City’s 2025 budget to fund 6 key projects

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This article was published 15/01/2025 (330 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In a presentation delivered on Monday evening, the city’s finance director revealed plans to allocate considerable funding for six key municipal projects this year.

Chief among these projects will be money allocated for the Brandon Municipal Airport, Brandon Transit, Fleet Services, Facilities, Solid Waste and Parks and Recreation, Troy Tripp, the City of Brandon’s director of finance, told Mayor Jeff Fawcett and councillors.

The mayor and 10 city councillors will host a public open house Thursday from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., and they will field questions and talk about the proposed municipal budget for 2025.

The funding allocations announced on Monday are in addition to the city proposing an unprecedented 11.7 per cent increase in property taxes for the average property owner in Brandon this year. The move is also expected to help shore up the city’s financial reserves and fund various infrastructure development and ongoing maintenance projects.

The city raised property taxes by 9.4 per cent in 2024.

Under this year’s budget, proposed enhancements at the airport will include repaving the taxiway, updated signage and other improvements, and are expected to cost $430,000.

The budget also allocates $222,000 for transit enhancements, including for an onboard surveillance system for the city’s buses, a smart app that allows riders to track buses, and other replacements.

An amount of $19.6 million is listed for Fleet Services projects, including refurbishing 15 transit buses, replacing police vehicles, airport equipment, firefighting equipment and additional heavy-duty and off-road equipment including graders, loaders and other vehicles.

A new Brandon Police Operations Centre, and remediation of the city’s Civic Services Complex are also included in the $16.1-million budgeted for Facilities, along with the Park Community Centre, and preservation projects, such as a lift station and a new roof at city hall.

A diversion depot and a technological artificial intelligence system for the collection trucks is listed under the Solid Waste section of the budget at $1.2 million.

Completion of the Maple Leaf Foods Sports Complex, cemetery expansion, playground replacements, upgrades at Brandon’s Community Sportsplex arena and to the change room and washroom at Andrews Field are included in this year’s budget, with $12.8 million being set aside for Parks and Recreation Services to fund these projects.

On Jan. 24 and 25, Fawcett and members of the council will deliberate on the proposed budget. Pre-budget discussions preceded these deliberations. The first session, referred to as Part I, was held on Jan. 8, and the second session, called Part II, took place on Monday evening in council chambers.

The next and final pre-budget session will be held Jan. 21 at 6 p.m., also in chambers.

The proposed 2025 capital budget currently stands at $151.6 million, with the comprehensive 10-year plan amounting to $743 million.

It is a budget that highlights the capital assets that are essential to the city’s operations and services, according to a City of Brandon news release.

Part II of the 2025 capital budget pre-budget session addressed significant capital projects that are essential for delivering services to the City of Brandon, the release stated.

Additionally, the city said the proposed combined general and utility budgets are estimated to be $153.4 million, with the proposed capital plan pegged at $151.6 million, which includes $37.9 million in federal and provincial grant funding.

Based on an average single-family residential property assessed at $301,300, the daily cost of municipal services is $6.59, or an annual cost of $2,406.

For more information about the 2025 City of Brandon budget, the public can send an email to budget@brandon.ca.

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