Prince George City Council discussed possible changes to a pair of policies relating to finances.
At tonight’s (Monday) meeting, Councillor Cori Ramsay brought forward the changes from the City’s Standing Committee of Finance and Audit.
The first of which was to push decisions made involving the Council Contingency Fund to the meeting subsequent to the meeting of the request, when practicable.
Ramsay said this would allow for thoughtful consideration of those types of requests.
“We do want to articulate that at any point, council has the ability to put a resolution on the floor to waive this policy,” Ramsay said.
“But it does just set some more direction that we have perhaps at least one meeting before we make the decision, just allowing for that sober second thought.”
The Council Contingency Fund is an amount of money per year City Council can be used at their discretion each year to fund one-time expenses that may arise.
So far this year, council has used the fund to install “Home of the Rocky Mountain Rangers” welcome signs at the entrances to the city, as well as exploring one-time relief for businesses impacted by the explosion.
The second policy involves reinvesting into infrastructure in our community.
“There are certain asset types that are paid for just fine, so our sewer rates cover our sewer operating and our sewer capital, water pays for water, garbage pays for garbage, but there are certain asset types that don’t have this dedicated funding source,” said Director of Finance and IT Services Kris Dalio.
“Of those, there are two really large ones, one is civic facilities, we don’t have a dedicated fund that reinvests for buildings like this, city hall, our fire halls, our police building, all of our ice rink arenas, our parks, the CN Centre, the Civic Centre. All of these buildings our community uses and we enjoy the service levels they provide, we need to start really looking at the future and whether or not we can continue to replace them without extremely strapping ourselves with debt.”
Two options were presented to council, putting one per cent of the tax levy aside for reinvestment, or to use a non-market change, which is the new construction value acquired every year, for infrastructure reserves.
“Non-market change is a newer term to what used to be called new construction,” Dalio explained.
“If we have new development in the community they added assessed value to the roll that wasn’t taxed in the previous year, so it’s new money to the roll. What we’re suggesting is that if there’s new money to the roll, that we would put this towards infrastructure reserves rather than net it off against a tax levy discussion.”
Dalio noted there are pros and cons for each approach.
“I think the non-market change is a good argument in logic and principle, in that growth pays for growth,” he explained.
“The percentage approach is easy to understand for the public, we just say ‘here’s what it costs to maintain what we’re doing, also here’s one per cent to set aside for future re-investment.”
Dalio added the estimated dollar figure difference of each approach is negligible.
“When I first came in I was leaning towards a percentage, because we’re coming into an era where perhaps we’re going to have a lull,” said Councillor Garth Frizzell.
“That means the funding for [General Infrastructure Reserve Fund] would go down and fluctuate and it wouldn’t be very steady, and we need that funding.”
Frizzell moved towards using the one per cent option.
“It provides a little bit more guarantee, it provides a little bit more stability,” added Councillor Tim Bennett.
“I think it’s a little bit easier and less ‘jargony’ for the public to understand we are taking one per cent of the tax levy and investing it into future infrastructure.”
“I know this is perhaps an unappealing concept of adding one per cent to the tax levy, but I think what’s really important to note is that this is infrastructure that we would need to reinvest in in the future,” Councillor Ramsay added.
“This is money that perhaps we would be asking through the tax levy to the tax payer in the future, but right now, this is the opportunity to perhaps collect it earlier than when it’s needed, put it in the reserve, acquire interest on everyone’s collective extra $34 or however this much equates to for the representative tax payer, and hopefully that idea is that interest would compound and perhaps save us more money in the future.”
Council voted unanimously in favour of using the one percent option.
Other items discussed tonight including providing a letter for support for the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club to expand their operating area, and engagement sessions for next year’s budget.
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