The City of Estevan went over some of their financial statements at Monday's city council meeting, as those were audited to see the city's financial situation in 2024. That covered debts, revenues, and whether the city's finances came back clean.
Neal Fense of the accounting firm Virtus Group discussed their view of the city's financial situation.
"We are issuing a clean or clear audit opinion on the statements themselves, identifying that there were no material misstatements or errors that were identified. We were on site in March for a few days, and everything went smoothly, working with the team and everybody here."
Speaking in detail, one of the larger changes that Fense pointed out was the change in how much the city was receiving in taxes.
"Taxes receivable increased slightly, mainly due to a few larger payers getting older. We didn't identify any concerns with the amounts, as the individual amounts per property were well under any appraised values. So there was no concern that the balance was increasing there."
Other accounts receivable also saw a rise in the city, though Fense attributes this to a one-time blip, thanks to the federal funding received for the Downtown Revitalization Project.
One small drop the city saw was due to them deciding to give one lot to a non-profit group for less than market value, which was a decision supported by the council.
For liabilities, a similar decrease in the various accounts payable was seen, largely due to the Downtown Revitalization Project. Economic development funding and deferred revenue also grew thanks to the project's funding.
Fense did point out a slight increase in long-term debt, which is the first increase since 2015. The Downtown Revitalization Project is attributed with the increases in non-financial assets, prepayments, and deferred charges on the City's books.
Going from assets to revenue and expenses, Fense first talked about the revenue changes they had seen.
"On the revenue side, our tangible capital asset sales really driven by a traded-in value vehicle. So, not that the city was selling a lot of assets, it was one or two larger pieces that were traded in for well above their book value. And then the land sale, we see that right down for the lot that was given to the not-for-profit group."
Other areas saw revenues increase significantly from last year, though Fentes says that was a catch-all for various grants for Downtown Revitalization and other issues, which tend to be one-off activities.
For expenses, Fense says a lot of that was similar to previous years, with a couple of differences.
"The one thing that is noticeable, obviously, is our comparison to the budget is very significant. The cause for that is amortization. So when the city does its budgeting, amortization is not budgeted for. It's budgeted more so on a cash basis. So that's what's driving that difference. It's not that we're not following or sticking to budget."
"If you look at each of the detailed schedules, a lot of those variances are explained by amortization. And not budgeting for amortization is common for lots of municipalities and other groups in general."
The full report on the City's financial outlook prepared by Virtus Group can be found as a part of the May 12, 2025 Council packet.