Third party grant requests dominated the first night of deliberations for the 2021 budget for the city of North Battleford on Thursday evening.
Several third party organizations were before council seeking funding. It was also the first opportunity to delve into the details of administration鈥檚 budget proposal.
The 2021 draft budget is calling for a one percent property tax increase, as well as a zero percent increase for utilities.
This does not come as a surprise, as administration officials had previously stated their intention to propose a modest one percent tax increase since prior to the election. As was stated previously, the tax increase is going specifically towards capital.
Once again, the city will be looking to seek more efficiencies to save money. Director of finance Steve Brown noted the 2021 budget includes 鈥渇inancial improvement targets鈥� of $150,000 in the general fund and $100,000 in the utility fund.
It was the first budget deliberation for Mayor David Gillan and the new council this term. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 gathering restrictions, the first night of deliberations were conducted entirely virtually on the ZOOM platform.
Aside from that, deliberations took on a similar format to previous years with the first night devoted to third party grant requests; it also included a public forum which allowed for comments from interested members of the public.
The only presenter in the public forum portion was the Battlefords Chamber of Commerce represented by chair Harris Sutherland and chief operating officer Linda Machniak.
Sutherland posed several questions to the city, including one on what the city鈥檚 financial plans were should a second lockdown be enacted.
City manager Randy Patrick responded that it was anticipated in the budget that they were 鈥渁nticipating six bad months鈥�.
Sutherland also asked if the city was looking to work with businesses in terms of alleviating property taxes. The indication from council was that they were sensitive to the impact on business and the community.
鈥淲e鈥檙e very mindful that COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on our community,鈥� said Gillan.
When it came time for the third party grant presentations, the following groups made their pitch directly Thursday:
Tracey Reimer representing The Lighthouse North Battleford was the first presenter to council, with her organization requesting $25,000.
Erin Katerynych appeared on behalf of Empty Stocking Fund who made a request for $6,500.
Debbie Logan, representing North Battleford Transit, went before council with an ask of $252,000 for Transit. Battlefords Handi-Bus is seeking $83,304.
General manager Kali Weber and board chair Kerilyn Voigt, representing the Dekker Centre for the Performing Arts, were on hand seeking a grant of $235,000, which would be no change from the year before.
Nicole Combres representing Boys & Girls Club of the Battlefords was on hand seeking a capital grant of $15,000 as well as an operating grant of $30,000, which would be an increase of $5,000. Combres cited a 425 percent increase in afterschool attendance as one reason for the request.
Dani Williams, executive director of Concern for Youth, was on hand with a request for $5,000 to supplement a new staff member.
Vespa Fa appeared for Midwest Food Resources with a request for $5,830, which would go towards capital equipment.
Dana Johnson, director of golf for NB Golf and Country Club appeared seeking a short-term capital request for the organization of $28,000.
Finally, Amber Stewart of Battlefords & Area Sexual Assault Centre was on hand requesting a grant for that organization of $10,000.
Here are the rest of the third party requests that are before council during these budget deliberations:
The Humane Society $150,000
The Lakeland Library $361,024
The North Battleford Library $153,560
Destination Battlefords $118,458
BTEC Capital Grant $10,000
River Valley Board $68,000
Catholic Family Services $2,500
Citizens on Patrol $1,000
Final decisions will be made later on in the process when the budget goes to council.
The first-night's budget deliberation session was almost set to conclude as this story was filed. The next deliberation session is scheduled for Monday night.聽
