The second night of budget deliberations in North Battleford turned its focus on the city鈥檚 protective services on Monday evening.
The deliberations, held virtually on the Zoom platform, focused its attention on general government services, police services, fire services and planning and development.
There was no change put forward to the proposal on the table from administration, which calls for a one per cent increase to the property tax and no increase for utilities.
As of Monday, council seemed on track to complete the deliberations on schedule in their next session on Wednesday night.
Here are some of the highlights from the Monday deliberations:
Government Services
The total overall financial position for government services is for revenue of $614,500 and expenses of $4,379,202. General government revenue is estimated to go up $65,000 while wages and benefits are projected to go down $174,000.
Capital expenditures are budgeted to be $265,000 for 2021 and include items such as the terminal services server, a city hall copier, recreation software, electronic timesheets, and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) accounting software.
For the accounting software, the city is looking at switching from the aging VADIM software over to TownSuite. The capital cost is divided over two years at $130,000 in 2021 and $120,000 in 2022.
It was mentioned that Brendon Boothman of RBC Capital Management would be before council on Dec. 14 to give the latest update on investments.
Police Services
Revenue is projected to increase by approximately $65,000, due mainly to increases in towing revenue sharing, prisoners cell block and false alarm revenue, according to the budget document.
There was discussion about adding an RCMP position in the future, but that was listed as unfunded. It could still go ahead at some point, but perhaps not in this budget year.
Fire听and Protective听Services
Fire Chief Lindsay Holm took council through the fire and protective services budget. He said they 鈥渉eld the line鈥� on the majority of their budget.
There are no expected changes in 2021 revenues. For special constables, wages and benefits expenses are projected to increase compared to 2020 by approximately $38,700. Maintenance, materials and supplies are expected to go up by $22,000.
There was considerable discussion about adding a deputy commander CSO position to address issues in the downtown area.
What Holm said he was seeking to use the CSOs to the maximum under the legislation and start to 鈥渆ngage鈥� with the people in the downtown and come up with solutions. For now, though, that potential position is listed as 鈥渦nfunded.鈥�
For the fire department, wages and benefits in 2021 are expected to increase approximately $36,000 due to the cost of living adjustment.
Capital expenditures are estimated to be $370,000 covering two items: a fire pumper/ heavy rescue vehicle, as well as a replacement bylaw vehicle. The fire pumper cost is spread out over two years at an overall budgeted cost of $600,000; the bylaw vehicle is budgeted at $70,000 but Holm thought they might be able to obtain something for perhaps $20,000-$30,000 less than that.
Planning and Development
Normally a big-expense area due to the amount of capital and downtown revitalization work that has taken place in previous years, in 2021 there is only one major capital item listed to go ahead: the sidewalk connection from the 100th Street service road to Territorial Dr. for $50,000.
The most significant major unfunded project in this area is extensive work that would address the failing intersection between Co-op and Sobeys on Territorial Drive. Director of Planning and Development Jennifer Niesink indicated they wanted to see the province involved in funding that issue.
鈥淭his intersection is getting to be worse and worse as we go, and the traffic continues to increase,鈥� said Niesink.
Revenues are expected to go up $25,000 while overall expenditures are expected to decrease $18,000 in this area.
There is still one 鈥� and possibly two - more evenings of deliberations left to go before the budget goes to council for adoption. The schedule for Wednesday鈥檚 deliberations calls for leisure services and public works to be discussed.
听
