In their final council meeting for 2020, hosted at the Alex Dillabough Centre, the Town of Battleford council approved the 2021 budget. (Josh Ryan/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Josh Ryan

Balanced books

Battleford council approves 2021 budget

Dec 15, 2020 | 4:34 PM

Monday evening, the Town of Battleford officially passed the municipal budget for 2021.

The decision was the primary focus on the council meeting, the last of the month for all involved, who will reconvene in January. The consolidated operating and capital budget is projected to have more than $7.5 million in revenues, compared to $5.8 million in expenditures. No tax rate increases are included, which Mayor Ames Leslie said is always the goal of any budget. He praised the efforts of councillors and administration to get this done prior to the holidays.

“It’s December 14, the budget is approved and everyone can enjoy Christmas without us having budget meetings and deliberations,” he said. “I’m very proud of this group.”

“You don’t ever want to raise taxes, but you have a future to plan for. It was a very easy budget to receive and approve.”

Among the projects slated for 2021 are sidewalk repairs, riverbend drainage and the purchase of a tandem gravel truck. Leslie said the federal and provincial grant money has helped with some projects that would have incurred a one per cent increase in taxes.

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“We’re very grateful to the government for giving us the money so that we can balance the budget, still do sidewalks, pave some new streets and still put money away for future projects,” he said.

Despite the uncertainty of the pandemic, council feels optimistic of where the town sits heading into the New Year. The Eiling Kramer Campground and Battleford Arena are the two facilities to monitor, as they are the primary sources of recreation revenues. Leslie said the administrative team did a good job projecting the downside.

“We’re hoping they estimated low enough that we don’t have to find a way to balance the budget,” he said. “[With the current trend] hopefully the vaccine comes out, it works and we’re playing hockey in the spring.”

One caveat for the process is repairs to the North Span Truss Bridge. Council approved a request to the province for grant money to cover 60 per cent of the roughly $4 million project, which is not budgeted for this coming year. Leslie said it’s a long shot, but if the application is successful, that would potentially change their plans for 2021, and could involve taking a different project off the books to divert funding.

“If they come back and say they’ll pay for 60 per cent of the cost of the bridge, then council’s going to have a tough decision about going through the year with an unbalanced budget,” Leslie said.

“We’re going to pull it from reserves if we have to, if we want to get the bridge back open so the community can use it. Hopefully, our expenses will be lower than how they were budgeted.”

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josh.ryan@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JoshRyanSports