Chamber expresses concern over financial projections

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This article was published 20/12/2023 (743 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Before Brandon City Council had a chance to discuss MNP’s 10-year financial sustainability plan at its Monday meeting, Brandon Chamber of Commerce president Jaime Pugh took to the podium to express concern at the Wheat City’s financial situation on behalf of her members.

“The last few years, the chamber has worked towards growing the city through involvement with current business, post-secondary institutions and future business,” Pugh said.

“The current MNP report has caused a halt in this. If we cannot run our city as efficiently as possible, what is the point of growth?”

Because of interest rate increases, inflation, proposed development cost charge increases, approved utility rate hikes and now proposed large property tax increase, Pugh said the chamber is “beyond frustrated” and wants to see accountability from the city.

However, she also thanked the city for reaching out to stakeholders like the chamber to discuss a path forward.

“This does not excuse what’s taken place, nor does it ignore the lack of transparency the city has had,” she said. “We cannot kick the can any further down the street.”

Reached by phone on Tuesday afternoon, Pugh said she’d just finished a meeting with Mayor Jeff Fawcett to discuss the report and the city’s financial situation.

She said they’d talked about how the report was a worst-case scenario and how it incorporates all possible infrastructure projects the city is interested in pursuing over the next decade.

“Now we’ve gone back to council to say ‘what from that 10-year plan are you planning on doing and what would that actually look like?’” Pugh said. “We still believe growth is possible, but we have to work with the city to help make that happen.”

On top of that meeting, Pugh said chamber representatives also met with representatives from the Construction Association of Rural Manitoba earlier Tuesday to discuss increases to Brandon’s development cost charges currently being proposed and what the construction industry could do to make them more affordable for developers.

Pugh said the report and the development cost charge numbers coming out at the same time sparked fear among chamber members. Now she said she wants members to know that the chamber is working with the city to try to implement fiscally responsible tax increases that will allow Brandon to maintain services.

“But realistically, we have to have a slight increase in our property taxes just to maintain the city,” she said. “And people are aware of that and comfortable with that — it’s just ensuring the money is being spent properly.”

She encouraged chamber members to reach out and share any concerns or feedback they have about the situation as the organization heads into more meetings with the city in January.

Ward 5 resident James Epp also came to the podium during the community comments portion of the meeting, expressing concern over a lack of identified threats to city finances in the portion of the report where councillors were interviewed.

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