Council had to have a special meeting June 18 to pass a revised version of the 2024–2028 Financial Plan.
CFO Natalie Wehner, who was away for most of the budget process for health reasons, says that there were some items missed from the original Financial Plan bylaw. “The original bylaw did not include any expenditures for the environmental health services or the golf course for the years 2025 to 2028” says Wehner. “That would mean that come January, council wouldn’t be able to make any expenditures on those two services without this amendment.”
In addition, the costs of special projects were put into capital expenditures. “Special projects are not tangible capital assets,” says Wehner. “They have to be moved up into operating. Before staff could be able to start on those special projects or do any expenditures, we needed to amend the bylaw to break apart the special projects.”
Finally, council recently approved $30,000 for water testing. “That coming out of the water reserve,” says Wehner.
Wehner warns that more revisions to the budget might be upcoming. As she was not able to participate in the budgeting process, a budgeting specialist was brought in. Wehner says she has talked to him a few times about the details of the budget, which is how she found these discrepancies. “Through those discussions, I’ve discovered there’s another budget amendment that will need to be done,” she says.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
