, 2024.

[34:36] It shows the prior year as a comparable.

[34:39] And so this is made up when we say consolidated.

[34:42] So this has our general operating fund, our general capital fund, which is where all of our capital expenditures that are general nature.

[34:49] our operating reserve and our capital reserve and our water operating fund and our water

[34:56] capital expenditures. So water capital would only be things for the water utility, water

[35:02] main pipe, water dump trucks, water back hose, things like that. So this includes, this

[35:06] kind of incorporates all of them and consolidates it all together as one and looking at the town

[35:11] as a whole. So, looking at the first line, the cash and cash equivalents, so we have slightly

[35:20] more cash than we did this time last year. Some of this is just in timing really and receipt

[35:26] of grants and less capital expenditures paid out to date. In the receivables side, we're slightly

[35:34] higher than last year. We have slightly more outstanding taxes and miscellaneous receivables balance

[35:40] at the end of December.

[35:42] Some of that can be due to the taxes being higher assessed values, so it doesn't take

[35:47] long to add up to your assessment.

[35:49] Your outstanding receivables being slightly higher.

[35:53] Under the liability side, accounts payable and accrued liabilities.

[35:57] We have more than we did this time last year.

[36:01] Some of this is timing of accounts payable invoices, so some last year they may have been paid.

[36:07] This year, they're sitting in accounts payable, so it's showing a higher balance there, and it doesn't take many capital invoices to make up a few hundred thousand dollars.

[36:18] On the deferred revenue side, we have just shy 1.9 million versus just over 1 million last year.

[36:25] So we have more capital grants for projects that we haven't completed yet.

[36:28] So for example, we have a flood mitigation grant as well as our first installment of the Housing Accelerator Fund.

[36:36] We received in December, so those are both sitting there in deferred revenue and grants

[36:42] that weren't there at the same time last year.

[36:46] And long-term debt you'll see is much lower than it was last year this time.

[36:51] This includes our bloom payments as well as annual divinsure payments have been applied

[37:00] and so that makes the balance now less.

[37:04] down to the non-financial asset section. Our prepaid expenses are similar. What that

[37:11] is is IT licensing fees. We prepay for ones that relate to future years and then expense

[37:18] them in the years that they relate to. So it's related to timing and between the difference

[37:22] of them. Inventories of supplies were slightly less than we were this time last year.

[37:32] What

[37:32] some of the piping and manhole, that type of inventories.

[37:38] And then capital assets, those will be based, those will only change at year end, net of accumulated amortization.

[37:45] One of the big increases we did last year was the purchase of a fire truck, so that was some of the large bumps that you see there.

[37:51] And capital work in progress, the 2.7 versus the 4.3, last year and the 4.3 included our $2 million fire trucks, so

[38:00] So that made our expenses much more this time last year than they are this time this year.

[38:05] Any questions on the balance sheet side?

[38:11] I see none.

[38:12] We will move along.

[38:14] So the rest of this report has the capital, but it's as of December 31st.

[38:18] So we're not going to chat about those ones.

[38:21] We'll move along to the next document on the agenda that has the capital as of February

[38:30] 25th.

[38:32] which is much more informative.

[38:46] Okay, so these are our capital budgets items for this year with expenses up to February 25th, so as of last week.

[38:56] And some of the costs in here, there might be a cost show up, someone used the first line item as an example, like the dump truck.

[39:04] We have that in our system as a committed cost, so we haven't fully, we haven't paid for it yet, but we've earmarked it because we did a tender on it.

[39:12] we know how much it's going to be, but we haven't received again.

[39:16] So if we do not receive it, we obviously won't pay for it,

[39:19] and it will then be a carryover into next year,

[39:21] and it will just show up on next year's capital budget.

[39:24] We'll come back in April to a council

[39:26] and ask to carryover any project that isn't finished,

[39:29] but that's what the cost will be.

[39:31] So the DOMTRAC, for example, it might come before March,

[39:35] and it might come early April, we're not sure.

[39:37] So it's up in the air right now.

[39:39] The next project, the West Victoria Street,

[39:41] We see an area to Hickman.

[39:43] This is one where we put it on our water and our general capital budgets so that we are

[39:49] ready if a grant becomes available.

[39:52] A grant hasn't become available that, or one has and we haven't been successful.

[39:57] So until we are successful in obtaining a grant, this project will not move forward until that time.

[40:03] But we keep it here so that if, because some of the grants when they come out say it must be approved by Council and be ready.

[40:08] So, instead of doing emergency council meetings to have these grants put on our capital budget,

[40:14] we have a few projects that we leave like this, and then that way they're ready.

[40:20] The next one down, you'll see almost right where the most is one line down, McCulley Street

[40:27] Booster Station Upgrades, 300,000, that will be a carryover into next year.

[40:31] The line above it, the study and design that was needed to know what the upgrades were going

[40:36] to be and once the study was complete there was no time left to do the upgrades and

[40:44] it's probably likely that the upgrades will be more.

[40:47] So you know, first draft of the study or first quick look at the study that I've seen those

[40:54] upgrades are going to be, you might want to put a one in front of that number, they're

[40:59] going to be significant if we're going to do that.

[41:01] So that will come to council at some point, but it's going to be a big number.

[41:08] Good thing is we can probably get some grant money for it, we hope, and it's mostly in

[41:13] the water utility.

[41:15] So yeah, I just want to give it a heads up there a little bit, now that we know a little

[41:19] bit more.

[41:20] That's 300,000.

[41:21] No longer a realistic number.

[41:22] And to be honest, it was just developed three or four years ago and pulled out of a hat

[41:27] and said, we really don't know what it's going to be, but let's put a number there for

[41:30] for discussion purposes anyways.

[41:37] The next one is the well field engineering design and construction.

[41:40] So it was the budget or sorry, the actuals are around $93,000 and the budget was $80.

[41:45] This one, this was just the cost of materials.

[41:49] There was an engineer's estimate that was $167,000.

[41:52] So staff worked wonders and were able to bring the cost in at just $93 versus $167.

[42:00] And there's some savings in the next line down.

[42:03] on the replacement of the pump in well P3

[42:05] that will help doff set that over it.

[42:09] And Russell Street Phase two,

[42:11] that project will carry over into next year.

[42:13] That one did not happen this year.

[42:16] And the lamb purchases, the potential ones

[42:18] for the challenge fund.

[42:20] Those, no projects came to fruition this year,

[42:22] no lamb purchases, so that will be carried over as well.

[42:25] And that one is fully funded all 275,000

[42:28] by a grant from the challenge fund.

[42:30] So there was no money paid by the town.

[42:32] And what it is, it's to purchase land in a protected area of our well field to help preserve the well field over time.

[42:41] So moving down under the equipment, the LED lighting upgrade, 670,000.

[42:47] That project has been on for a few years, and it's as well has been contingent on grant funding.

[42:53] And no grants have been able to be secured.

[42:56] And looking at going forward, it's likely that this one will just be canceled.

[43:01] because the grants can't be matched up to what it is that we're looking for,

[43:06] and so we'll just pause and change.

[43:09] It was put on there because I believe LED railway had thought there was a grant

[43:15] that could be beneficial to us a few years back, but then once the grant was submitted,

[43:21] it was denied, so that's why it never kind of fully came to fruition.

[43:25] You have something to add to that?

[43:27] Yeah, just briefly, you're exactly right.

[43:29] They had a new technology that they wanted to pile it in amers, and they thought they could get some money for it.

[43:34] And our lights had a 10 year warranty, the warrant he's now expired, I think we're at year 13 or 14.

[43:40] But we have a former LED roadway employee working force, and

[43:44] apparently the lights we have are kind of like your old tank of a truck that was built in 1967.

[43:51] It's going to last forever, they're lasting really well.

[43:54] So if we're not going to get a significant grant.

[43:57] I don't think I can recommend that we do a full sale replacement of 3,000 lights, if really they're working pretty good as it is.

[44:06] If LED can pile in a new project and they can come up with the majority of the money, then that might make something different.

[44:16] The next one I have in the equipment section is a one ton dump truck and

[44:20] cell truck that will be a carryover.

[44:22] I believe it has been ordered, but will not make delivery before the end of March.

[44:28] And in the buildings in the land section, the forefathers library, the HVAC upgrade.

[44:33] This one has been tendered twice with no response.

[44:38] And likely if we were to do something there, it would be more expensive and maybe nobody

[44:47] has tendered because they believe that it would be better off of maybe something different

[44:53] a different system of some sort.

[44:54] So, we will likely end, I don't know if you want to say this because we have issues sometimes, but it's been working.

[45:00] Working well so far, so we'll likely just cancel this project until such time as something is needed on a larger scale. The land purchase is at 8 lower LaPlanche Street. That is ongoing and has been, there's been some legal issues on the side of the seller, the estate. So that one is still working forward may happen by the end of March, but probably unlikely, hopefully in the near future though.

[45:30] Land Sale Blane Street, the costs that you see there are work that has been done up to get

[45:37] the property ready for sale. When the property does sell, those costs will be offset with

[45:43] the sale proceeds. And then down below the last four, but three of them. So the industrial

[45:52] park signage area upgrades, the visitor welcome signage, and the landscaping for eight lower

[45:57] the plant street. Those three projects are all have work and progress going on on them but won't be

[46:04] complete by March 31st so those will carry over into next fiscal year.

[46:12] Moving along.

[46:14] The Larrage Multicategory projects. The West Victoria street and the Russell street the first

[46:20] top two are the same as I mentioned on the water side so they're both contingent on grants.

[46:25] Grants have not been secured so projects will not move forward.

[46:27] Russell Street Phase 2 will be moving into next fiscal year.

[46:32] It did not happen.

[46:34] The upper church street new housing development, you'll see 450 of the 540.

[46:40] There'll be no more expenses on that this year but the project will carry forward because there's still the top coat of the asphalt remaining to be spent.

[46:49] Marshview Drive, Lamb Purchase Year 2 of 2.

[46:52] We paid that out but when we did the capital budget last year was a 4-year end.

[46:57] And we actually ended up setting up a payable for that in the general capital fund.

[47:02] So it doesn't show up on the capital budget, but we do make that expense in February, so that it's been complete.

[47:09] And March, you drive our new housing development.

[47:13] Actuals to date of 257,000, the budget of 200,000.

[47:17] There's still more to come on this project that will be in next fiscal year, and this project is over budget.

[47:25] every mayor with the West Victoria Street project we've had that on I think two

[47:32] years now at least should we be looking at during the budget process of increasing

[47:39] that amount based on me because I don't think we're going to be able to get that

[47:43] for that amount we may have to have a special council meeting if a grant does come

[47:49] available because I'm just wondering I'm thinking that like that number may be a

[47:54] a little low now.

[47:55] Right, so well we'll do this year.

[47:57] You're 100% right?

[47:59] We will re-value it.

[48:01] We take our tenders from this current year

[48:04] and apply those numbers with a little bit of increase

[48:07] to next year and hoping that it doesn't escalate

[48:11] even more than that.

[48:12] Yeah, okay, thank you.

[48:14] Okay, keep going.

[48:16] And Jason, was there anything you wanted to add

[48:18] in terms of Marshoe?

[48:20] Yeah, we updated council, but we have

[48:21] an updated the audit committee.

[48:23] So, the MERSHU Drive project is significantly over budget.

[48:27] The main reason is we made a decision instead of putting in a lift station at the back end in phase three.

[48:36] We made a decision to dig deeper and avoid the need of a lift station.

[48:40] And by doing that in phase one and two, it increased the cost significantly, excuse me.

[48:48] And to be quite honest, we didn't know how significant they would be.

[48:51] They were much more significant than we thought they were going to be, but at the end of the day, over the long term, it is going to save us money by not installing an operating lift station.

[49:00] And I guess offset that over to the good news is we have sales on five of the 10 lots, so far, which is, which is, is possible. But yeah, that is significantly over budget.

[49:14] Okay. We'll move along to the street section.

[49:16] So this is paving, like capital paving of town streets, and you'll see we're over budget

[49:24] here.

[49:25] There's overges, the overgesory relate to filling in irregularities in the existing

[49:30] asphalt surface.

[49:32] For example, potholes, wheel rods, settled surface cuts, and other minor depressions and deformities

[49:38] in the asphalt.

[49:40] Now, Anson Avenue CNR to the tracks, CNR tracks to Chandler, that project was extended

[49:46] by 12 meters to address poor road conditions in the intersection, as well on Rupert Spring

[49:53] to Victoria. That paving was extended by 7 meters to address poor road conditions on

[49:58] the south side of the intersection. And the other thing to note with this is we have

[50:02] established these budgets in the fall based on the existing road conditions, so it doesn't

[50:07] factor in if the roads deteriorate quite a bit over the winter with the salt and the

[50:11] plows and things like that. So going forward we'll allow for some extra contingencies

[50:16] on our street paving to hopefully offset some of those overages.

[50:23] In the sidewalk section there's nothing really to point out and same thing in the storm sewer

[50:29] section everything looks pretty in line there.

[50:34] Moving along, same in the fire department section, everything is fine.

[50:39] In the police department, the first three projects, the HVAC, the body armor and the containment

[50:46] equipment are done.

[50:48] The radio base and install has been ordered and is being programmed, but it will be really

[50:55] tight if we will get it before April 1st, so it may end up being a carryover.

[50:59] for the vehicle patrol one, the car has arrived,

[51:04] but it's in Halifax being equipped with all of its police

[51:07] gadgets, so they're hoping they can have it back by April

[51:11] 1st and that'll be done, if not, it may end up being a

[51:14] carryover as well.

[51:15] So for us, it has to be complete and done by March 31st

[51:19] Phoenix Pense this year, otherwise it has to fall into the

[51:22] next year.

[51:24] The dispatch console is software that will be a carryover.

[51:29] There's a bunch of the project done now, there's many different parts of it, but majority

[51:35] of it is done, but there's still some components that they're waiting for.

[51:39] And if you recall, I believe it was December council, the watch guard body cameras and storage

[51:44] council made the decision to move that to the operating budget and lease the body cameras

[51:49] as it was more cost efficient so that will not show any expense on that line this year.

[51:56] And there's a little bit of more cost for the drone, a few thousand dollars, and the

[52:00] virtual firearms training platform is complete.

[52:04] And in recreation, the third project, the Mars Trail and Clinton Trail gate enhancements,

[52:11] there's some more purchases that have been complete but haven't been expense yet in our

[52:15] system, so that will have more actuals before the end of the year and will be complete.

[52:21] And the accessible playground, the third project from the bottom, this budget is 600,000.

[52:27] That as well was contingent on grant funding, and so that grant didn't come to fruition.

[52:33] And so that project will carry over into next year as well, let me cap a little budget.

[52:39] So that's basically capital projects.

[52:41] Jason, that's something to add to just two quick things on the accessible playground.

[52:45] I'm not even sure we got to the point where we were applying for the grant.

[52:48] because there were still in the project development phase so if I'm if I'm

[52:53] wrong on that please let me know but I don't think we are because I personally I

[52:57] don't know where it's going yet. No that sounds probably more accurate then.

[53:01] Yeah and yeah I fit and the other one up there was the the police firearms training

[53:07] platform just some of you may not know I and correct me if I'm wrong that's 100

[53:11] percent paid for by the problems. Yeah I'm Department of Justice. Yeah okay

[53:15] Thank you.

[53:16] Great.

[53:18] Any questions?

[53:21] All good?

[53:24] I actually have more of a comment back to our last meeting when I think the two of you

[53:28] were talking about questioning the vehicle tender.

[53:33] And I said I'd take a look if I could get a hold of it.

[53:35] I don't know if this is the forum, but I did take a look and had some conversations with

[53:38] Kim Jones.

[53:39] There's a lot of activity and work that you folks are doing with the tendering process.

[53:45] that is no longer necessary since the Atlantic procurement agreement was resolved in 2020.

[53:50] So the thresholds actually, the trade agreements are much higher than what you're going to

[53:54] tender for.

[53:55] So you can institute policy internally that requires lower thresholds, but according to all the

[54:01] trade agreements that the MASH sector has to abide by, you technically only have to go

[54:06] to tender for things that are 133.8 or over for goods and 334.4 for services or construction.

[54:13] and currently what's in the policy is 25,000 for the APA.

[54:18] You're referencing the APA.

[54:19] It was 25,000 for goods, 50 for services, and 100 for construction.

[54:24] So one of the reasons why the Atlantic Premiers dissolved that,

[54:28] it was an increase in administrative burden,

[54:32] cost timelines to do it, for minimal savings,

[54:34] by going to tender publicly for something that's $30,000.

[54:38] Where you can do a competitive process that's not public,

[54:41] doesn't take that long, doesn't take that much effort,

[54:43] it doesn't take, you know, returns on your administrative side of the house are massive

[54:48] when you go from 25,000 to 133, what you're going to tender for.

[54:52] So.

[54:53] Okay, thank you for doing that.

[54:55] There's a lot of low hanging fruit.

[54:56] Yeah.

[54:56] That's good news.

[54:57] That is.

[54:59] Well, before it's not good.

[55:02] Yeah.

[55:03] If I'm going to give you some advice on how to navigate the tariffs and the pre-agency.

[55:10] Kind of.

[55:12] I actually listened to a webinar from the procurement law episode on Ontario last week.

[55:17] We have to do this for our clients.

[55:18] Our clients all across the country are asking us to do this, where can we get out of our

[55:22] contracts, where we're going to be affected by tariffs just in general, like there's a ton

[55:27] of questions, but where it starts is understanding what you're buying, what you contractually

[55:33] obligate it to buy, where you have available, I know as like a municipality, you have the

[55:38] ability to leverage existing contracts with group purchasing organizations that you may

[55:42] not even know that you're a priority to for free.

[55:45] And then you can just look at those contracts and say, okay, is that a U.S. manufacturer

[55:49] just, is a U.S. company?

[55:51] Where can we, so the first point is kind of identifying where you are and what your options

[55:55] are.

[55:56] And then going from there and trying to source within Canada, avoiding the tariffs as much

[56:01] as possible.

[56:02] So, there's a lot of work underway, federally, provincially, and with the municipalities

[56:07] too.

[56:07] But yeah, I can probably give a little bit of advice nice

[56:12] Thank you. All right

[56:17] That's the

[56:18] Quarter or capital budget. I guess that's it. Is this era? That's it. We got no more questions

[56:24] I guess we're gonna join

[56:27] Motion to a jury so do you know don't need a motion do it. We're done

[56:32] I have still move it. That's up. I've got the power. Okay

Audit Committee

Agenda

Transcript