At the first regular Beiseker council meeting of 2015, Mayor Ray Courtman announced he will be pushing for a 20 to 25 per cent cut to the Village’s spending on Public Works, Beiseker Fire Department (BFD) and recycling during the 2015 budget discussions happening over the next six to eight weeks.
“I’m going to be pushing for these, I want you to think about that,” Courtman said to councillors.
The push, Courtman said, is coming after Premier Jim Prentice’s comments that all Albertans need to tighten the purse strings due to falling oil prices and the delicacy of our oil-dependant economy.
“I just want to be fiscally responsible,” Courtman said after the meeting. “The Premier said it himself, ‘Everybody in the province is going to have to sharpen their pencils and make sure we can survive the blip in our economic future.’”
He went on to say provincial penny pinching may greatly affect the Village’s financials as grants the Village depends for upgrades and programs on will be fewer and far between.
The budget cuts, Courtman said, is an attempt to avoid a tax increase for residents.
“We’ve managed to keep them reasonable for many years,” Courtman said. “You either raise revenue or cut expenses and I’m going to try to get support to cut expenses.”
In 2013 the Village spent $247,000 on road and street upgrades, $50,000 on sidewalk replacements, $48,000 on road and street lighting and took out a $100,000 loan for a new fire truck.
Beiseker Fire Chief Bob Ursu said the budget cuts came as a shock to him, adding he questions whether it’s possible to cut the budget by 20 to 25 per cent at all.
“I hope (we won’t have to cut services) — we just have to work with what we’ve got,” Ursu said.
Ursu said he expressed concern when Courtman mentioned the cuts to him earlier this year, adding there are discussions on the books in the near future to evaluate where and what can be cut.
“I can see cutting lower than 20 per cent, but that’s still quite a chunk,” Ursu said.
The 20 to 25 per cent cut was just a starting figure, Courtman said. One that he hopes departments like Public Works and fire services will aim for.
“I just threw that figure out as my opening bid and we’ll see where it goes from there,” Courtman said.
Courtman said equipment upgrades for Public Works and the BFD will likely be the items most likely to go first in the 2015 budget.
“As far as the equipment goes, we can keep it down to a minimum,” Ursu said. “We’re pretty well equipped but the bigger and better stuff won’t be available for the next year or so.”
Courtman went on to say that the BFD is efficient at raising its own money and has no doubt its current training and equipment are sufficient for 2015.
“(BFD) raises a lot of money on its own, they just got a couple of grants, they have excellent equipment and are well trained,” Courtman said.
He added he’s using this as a challenge for BFD, Public Works and village recycling to come up with creative ways to maintain service with less money.
“Instead of unilaterally coming up with cuts, I’d like to have all these departments reduce and work with us,” Courtman said. “Without severely damaging service.”
According to Courtman, the Village is currently fiscally healthy — paying bills on time and staying in the black — and his proposed cuts are meant to keep them that way and are not meant to cause any alarm.
