There will be no need to re-do the North Battleford city budget this year.
Last year’s municipal operational budget had to be completely revised after the province blew a $2 million hole in it following budget cuts last spring.
But this year’s provincial budget was, from the city’s perspective, far more palatable.
City Manager Jim Puffalt said the budget presented this April by Finance Minister Donna Harpauer was “far superior” to the one last April. The City “will not be required to budget for the next nine months to make up for this.”
Council received a memorandum on the impacts of the provincial budget from City Finance Director Amarjit Mahil at the April 23 council meeting.
Among other things, the provincial budget reinstated the five per cent SaskEnergy grant in lieu of taxes removed in the previous year’s budget.
SaskEnergy will begin transferring funds in September, and the total expected funds receivable for this year will be $68,226.
On the negative side, there is a 6.56 per cent reduction in the operational grant, more than the three per cent the city budgeted for. The impact from that was estimated at $72,155, offsetting the SaskEnergy revenues coming in.
Overall, the impact to the City from this year’s provincial budget was minus $3,929. That is a number the City should easily be able to deal with.
Still, it does not mean North Battleford has not felt a loss of revenue from the province over the last couple of years. Puffalt reported payments from the province, SaskPower and SaskEnergy royalities are still down almost $1,274,000 from 2016, without even considering PST changes to construction and insurance premiums.
“We’re still substantially down and the hidden costs in the budget are still there,” Puffalt said. “Fortunately, it’s not near as bad and we thank the province for hearing what we had to say.”
The City appreciated that the SaskEnergy payment was reinstated, in part due to their lobbying on the issue.
“Our council was quite vocal about that last year,” said Mayor Ryan Bater. The mayor said he welcomed the shift in policy. Puffalt also welcomed the change by the province.
“It’s good that they heard what we had to say and found a way to stop the bleeding,” said Puffalt.
Now the next step is to prepare and pass the mill rate bylaws and distribute tax notices.
Councillor Len Taylor asked what the timetable would be for mill rates. Puffalt responded that those should be established by the end of May. Administration will likely present something at the next council meeting May 14 for initial discussion.
As for the provincial budget, Harpauer was scheduled to speak to local business leaders about it at the Post-Budget Luncheon at the Battlefords Chamber of Commerce April 30.
