It’s amazing how much easier reading a budget is the 7th time around - I remember feeling a bit overwhelmed going through my first one in 2017, when I hadn’t had any involvement in its creation. Again this year, I’ll be noting proposed changes from members of Council & my comments about those proposals in future posts.
Budget highlights & initial comments
Overall operating & Capital Budget
The proposed operating budget for 2024 is $134.1M, which equates to a 5.5% tax increase. Administration has been preparing us for the start of these kinds of tax increases - which are modest compared to what many municipalities are having to set - so this is not a surprise. For someone with an average $500,000 home, this would mean a tax increase of $226/year to $4460/year. This pays for everything from snow removal, to policing and fire services, to parks and facilities operations.
Some of the growth projects to maintain services levels that are being proposed include adding 12 FTEs, including:
Conversion of 0.80 term position to 1.0 FTE Violence Prevention Coordinator ($25,100)
Adding a Development Engineering Supervisor ($91,000 in 2024)
Adding a Land Management Specialist ($92,500 in 2024).
Adding transit fleet maintenance staff ($85,500 in 2024)
This is a lot of new positions, but is understandable considering St. Albert’s growth and stagnant administrative growth over the last many years. I suspect that we will discuss these a fair bit.
Also being proposed is $452,000 to be used over the next three years to market Lakeview Business District through a term position. Admin is advising that this investment will see a 5:1 ROI, which would be impressive if realized - I suspect there will be a few questions about this project.
Another interesting project is creating waste user drop-off cards to use the compost depot. This is very typical for municipalities, and will help make sure it’s only ratepayers (or those who pay to have access to the City compost) who can access the site and illegal dumping is reduced. One of my questions for this project is whether the cards could also be used at the recycling depot - businesses have been asking to use it for ages, so it might be an opportunity to allow them to buy into our recycling program.
A big part of the municipal budget goes to building & maintaining capital assets, like roads, buildings, and equipment - This year, 42 capital projects are planned, for a total of $41.5M.
Utility Operating & Capital Budget
St. Albert has operated our utilities (water, wastewater, stormwater, and waste program) on a cost-recovery basis for a long time now, so property owners are paying a utility fee that maintains the services. This year's fee increase if about 7.2%, which fees a bit eye-watering, but is an increase that we’ve been preparing for considering sharp cost increases across industries. This means a typical utility bill will be about $154.68/month. A lot of this increase seems to be driven by the cost of water with a 9.5% increase and wastewater at 15%. Stormwater appears to have a 6.4% decrease, and solid waste is only expecting a 1.4% increase. I’m sure many questions will be asked about these rates, particularly the two with significant changes.
Like our municipal capital plan, we also maintain our utilities infrastructure - assets like pipes, pump stations, etc. This year, 14 progets are being proposed, for a total of 22.4M.
Like the operating budget, 3 new FTEs are being proposed to:
Convert an ongoing term position to permanent ($15,000)
Add a garbage truck operator ($83,200, not until 2025)
Add a Utilities Operator Technician ($65,000 in 2024)
This is a brief and incomplete overview of our meetings, with my personal comments sprinkled in - In no way are my opinions representative of the official direction of council or the City of St. Albert. Please let me know of any typos or errors. Members of the public can register to speak if they have information to present to council. Full agenda packages can be found on the stalbert.ca website.