YORKTON - A ‘Special Meeting of Yorkton Council’ was held Thursday in which the public were given their first look at the 2025 Operating and Capital budgets.
Ashley Stradeski – Director of Finance, with the city said the budget process is actually a months’ long one, with earlier work all done behind closed doors. The budget preparations began with the individual departments in several months previous with the departmental material compiled, analyzed and adjusted through a cooperative process over October and November, and initially brought before Council at the Strategic Planning meetings throughout December and January to present, discuss, and to seek direction from Council.
The budget is broken down generally into two main areas: operating and capital budgets.
In the case of the Operating budget it is required for the general operations of the City, covering ongoing and annual costs for things such as snow removal, grass cutting, operations at our recreation facilities, and everything the City typically does on a daily basis, detailed a report circulated to Council Thursday.
The City has generally prepared a service level status quo budget as our starting point, said Stradeski. This means that costs reflected in the preliminary budgets for most departments are estimated to provide the same level of services to the residents of Yorkton as the year prior.
Overall the proposed budget includes increases of 2.06 per cent for capital, and 1.84 per cent for operating, for a combined increase of 3.9 per cent.
“On the operating side, we are pleased to; once again, see our operating increase under inflation,” said Stradeski.
The impact to the average residential homeowner would be roughly $7.10 a month.
For Councillor Quinn Haider the question was not so much about the single year impact of the 2025 increase, but the impact of the longer terms impact of continuing tax increases.
“I don’t think that is sustainable anymore for some of our residents,” he said.
On the opposite side was Coun. Greg Litvanyi who suggested taxes has to rise annually.
“I think every year there needs to be tax increases,” he said, pointing back to years of zero increases which only limited money to reserves and contributed to the current infrastructure deficit.
Coun. Randy Goulden said the solution might be found in how municipalities raise revenues, noting the current system goes back to Canadian confederation terming it “a Queen Victoria hand-me-down.”
Specifically in terms of operating, Stradeski noted the increase funds a range of services including Public Works, Parks, RCMP, and every other non-utility department.
Within the operating budget are new staffing positions including a proposed Communications Coordinator, a role that will support the Mayor and Council with their communications efforts, including with higher orders of government in order to advocate for the needs of our City.
The proposed new communications hire did not sit well with all members of Council.
“I think the biggest thing for me . . . There were quite a few staff additions,” said Coun. Darcy Zaharia as he kicked off discussion on the operation budget.
Mayor Aaron Kienle said the communications position was one he certainly supported, adding without someone to help formulate the city's position “I feel I’m at a disadvantage . . . I don’t have someone to go to “about what the city’s position should be.
Goulden was on side too suggesting it is increasingly important to have a well laid out position in support of city needs when meeting with other levels of government, something a communications person would help formulate.
It was also suggested the job of the communications person would also help with department-to-department interactions, and messaging to the public.
Coun. Dustin Brears said the list of suggested duties was too long in his mind, basically setting up who ever took on the many faceted position “to fail.”
As a follow-up Zaharia asked if all cities had a communications person?
“I wouldn’t say all, but many,” offered Stradeski.
The second new position is a staff accountant in Finance.
This position’s cost will be offset via attrition, said Stradeski.
Protective Services is one area where operational costs took a jump.
The Federal contract with the RCMP continues to increase, adding $270,000 to the costs for our policing service, said Stradeski.
There continues to be updating and modernization of equipment within the RCMP, which should continue to assist the officers to maintain the safety of our City, he added.
Things are changing at Deer Park Golf Course too where the city is now leasing the golf cart fleet and driving range, and will collect the associated fees until the city assumes outright ownership.
Once paid off, the cart fleet will generate substantial net revenues for the City, suggested the report to Council, although Stradeski tempered that by adding the city will face maintenance costs and replacement costs moving forward.
The budget for Transit has been increased to closer match actual spending, however we will be reviewing the service delivery in this area to attempt to find a path forward that can contain costs explained Stradeski.
Snow removal is another area where operational costs are up.
“The cost of snow removal continues to rise,” said Stradeski, adding the five-year average is used to determine potential costs to budget for the current year, and this has added over $50,000 to the budget for this.
Aron Hershmiller – Director of Public Works with the city said annual costs for snow removal is around $872,000 with a full removal requiring 10-14 days working double shifts “to fully clean the entire city.” Counting back lanes the city removes snow from 212 kilometres of roadway.
Street and road paving is another area, increasing over $200,000 to keep up with increased construction costs, said Stradeski.
Overall, Stradeski noted, the City is required by legislation to have a balanced budget.
Ultimately, Council voted unanimously to proceed with garnering public feedback on the initial 2025 Operating Budget draft as presented by the Director of Finance, and further direct Administration to bring a subsequent budget report to the March 3, Council Meeting to consider for adoption.
