Sign up for the battlefordsNOW newsletter

City’s audit of 2017 financial statement reflects surplus

Jul 13, 2018 | 5:00 PM

The City of North Battleford is reporting a good year in 2017 with a surplus of close to $2.5 million, based on its audited financial report discussed at council’s recent meeting.

The report is currently published on the city’s website.

Mayor Ryan Bater said the report results met the city’s expectations.

“There were no real surprises,” he said. “Council gets quarterly reports from administration for finance, so there was nothing there that was not already known. For everything last year, we budgeted carefully and there was nothing extraordinary, and the auditors saw nothing out of sorts either.

Following the audit’s review, it will now be sent to the province.

Bater said the city received some additional revenue in 2016 from Husky Energy as compensation to the city for the expenses associated with the oil spill, that wasn’t seen in the 2017 statements. He added that this information was expected by council.

Beverly Allison, from the city’s auditor Holm Raiche Oberg Accounting chartered professional accountants, said the city’s financial statements ending Dec. 31, 2017 “presented fairly,” in her report.

In the 2017 audited income statement, the city’s actual revenue for 2017 amounted to about $43 million, which is about $800,000 more than the budget of about $42.2 million. The revenue for 2016 was $46.7 million.

The city’s actual expenses for 2017 came in at $41.43 million, compared to the budgeted amount of $33.5 million. Allison pointed out the 2017 actual expense amount includes the amortization expense of $6.375 million, while the budget amount for expenditures doesn’t include the amortization figure.

The expense amount for 2016 was $41.7 million.

Allison said in 2017 there were capital grants received of $844,000, and community capital pledges and contributions of $2,400. 

For 2017, the surplus for the year was $2.4 million. When this amount was added to the accumulated surplus at the beginning of the 2017 year, it results in a total accumulated surplus of $148.7 million.  

Following her presentation, Allison said there was debt that had been since issued in 2018, related to capital expenditures for 2017 for an amount of about $3.1 million. She said the debt related to the 2017 capital asset projects wasn’t required until March 2018, that’s why it wasn’t reflected in the 2017 report. Allison said likely in 2018 there will be additional debt required to help finance the 2018 capital asset purchases as a result.

Council accepted the the 2017 audited financial statement draft report for adoption.

 

angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW