Okotoks council is aiming for a budget focused on priorities to keep its tax increase to one per cent in 2021.
During three days of budget deliberations from Nov. 17 to 19, council and members of the Finance and Audit Committee discussed potential cost savings to minimize service level impacts in the town next year.
CAO Elaine Vincent said the Town is just dipping its toe into priority-based budgeting.
“Ultimately the reason why we’re doing it is because of the challenges the organization and the community and our province and our country is facing,” said Vincent. “We need to be able to understand what the community values and make sure we align our services to those values.”
That included public engagement in the fall, with two surveys aimed at garnering input from residents on what they felt were important services for Okotoks.
Vincent said using a priority-based budget model allowed Town administration to address challenges by identifying low-priority programs that could be reduced or eliminated on either a one-off or permanent basis.
In keeping with survey results, the Town has proposed to reduced museum and art gallery hours to four days per week in 2021, she said. The community services department has also committed to permanently reduce print advertising and publications with a phased-in approach, which should result in a savings of $40,000 next year and $50,000 in subsequent years.
Closing the recreation centre up to 10 Sundays in the summer could save an additional $12,000 and reducing service hours at the municipal centre by two hours per day cuts $10,000 more from the budget in 2021, she said.
In addition, the environmental education program was recommended to be cut by half for the upcoming year.
There was also support from the public to reduce the hours municipal enforcement operates by two hours per day, which would result in another $25,000 in savings.
Director of protective services Kelly Stienwand said cutting back on the Okotoks Municipal Enforcement (OME) hours shouldn’t have a negative impact on the community.
“Whatever adjustments we make there will be minimal impact on our ability to deliver services to the community,” said Stienwand, adding the Okotoks RCMP is always there to support when OME is unavailable or off-duty.
There could be significant savings from the public works department, with suggested cuts to green space maintenance and beautification.
The budget proposes removing two mowing cycles, a move from 18 to 16 in 2021, which infrastructure and operations director Chris Radford said would still be more than the community saw in 2020, when only 12 mowing cycles ran to suit a revised zero per cent increase budget.
“We’re proposing 16 and speaking to my staff, the subject matter experts, they’re quite confident that’s something that can be supported,” said Radford. “That’s probably a level that will be very negligible and unnoticeable to the community.”
Additionally, capital projects like resurfacing the tennis courts and beginning work on the “Bible camp lands” on the east end of North Railway Street/370 Ave E have been deferred, saving more than $100,000 between the two projects. Instead, the $95,000 camp land project has been scaled back to only risk mitigation and planning for future and the tennis courts will be maintained with resurfacing slated for 2024.
The parks department will also cut back its tree planting programs by 50 per cent and eliminating new purchases of park furnishings such as waste bins and benches in 2021 and reducing those expenditures by 50 per cent for subsequent years.
The priority-based budget looked at more than just making cuts, but also at redeploying funds from low-priority programs to non-negotiable items as defined by council, said Vincent.
Council’s high priority items are progressing on the regional supplemental water solution with Foothills County, completing the Arts and Learning Campus, finishing its long-term financial health framework including off-site levy policies, affordable housing initiatives, and the water treatment plant upgrade.
For more information visit www.okotoks.ca.
