Banff’s budget meetings have been put off until the New Year to give fresh faces on the new council time to get educated.
Budget talks are set to begin Jan. 13 following completion of a review of service levels provided by the municipality’s various departments and a meeting in which council sets its strategic priorities for 2014.
“With the schedule the incoming council has post-election, we want to make sure they are all completely educated on the financial plan,” said Banff Mayor Karen Sorensen.
“We want to have an almost extended period of time to do a very inclusive service review that will give all councillors a thorough understanding of what every department in town does and what the goals are for each department.”
Meetings for the service review, in which council looks at whether services for each department should be maintained, decreased or increased, are set to kick off Nov. 27. The meeting in which council sets its priorities for 2014 is Nov. 19.
“We have to do our priority setting pre-budget,” said Sorensen. “It’s about council going through the process required so we are very clear what the priorities are for 2014 so we can reflect that in budget.”
Council adopted the Town of Banff’s financial plan before the Oct. 21 election, which caps next year’s municipal tax increase and staff wages adjustments at one per cent based on Alberta inflation.
That said, the financial plan indicates new projects, initiatives and services could be funded by a property tax increase over and above the annual inflation increase approved by council.
“The financial plan is the intention of council with respect to overall finances, and on occasion, whether it be during budget or any other time in the year, we have deviated from the plan due to unforeseen circumstances,” said Sorensen.
Banff’s new town council – made up of Mayor Sorensen and councillors Stavros Karlos, Brian Standish, Grant Canning, Chip Olver, Corrie DiManno and Ted Christensen – was sworn in on Monday (Oct. 28).
