City of Powell River has begun its budget process and residents have an opportunity to have their say.
The city opened its Citizen Budget online interactive program on December 13. It challenges residents to create their own balanced budget, according to city senior accountant Ryan Youngman.
“People take the 2019 budget numbers that were produced in the 2018 five-year financial plan and then increase or decrease the budgets of the various cost centres based on their priorities,” said Youngman.
In the five-year financial plan that was passed by council, the city has projected a tax increase of 1.5 per cent, based on the rate of inflation. Bank of Canada’s forecast for the 2019 inflation rate is 2.2 per cent.
The most recent BC Consumer Price Index report produced by Statistics Canada indicates inflation of three per cent for the year ending October 2018. A 1.5 per cent increase represents an annual $28 increase for the average assessed residential property.
According to city councillor and finance committee chair George Doubt, based on ongoing estimates for the national rate, taxes could be about the 1.5 per cent projected.
“The five-year plan is a good target but really we have to look at the revenue, what the changes in revenue are and what the capital demands are,” he said.
The five-year plan did not account for the recent Agriculture Land Commission order to remediate the Hemlock Street loop in order to return it to the Agricultural Land Reserve at a cost of $561,000.
“Those would be dealt with on an emergency basis by the council on the day because it's not something that had been anticipated by anyone,” said Doubt.
However, the city knew for years that it was not in compliance. Prior to council passing the five-year plan in April, director of planning Thomas Knight reported to committee of the whole in March that the ALC had refused the city’s proposal to authorize the loop.
Citizen Budget will allow residents’ thoughts to be known on this and other expenditures.
“It's very useful to the city because if we get a better understanding of where residents perceive more value we can structure city operations and capital projects accordingly to maximize the city’s value to its residents,” said Youngman.
Citizen Budget received 154 responses in 2018.
“If you consider the fact that just a few years ago the only input the city received wasfrom a handful of residents who were showing up to the budgeting meeting, it is a big increase,” said Youngman. “We are hoping to get as many people as possible to participate. We're going in the right direction but we would like to see as many responses as possible.”
Currently, city departments are submitting their budget requests for next year and the process will last until May.
Citizen budget is available online at https://powellriver.citizenbudget.com/ until February 9.
