Staff preview Financial Plan ahead of Thursday meeting
Council is preparing to debate the city's plans for its 2018 budget this week.
On Monday, council was given an overview of the financial plan, which will be reviewed at a special meeting all-day Thursday.
Finance Director Genelle Davidson explained the major elements of the proposed tax increase.
"The proposed tax impact is 3.59% for 2018, and this is made up of some requests from the Fire Department – so that's 12 new firefighters, a new fire truck, a $200,000 reno to the Glenmore station," she said.
"So that adds up to 1.59% of the 3.59% presented to you today."
She also broke down the cost of such an increase.
"Municipal tax is estimated at $2,009 for 2018. The increase is just under $70 per household, and again, this can be attributed to the additional firefighters, fire truck, RCMP members that you'll see in the budget," she said.
"So this works out to $6/month for the average assessed home, or $1.50 per week."
The biggest piece of the budget is 134 million dollars in operating costs, which is an increase of about 5% from last year.
Davidson talked about how much particular staff cost.
"At the top is police services, at $32.1 million. Currently they have 179 members, with an additional ask of four members, for a total of 183 members," she said.
"The fire department is the third-largest budget at the city, with $18.4.million, and they have 132 staff."
Along with the operating side, the 2018 budget includes $46.8 million in capital investment.
Thursday's budget deliberations kick off at 9 am in council chambers.
