MANITOUWADGE — Manitouwadge municipal council held a special council meeting to review and finally approve their 2023 and 2024 operating and capital budgets.
Compared to the 2022 operating and capital budgets, the 2023/2024 budgets have been calculated with a tax levy increase of around three percent.
In an interview with CFNO Radio, Mayor Jim Moffat accredited the increase to “rising costs that the municipality had to absorb.”
One such cost, as noted by deputy treasurer Aaron MacGregor, is a new economic development internship position that the municipality expects to fill for 2024 (or possibly as early as this year).
Despite grant funding, the new position adds an additional $20,000 to net municipal costs.
Ahead of their regular council meeting, officials also reviewed comments on the budget by several members of the community.
The budget was made available online and included a short survey for local residents to fill out.
Concerns were raised about the sustainability of council’s planned expenditures, including the “ripping-up of trees and bushes by the beach” instead of focusing on improving local infrastructure.
Those concerns come after a statement made by MacGregor at their previous council meeting that the municipality was operating “unsustainably” by dipping into reserves for funding.
However, MacGregor reassured council and residents that the dip into reserves should be seen as a “one-time shock” to keep the tax rate manageable and attributed the need for funding to a change in the municipality’s utility building system.
After reading resident’s concerns, MacGregor remained optimistic.
“We can do both,” said MacGregor. “We can beautify the community while also maintaining our core infrastructure. In the capital budget, our Manitou Road project is going to be a major reconstruction of the power infrastructure including roads, sidewalks, service lines, et cetera.”
In regards to the Manitou Road project, however, MacGregor further noted that he could not confirm its full scope, but promised more details to come.
He also addressed previously noted errors in municipal financial statements from 2021 and 2022, stating that these errors were currently being reassessed by the municipality’s auditors and that there will not be “a required expense associated with the reversal of an incorrectly revenue.”
While the numbers for 2023 seem set, MacGregor cautioned that things are not completely set in stone for the next fiscal year.
“The 2024 operating [and] capital budget are subject to revision,” said MacGregor. “They are estimates, after all.”
With files from Al Cresswell, CFNO Radio
