When a person buys a car, they do so with the understanding that the vehicle has a finite lifespan, and there will come a point when it is more expensive to maintain than it is to replace. So, rather than waiting and being surprised when that time comes, planning and estimating the average lifespan of that vehicle can—in theory, set that person up to be ready for it.
That is the philosophy behind the city of Winkler’s three-year financial plan, according to Mayor Henry Siemens.
Decrease in interest
For Siemens, one of the benefits of being in a position where the city can look to the future and plan ahead is that it allows them to look at the timelines for ongoing projects as well and adjust the length of debenture payments accordingly.
“One of the things that’s come out of this is that we’re not going to have any debt longer than ten years anymore.” With that new timeline, and all of the current projects the city is currently working on, Siemens says that the city will be saving $7 million in interest.
“In a budget the size of Winkler’s, that’s a huge number.”
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Getting to this point
A multi-year plan is something that even previous councils have been trying to make happen for some time now, says Mayor Siemens, but the city has not ever quite been in the position to make it a reality.
“With the guidance of staff, making sure that we had good information, that we would be able to have confidence, we’d be accurate... when they put the document in front of us, it was a really good, comprehensive piece that showed where we were, and it showed where we were going.”
Siemens stressed that this was not something that happened over the course of one year, but took some time before enough information had been collected to confidently put forward their current three-year plan.
Feedback
Though response to the increase that comes with the current three-year plan has been generally positive, says Siemens, he shared that there have been some concerns raised.
“Anytime we’re looking at an increase, even if it would be deemed ‘reasonable’, it’s still an increase. It does have people concerned because there are many people on fixed income, and they start to look at the fact that this is one more increase that they have to deal with.”
Siemens went on to say that the vast majority of the feedback they have received has been from people in support of the plan. He also shared that even though they have received support, council will be keeping an ear to the ground and paying attention.
“If things get really crazy out there, we’re going to be prepared to take a step back and review.”
Visit the City of Winkler website by clicking here to view the financial plan for 2025.