Public Consultation Update: Budget and Economic Development Incentives

Tuesday evening, last night, Council invited everyone to attend a consultation meeting to gather feedback regarding 3 important initiatives:

• Traffic study,
• Pre-Budget development,
• Economic Development Incentives (EDI).

In this post I will touch on the budget and the EDI. I will do the traffic study in another post.

There are 3 goals with the budget:

• Keep taxes level with inflation
• Keeping pace with inflation enables the Town to avoid falling behind in the delivery of goods (infrastructure) and services (programs).
• A business approach
• We are looking for operational efficiencies such as organizational changes through the organizational review and hire quality staff; reduce duplication; streamlining; identify opportunities for savings and opportunities for revenue such as the sale of backwash water.
• Plan for the future
• Through asset management and the use of other tools such as long term financial plans, long term infrastructure plans, strategic plans, and more we can better allocate the appropriate resources.
• We want to ensure we have the appropriate infrastructure that we need as a community and the appropriate infrastructure for a good quality of life.
• In a word: what do we need and what can we afford?

The last budget allocated 76% of capital expenditure for infrastructure updates; primarily 5th Ave W. One of the questions we are considering is how aggressive are we addressing the infrastructure deficit; also known as asset cost recovery.

We have some fixed costs:

• Water West Project Loan (pipe water from the Sask River) - $8.6 million
• Water Tower Project (the new water tower) - $2.2 million
• Total Outstanding debt = ~$11 million

Here are a couple of notes about our debt. By law municipalities in Saskatchewan cannot run a deficit. Our debt load is approximately $5.1 million for capital expenditure such as water, sanitation, and roads.

During the past year the Town identified a revenue opportunity through the sale of backwash water from the Bernie Haubrich Water Treatment Plant. We are currently finalizing the deal with Holland's to develop the delivery facility and receive revenue.

Here are some examples of what we are doing to plan for the future and identify some costs:

• Official Community Plan and Zoning Bylaw,
• Asset Management Plan,
• Traffic Plan,
• Financial Management Plan,
• Strategic Plan,
• Infrastructure Capacity Plan (planning to ensure water security and capacity to process sewage),
• Economic Development Incentives,
• Organizational Effectiveness Study,
• Needs and Operations Assessment Study for Phase 2,
• Town Square, and ...

Regarding infrastructure updates to address the infrastructure deficit here are four options we are considering (I will post maps when I can):

• Option A:
• 5th St W (2nd Ave W to 4th Ave W)
• 5th St Crescent (4th Ave W to 3rd St W)
• King Drive
• 6th Ave W (8th St W to 5th St Cres)
• Cost: ~$1,024,121
• Option B:
• 5th St W (2nd Ave W to 4th Ave W)
• 5th St Cres (4th Ave W to 3rd St W)
• Cost: ~$644,267
• Option C:
• Rutley Crescent and Rutley Drive
• Cost: ~$1,767,969
• Option D:
• 5th St W (2nd Ave W to 4th Ave W)
• 5th St Crescent (4th Ave W to 3rd St W)
• Rutley Crescent and Rutley Drive
• Cost: ~$2,412,236

There are other factors influencing our decision making on this and will be looking for more input along with much discussion:

• New water treatment plant including support infrastructure,
• New sanitation facility including support infrastructure,
• Regional landfill site,
• Decommissioning the current landfill site,
• Phase 2,
• Traffic study implementation,
• Economic Development Incentives,
• Enhancing the experience of living and shopping in Kindersley,
• Fire Hall for the Fire Department
• Ladder Truck for the Fire Department
• Parks, and ...

That is a bit of an overview of the budget.

Regarding Economic Development Incentives Council has identified three zones:

• Downtown for infill and revitalization,
• Highway for revitalization, and
• Industrial for infill.

We are still determining exactly what the incentives will look like.

If you have any questions please contact me and I will do my best to address them.