Rob Carnie - Budget deliberations underway. As a rule, we usually get this started before the start of a new year, but of course this was an election year. There are new faces on City Council, so everybody across Saskatchewan is kind of in the same boat, starting the budget process in the New Year, it's underway, but still, lots of work to do. Give us a rundown.
Maryse Carmichael - Lots of work, absolutely. So, we made the decision to delay our budget deliberations to January.
Council will start on January 14th and 15th ,where we will present an overview of the 2025 budget both on the operating, on the capital side, as well as our equipment reserve. We will continue the following week, on the 20th and 23rd of January as well as the 27th. We should be complete (by then). It is a long process; administration prepared our budget draft and binder that was given to Council before the holidays to make sure they would have lots of time to study the budget and be ready for deliberations that are starting in a few days.
Rob – What is the city manager's role in the budget process?
Maryse - So, the budget process for administration is a few months long. We started last summer, summer 2024, with the initial budget from all the departments.
I review all of the department departmental budgets with our Chief of Financial Services. We look at the services we will offer our residents, we look at the capital projects, which is very important on the Public Works side, on the Parks and Rec side.
We reviewed this to a level of service that is required for residents, and then once I'm satisfied with it then it goes to council.
Rob - Is there any doubt that we'll be facing a property tax increase?
Maryse - I think it is something that we are facing now in society in general, there are increases, that is for sure.
We are keeping it to a minimum to ensure that the burden on our residents is not too high, but at the same time, we need to continue with our capital improvements. We need to continue with preventive maintenance. We all agree that our roads need a lot of love, so that needs to go in there in the budget for sure.
Rob – Stay tuned, we'll keep you up to date on the budget process on DiscoverMooseJaw.com in the coming weeks.