Council approves budget with 1.9 per cent tax increase

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This article was published 29/01/2022 (1699 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brandon City Council approved a budget that will result in a 1.9 per cent property tax increase worth $36 to the average homeowner in the city, following 10 and a half hours of deliberation on Saturday. 

Dozens of amendments debated by councillors led to the initial 6.9 per cent tax increase brought forward in the initially proposed budget being whittled down by five per cent over the course of the day. 

“I just can’t imagine that there’s another council whose councillors put in the work that this one does,” Mayor Rick Chrest said at the end of deliberations. 

The day’s proceedings started with an in-camera session regarding personnel matters that lasted just over an hour before director of finance Val Rochelle made a short presentation regarding changes to the budget proposed by city administration since the draft budget was submitted. 

These proposed changes represented a decrease of $210,700 in expenses, slightly narrowing the approximately $3.5 million gap that the initial budget proposed a 6.9 per cent tax increase in property taxes to fill. 

After that, councillors collectively proposed 78 motions to add, remove or alter items on this year’s budget. City clerk Heather Ewasiuk said 68 motions were proposed at last year’s budget deliberations. 

There were plenty of proposals to reduce appropriations to reserves and withdraw funds already in them, but those started lengthy debates about the necessity of giving citizens and businesses a break on their taxes against the need to not leave the coffers empty in future years. 

As director of finance Val Rochelle and city manager Ron Bowles explained, withdrawals from reserves might have a positive impact on the current year’s budget, but have consequences when trying to find the city’s five-year capital plan. It was Bowles’ first budget since joining the city last year. 

The city must file a five-year capital plan including all funding sources for projects alongside its finalized financial plan that it submits to the province every year.

Last year, the city started with a proposed budget that would have seen a 3.15 per cent tax increase before councillors whittled some items down and used COVID-19 restart funds provided by the federal government to instead deliver a one per cent tax decrease. 

There were still some COVID restart funds available this year, but not as many. However, council did motion using $800,000 from last year’s surplus for this year’s budget. 

Apart from capital spending already announced in the lead-up to budget deliberations, one of the largest beneficiaries of additional spending added on Saturday was Brandon’s Community Sportsplex. 

Coun. Bruce Luebke’s (South Centre) motion for the city to borrow up to $3 million for improvements to the facility passed with enthusiastic support from his colleagues. 

“The thought of trying to pay for these projects making appropriations to reserves and then taking out of the reserve wasn’t that appetizing for me,” he said when presenting the motion. “One of the main reasons was I just cannot see waiting to do change room upgrades until 2029.” 

According to his calculations, borrowing at 5 per cent interest would lead to a cost of borrowing somewhere in the neighbourhood of $390,000 over 10 years. 

While Luebke’s motion did not include using the borrowed money to pay for this year’s scheduled roof replacement for the facility, Coun. Shawn Berry (Linden Lanes) argued that it should be included. 

With that project having already gone to tender, with council set to vote on selecting a winning bid at the Feb. 4 council meeting, there is limited time to work out that arrangement. 

Mayor Rick Chrest, speaking in favour of the project, said that the city needs to seriously working on fixing the Sportsplex instead of slapping bandaids on it. 

In recent years, the city has had to make major repairs to the Sportsplex pool and had made a go at patching the roof last year before deciding on a complete replacement. 

“The Sportsplex needs a shot of new life,” Coun. Barry Cullen (Victoria) said. “We need to take it from what it was to what it needs to be.” 

Coun. Kris Desjarlais pointed out that with the cost of materials rising and the cost of borrowing likely to rise soon, it is a good time to enter into this kind of endeavour. 

The Sportsplex isn’t on the ropes, but the Brandon General Museum and Archives is. 

Council approved the museum’s annual operating grant, but Cullen and Chrest said they’re frustrated with the dire straits the facility has been in for the last eight years and wondered when it would be finally taken off of life support. 

Arguing in its defence, Coun. Shaun Cameron said that museums have benefits beyond the financial aspects of their operations. 

The mayor said with the planned renovations of the building the Brandon Public Library and Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, there is a possibility of including the museum somewhere in there and he doesn’t want to cut off that opportunity this year. If that doesn’t come to pass, council may pull the plug on the museum next year. 

There was no disagreement among council about providing the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum with a $25,000 operating grant, though no discussion was held on the museum’s recent request for funding to improve its historic hangar and install a fire suppression system. 

That discussion will come later this year. 

After the planned construction of two playgrounds — one in the Linden Lanes ward and the other in the Riverview ward  — were pushed to next year after being scheduled for this year, councillors Berry and Glen Parker (Riverview) convinced their colleagues to add them back to this year’s budget. 

In addition, Luebke successfully proposed an amendment to that motion to upgrade the playground at the South End Community Centre. 

Though councillors had discussed the potential savings in reducing garbage and recycling pickups on the first day of presentations, the issue did not come up on Saturday. 

One of the narrowest votes of the day was the approval of a $5,000 grant to help the Women’s Resource Centre provide counselling services. 

Councillors Cullen and Luebke opposed the motion during discussions, saying that mental health funding is a provincial responsibility with Cullen adding that this opens the door to future requests along the same lines. 

Luebke expressed annoyance that some requests from groups made before the budget process weren’t made through the city’s official grants review process. 

Speaking in favour of the motion, Desjarlais agreed on the point about the grants review process but said vulnerable people have been the most affected by the pandemic and this is a recognition of that. 

Ultimately, Berry, Luebke, Cullen and Parker voted against the motion with the rest in favour. 

Projects funded in this year’s budget include a program to subsidize security lighting in back lanes installed by residents brought forward by Coun. Sunday Frangi (Meadows-Waverly), a similar program to help residents pay to replace lead water pipes proposed by Luebke and a program to look at improving lighting on the city’s paths brought forward by Cameron. 

The popular program from last year  — helping residents and businesses pay for the cost of installing sump pumps and backwater valves in case of flooding — will also be continued this year. 

Councillors praised Rochelle for her hard work as she completed her final city budget before her anticipated retirement this spring. 

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