City council begins budget deliberations for 2022

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This article was published 28/01/2022 (1700 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Faced with the need to pay for an ambitious capital plan and trying to pare down what could potentially be the City of Brandon’s largest property tax increase in years, councillors showed what they may do to reduce costs during a marathon session of departmental budget presentations Friday.

Representatives from each of the city’s departments presented their proposed budgets to Brandon City Council and took detailed questions throughout the day.

Revealed earlier this month, the city administration’s proposed budget would have seen $93.6 million in operational costs, $132 million in capital budget costs and a 6.9 per cent increase in property taxes.

Though $40.4 million of that capital budget is being covered by grants from other levels of government, both city staff and members of council commented on how large the scope of the proposed work for the upcoming fiscal year is.

Projects include large improvements to the city’s drainage network, progress on the outdoor sports complex first announced in last year’s budget, a new roof for Brandon’s Community Sportsplex and continued improvements to the municipal water treatment plant.

In recent years, council has managed to arrange the budget to limit the increases in the property tax rate to one per cent or less. Last year, the city used COVID-19 restart funds provided by the federal government to deliver a tax decrease of one per cent to residents.

This year, the city has approximately $1.2 million fewer of those funds to spend. With other cost increases included in the picture, this means the city must make up approximately $3 million by either service reductions or tax increases.

Sanitation appears to be one area where the city may try to reduce costs. Coun. Barry Cullen (Victoria) inquired as to whether savings could be found in reducing recycling pickups to once every two weeks instead of every week, while Coun. Glen Parker (Riverview) asked if garbage pickups could be reduced to the same level.

The city’s manager of solid waste, Scott Haddow, warned a reduction in recycling pickups would likely lead to less recycling being collected and in turn lower the city’s revenue since it is paid for recyclable materials.

In response to Parker’s inquiry, Coun. Kris Desjarlais (Rosser) said if the city were to reduce its garbage pickups, it may be a sizeable inconvenience for residents who are paying less for smaller garbage bins and asked what the cost of providing these residents with larger bins would be in the case of decreasing collections.

Heading into Saturday’s deliberations, Haddow was tasked with checking into the financial implications of all three situations.

Services returning after a COVID-induced dormancy was a double-edged sword for some departments, especially recreation. While revenues are expected to increase due to the return of programming, this also requires a boost to staffing levels.

Members of council and head of parks and recreation, Perry Roque, commented on residents consistently requesting an increase in programming and hours for outdoor pools and water facilities and an improvement to those services is part of this year’s budget.

These departments were among the most discussed by councillors Friday.

As the draft budget currently stands, the construction of two playgrounds, each in different wards, would be deferred to next year. Coun. Shawn Berry (Linden Lanes), whose ward contains one of the proposed playgrounds, said he thought the city could afford to install them this year and signalled he would likely fight to have them added in Saturday’s deliberations.

Coun. Bruce Luebke (South Centre) asked if a new piece of play equipment or two could be added to the playground at the South End Community Centre while Coun. Jan Chaboyer (Green Acres) asked about helping Maryland Park School add a play structure.

According to Roque, the playground at the community centre isn’t scheduled yet for replacement, but the city can investigate adding a piece or two. These pieces of equipment could potentially be moved elsewhere.

On Maryland Park School, Roque said the city has already committed $50,000 and the parent advisory council is fundraising for the rest.

With the aim of reducing costs in these departments, Luebke inquired about deferring a feasibility study for an outdoor aquatic complex to a future year. In response, Roque brought up the outdoor sports complex in the works for the corner of First Street North and Veterans Way.

He said obtaining grants for that project was made easier because the city had a scope and location in mind and securing grants for an outdoor aquatic project would benefit similarly from having the same legwork done in advance.

Also on the books for this year is funding for a community centre study that would analyze the facilities’ programming and function. With a recent study having been completed, Parker wanted to know why the city was doing one again.

The old study, Roque said, was to assess building conditions only.

When it came to explaining the $529,626 increase in costs for parks operations, Roque said that change comes from allocations to park reserves, something council chose not to do in last year’s budget. However, the presentation for the city’s airport budget stated the airport would not be making any reserve allocations this year.

Airport manager Greg Brown said the current estimate is that activity at the airport will return to pre-pandemic normal levels by the end of 2022.

This year’s budget has a large focus on drainage, but it extends past improving city infrastructure. The city’s flood protection program, which subsidized the installation of sump pumps and backwater valves for residences and businesses was so popular that it ran out of funding before being topped up by council.

Those who weren’t able to take advantage of the funding will be glad to know it’s being brought back for another year.

When Brandon’s director of utilities, Alexia Stangherlin, talked about some of the challenges facing the city’s water and wastewater management department, she said one obstacle is preparing for large rain events.

The city’s legislative services department will have some extra costs this year since there’s a municipal election this October. To accompany that, city clerk Heather Ewasiuk said work is being done to see if ward boundaries need to be revised and if the number of city councillors needs to change.

That work is expected to be completed sometime next month with a list of proposed changes brought to council by April.

City manager Ron Bowles, participating in his first round of budget deliberations since moving to Brandon last year, expressed some optimism for funding over the next few years.

“Every project in our five-year plan has a pre-set funding source,” he said in his introduction to proceedings.

Council will hash out the details and work out a final budget starting at 8:30 a.m. Saturday. The event will be live-streamed on the city’s YouTube page and broadcast live on WCGtv.

Unlike in previous years, the city did not welcome members of the public or delegations from local stakeholders to make presentations during budget talks because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, the city had asked interested parties to send comments in advance.

» cslark@brandonsun.com

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Police, emergency services ask for budget boosts

Brandon’s emergency services are looking for more cash in the City of Brandon’s 2022 budget.

Both Brandon Fire and Emergency Services Chief Scott McDonald and Brandon Police Service Chief Wayne Balcaen presented to council on the first day of 2022 budget deliberations Friday. Each chief asked for a boost in funding for their respective departments.

McDonald said BFES is proposing an approximate 2.5 per cent increase over the 2021 budget, for a total of $5,616,084. The increase includes an $88,636 boost to fire services and $31,499 more to maintain fire vehicles.

Brandon Fire and Emergency Services is also planning to buy a new thermal imaging camera in 2022, McDonald said.

Coun. Shawn Berry (Linden Lanes) asked how Brandon City Council could help the stress on BFES after a 10 per cent jump in EMS calls in 2021. McDonald asked for “support” from council but said the city needs to work with Shared Health to find long-term solutions.

“Our call volumes continue to increase in regards to emergency medical services and that has a carry-over impact into our fire response services. The resources we have in play right now are being stressed on the EMS side,” he said.

“We’re going to need help on addressing the pressure on the EMS side to continue to provide all the services that Brandon Fire and Emergency Services provides.”

The Brandon Police Service is looking for a 4.67 per cent budget increase in 2022, up $711,755 to $15,960,935, Balcaen said.

The majority of the increase comes from contractural labour requirements, he said, which amounts to a 2.97 per cent overall rise. The police service is not looking to add any new employees this year.

The police service also needs funding for private security at its holding cells; the province provided $157,000 for 2021, Balcaen said. Those provincial dollars offset budget increases last year.

“These have not been an easy several years for public safety and being able to provide high-calibre service to our community throughout the pandemic and the continual changing priorities in community safety and well-being has only been possible through these ongoing professional efforts of our staff,” he said.

The police service is also planning to replace its Tasers, soft body armour and in-cruiser cameras.

Brandon City Council is scheduled to continue budget deliberations today and make final decisions on spending.

» dmay@brandonsun.com