There will be less money in the snow maintenance budget next year to handle multiple snowstorms, but city administration says that doesn’t mean city hall will provide any less service.
City council asked city administration during the Dec. 7 budget meeting to find ways to reduce the proposed municipal mill rate hike by one percentage point since — at that time — it was at 4.18 per cent.
After looking for ways to increase revenues and reduce expenses, city administration presented 12 items to city council during its Dec. 14 budget meeting that could fulfill the request. Administration also provided a secondary list with six other projects that could be eliminated.
Main projects
The projects council unanimously agreed to include:
- Reducing the snow maintenance budget by $125,000, which means the city would respond to four events instead of five as per policy; if more snowfalls occurred, the city would pull money from the reserve; the snow budget now falls to $1,086,908.
- Reducing OVG360’s Multiplex management fee by $5,000
- Reducing council’s travel budget by $15,000
- Increasing summer ice revenue at the Events Centre by $8,000 and increasing naming rights revenues by $25,000; this — plus the management fee cut — reduces the subsidy by $38,000
- Increasing revenues by $15,000 for the fire department’s rural callouts
Altogether, revenues increase by $48,000 and expenses decrease by $145,000.
Battling the white stuff
After reviewing the main projects that could be cut, city manager Jim Puffalt said cutting snow maintenance funding was “reasonable” because it would not affect activities.
“We think we have a really good level of service right now. And we budget on five snow events a year. We have not reached that five in the last three (to) four years … ,” he said.
City hall will not reduce snow removal activities because that leads to complaints, Puffalt added. It also leads to lost time explaining the process to angry residents.
The snow removal policy has two components: regular activities throughout the year and responding to major snowfalls, explained Darrin Stephanson, director of public works.
Regular activities include sanding and hauling or plowing as the weather permits. For big blizzards, the city will redeploy all its resources, focus on priority streets quickly and bring in contractors. Those events require extra expenses in a short time.
There is about $906,000 in the snow maintenance reserve, so if the city experiences five or more big snowfalls, it can pull money from there, Stephanson added. The $125,000 is an estimate for a snowfall since no two are alike.
That is a practical approach, while it’s positive that the municipality has not experienced over five major snowfalls during the past three years, said Coun. Crystal Froese. Having money for four events “sounds relatively safe,” while it’s good that the city has a healthy reserve.
After making a motion to reduce the snow maintenance budget, Froese said she was a “real strong believer” in not carrying money over yearly, especially when residents pay taxes on projects that haven’t started.
While the budget report said the reduction would be unsustainable in a few years because the reserve would be empty, Coun. Heather Eby pointed out there is enough money in the reserve to handle six or seven blizzards.
“… if we have snowmaggedon one year, we’ll have to revisit this,” she added. “I do not like to use one-time money, but there is seven times the money in there.”
Other projects
The other main projects council could have cut included:
- A discount for residents who pay their taxes early ($70,466)
- Christmas decoration program ($26,000)
- Parts of the flower planting program ($15,000)
- The outdoor hockey rink program ($18,600)
- The traffic sign replacement program ($10,000)
- Parks and recreation landscaping program ($16,000)
The secondary projects presented for elimination included:
- Flower planting program ($15,000 for the adopt-a-pot program to $45,000 for no projects)
- Tree pruning at Memorial Field and Ross Wells Field ($8,000)
- Outdoor rink program ($18,600 for flooding some rinks to $25,100 for flooding some rinks and eliminating rink supervisors and warm-up shacks)
- The summer playground program ($8,700 for cutting the mobile NASH initiative to $33,200 for not offering NASH and cutting program sites)
- Closing the outdoor pool for the year ($154,300)
- Reducing the gravel road repair program ($60,000)
The next regular council meeting is Monday, Jan. 9, 2023.
