The 2022 general operating budget for the RM of Stuartburn is in a deficit.
Reeve of Stuartburn Michelle Gawronsky says the reason for the deficit is the amount of snow that we had last year.
"We've inherited it (the deficit) from previous council, and not the fault of previous council, of course with the added snow, the snow removal, the added cost, the municipality went over budget and by law, we have to notify the province if we are anticipating that there'll be a deficit in any of our budget area.”
She says they have money in reserves and won’t be in a deficit at the end of this year, 2023.
Gawronsky says, their RM is not alone in this. "Every municipality (in the southeast) right now has been telling me that they have been running snow-clearing deficits because of the amount of precipitation and snow we got last year.”
She says they are currently working on the budget for 2023-2024.
Having recently been elected as Reeve and after having a chance to look over the books, Gawronsky says, "one of the very first things that I found out, and was actually quite shocked by, is that this provincial government froze funding to all municipalities for the last seven years.”
She says, "since 2016, with the cost of everything rising, the cost of staffing levels going up, with everything happening, the government froze the funding budgets for all municipalities across the province. And along with the added snow, it has put us into a deficit position with our general operating under snow clearing.”
Gawronsky notes, that reporting a deficit budget is something that is required of every municipality, but she says, "we now have to be very cognitive of what money is available and try and figure out how we can assist folks in our community. And at the same time, make sure that we're not running a further deficit.”
With files from Adi Loewen