Working until almost 9 p.m. on Nov. 26, Williams Lake city council and staff went through their 2025 budget line by line to trim costs.
The council and staff gathered in the Rick Hansen board room at city hall, trying to cut down on a potential 12.6 per cent tax increase for property owners which could result from their 2025 budget (this being a combination of an estimated assessment increase on property values combined with an increase in the city's tax rate). Council had made the plan to sit down and "sharpen their pencils" at a previous budget discussion during their last regular meeting.
Acting mayor Sheila Boehm, Councillors Angie Delainey, Michael Moses, Joan Flaspohler, Jazmyn Lyons and Scott Nelson went through the budget. Along with council were members of the city's senior staff including Gary Muraca, CAO, Vitali Kozubenko, chief financial officer, Evan Dean, fire chief, Rob Warnock, director of municipal services, Jeff Bernardy, engineering technologist, Stacey Miranda, director of community services and Matt Sutherland, manager of public works. Mayor Surinderpal Rathor was away at the time of the meeting.
The process was sometimes slow going, and city staff had to make their case for anything a councillor might not consider essential, with the mention of Atlantic Power's possible closure and the significant cost of demolishing the former Pioneer Complex building looming over the table. However, Flaspohler did point out the city's largest single taxpayer, Atlantic Power, is still in operation and so these impacts would not necessarily fully hit the city in 2025. Kozubenko said the city had so far only included $15,000 in monitoring and securing the Pioneer Complex until the building can be demolished or otherwise disposed of in their 2025 budget.
Coun. Scott Nelson also raised the spectre of possible tariffs as a result of President-elect Donald Trump's threats of putting tariffs on both Canadian and Mexican imports.
With these potential impacts to the economy and especially the forest industry in mind, council was in agreement they wanted to make cuts to items staff had earmarked for completion this year, despite Muraca expressing fear on behalf of the staff on further deferrals of projects when so many have already been deferred until 2029.
The council voted to defer an estimated $579,000 in capital projects to future years.
These deferrals lower the projected tax increase, and would lead to an estimated 4.1 per cent tax increase for Williams Lake taxpayers. Council directed staff to look for other opportunities for savings and the opportunity for feedback from the community is still available until the final budget adoption takes place.
The city is accepting feedback from the community until Dec. 6 and staff will present to council on Dec. 10, with the intention of keeping the budget feedback form open until March 31 for ongoing feedback as well. The form can be found online on the city of Williams Lake website.
