Council Approves the Final 2023 Budgets

The final operating, sewer/water, and solid waste utility budgets were approved by Council on March 22^nd completing the City’s 2023 budget process. 

City Council and Administration approach the annual budgets with a lens of maintaining existing services first and foremost, while also addressing the needs of future generations. We want to ensure residents have access to resources that provide a safe, healthy, and connected community. Each year’s budget outlines how the City will pay for the services and programs that are important to our community, while maintaining more than $1.3 billion worth of infrastructure that is vital to our community. 

The 2023 budget process started in July 2022 with capital planning by members of the Senior Leadership Team, Management, and other City staff members by identifying priority projects for all areas of the City. The City’s adoption of its Five Year Capital budget on February 15^th with no net tax levy increase was a significant achievement. 

The draft Municipal Operating Budget was reviewed at a special budget meeting held on February 2^nd, and further summarized on March 1^st.  Notable changes within the 2023 budget from prior years include:

1. Additional funding to the KDSB for land ambulance services
2. Addition of Community Safety and Well-Being Coordinator position
3. Sustainability Advisory Committee funding
4. Professional and Managerial Compensation Review Implementation
5. Development of a Rural Roads Study
6. Reserve contribution holiday
7. Withdrawal from the City’s Tax Write-off Reserve
8. Reduction in Policing Costs 

In preparing the 2023 budget there were many challenges presented including the continued absence of property re-assessment increases and the significant inflationary pressures that everyone is facing globally applied to costs related to insurance, fuel, utilities, and materials and supplies. 

To maintain existing levels of service and taking into account all impacts to the overall budget, the resulting total additional requirement for 2023 is $1.533 million or 5.36% increase from the 2022 budgeted tax levy. It is important to recognize that this increase does not establish the tax rate increase to residential taxpayers which will be calculated and reported at a future date once it is uploaded to the provincial system.  

Overall financial highlights of the approved 2023 budget include:

• $60 million in combined operating, capital, and reserve appropriations, broken out as follows:
  • $41.9 million in operating expenses
  • $1.5 million in reserve appropriations
  • $16.6 million in capital expenses (an increase of $4.6 million from 2022)
• $30.1 million in net tax levy requirement generated through property taxes 

The 2023 five year capital budget includes:

• $16.6M 2023 investment in hard infrastructure (not including sewer, water, or solid waste projects which are captured in separate budgets)
• Over $70.5M investment in hard infrastructure across all five years
• Over $4.2M invested North of the bypass and in our rural roads
• Over $9M through acquired grant funding in 2023 stretching our municipal dollars even further
• $17.45M invested in bridge infrastructure across all five years 

To fund our budgets the City relies on provincial and federal funding, user fees, and property taxes. For every one dollar of property taxes provided to the City, only $0.71 goes to the City for all our operating and capital needs, while the remaining dollars go to external agencies, which we are required to fund. 

The total operating budget for solid waste is $2.2M with $1.2M in capital. The solid waste operating and five year capital plan maintains existing service levels and no additional rate increases have been implemented in 2023. The total operating expense budget for water/wastewater is $7.7M and $3.5M in capital. This budget includes the previously approved 3.1% user rate increase which supports the operations of the utility, the ongoing replacement of existing assets, and begins to address the infrastructure deficit. It is important to note that these are user pay utilities that do not impact tax rates and are not funded through property taxes. 

We continue to seek methods to more efficiently deliver our services while building upon our customer service values to the citizens. The City strongly believes that this budget, in conjunction with the strong financial management by City Council in recent years will continue to maintain the City’s financial strength and stability. 

We would like to recognize the time and efforts of City staff that worked so diligently in partnership with Council towards developing a budget that maintains services, enhances our infrastructure, and strengthens our entire city.

Media contact

Ryan Marsh, Director of Finance/Treasurer