Morinville councillors have backed off on proposed cuts to the town’s bus, leisure centre, and museum, but have bumped the town’s operating deficit up to $1.9 million in the process.
Morinville council made additional amendments to its 2022 operating budget during its March 8 meeting.
Council passed an interim budget in December after the draft 2022 budget proposed a 15.39-per-cent tax hike. Council has been revising the budget ever since to trim that tax hike down.
As of March 8, the draft budget features a five-per-cent municipal tax hike (3.5 per cent operational, 1.5 per cent capital) and a roughly $1.9-million tax-supported operating deficit — the biggest such shortfall in at least a decade, budget documents suggest.
A five-per-cent tax hike would add $126.98 (about 16 adult day passes at the Morinville Leisure Centre) to the annual tax bill of the typical $334,603 Morinville home, budget documents showed.
The draft also included a lengthy list of service cuts, such as the cancellation of the Snowman, French Heritage, Easter Egg, and Best Garden events and a 50-per-cent reduction in flower planting.
Cuts cancelled
Council voted to undo several service cuts proposed in the draft budget.
Council voted 4-3 (Councillors Ray White, Scott Richardson, and Stephen Dafoe opposed) to drop a proposed five-per-cent rollback to council pay at the suggestion of Mayor Simon Boersma, who argued that town councillors put in a lot of work and were paid much less than other area councillors.
“The amount of hours we as councillors put in, I think, has value” Boersma said, and that value is reflected in the community.
Dafoe, who originally proposed the rollback and wanted it to remain in place for the rest of council’s term, said it was supposed to show residents that council was working to reduce its operating costs.
Boersma won 4-3 support (Councillors Richardson, Jenn Anheliger, and Rebecca Balanko opposed) to instead remove $15,000 from council’s operating budget, which is roughly what it would have saved through the rollback. Boersma said this cut is equivalent to the cost of sending three people to the annual Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference.
Council backed a move by Coun. Maurice St. Denis to cancel the proposed sale of the town’s community bus and explore new partnerships and operational models for it.
Council heard last month the town had suspended the bus program due to the pandemic and a loss of provincial funding for it. Residents had raised concerns about how selling the bus could affect seniors, many of whom relied on it for transportation.
Town financial services manager Travis Nosko said selling the bus would save the town about $20,000 a year, while keeping it parked would cost up to $8,000 a year.
White said the resumption of community bus service was top of mind for seniors' home residents he spoke with during last year’s election campaign, adding that selling the bus now could result in the town having to buy a replacement one in two years.
“Getting rid of the bus doesn’t give enough value for the dollar.”
Council also supported St. Denis’s move to reverse a proposed 10-per-cent cut to the town’s museum. St. Denis said the museum is doing direct work to support council’s goals of bolstering community identity and volunteerism. This cut would knock the museum back to its 2016 funding levels and could affect the town’s Indigenous reconciliation efforts with Alexander First Nation.
Dafoe said the museum has operated for many years with little change in its budget and helps preserve hundreds of photos and artifacts.
“If we want to preserve the history … we need to support these institutions.”
Council voted 6-1 (Anheliger opposed) to reverse a proposed 20-hour-a-week cut to the Morinville Leisure Centre’s operating hours. Richardson, who proposed the reversal, said cutting hours also cuts into the centre’s revenue.
Nosko said administration recently learned that Sturgeon County had not, as previously thought, cancelled its $25,000 annual contribution to the town’s library. Council supported his suggestion to take $25,000 from the library and put it toward the $277,000 to $291,000 in retroactive pay the town had to spend on its RCMP contract.
Dafoe moved to bump the library’s funding up to its full request of $542,121 — a $99,414 increase from what it got in 2021 — arguing that the library does great work for the community for low pay. The motion passed 4-3 (White, Balanko, and Boersma opposed).
Bigger deficit
Nosko said council’s moves added about $164,000 in spending to the budget — equivalent to a 1.5-per-cent tax hike — and about $107,000 to the town’s tax-supported operating deficit, raising it to what The Gazette estimates to be roughly $1.9 million.
Council is set to schedule a special meeting to vote on the revised budget later this month. Morinville residents can weigh in on the budget at an open house at the Morinville Community Cultural Centre March 15 at 7 p.m. Visit www.morinville.ca/en/town-hall/budget.aspx for details.
