The municipality has increased the amount of debt it’s willing to take on.
Council this week agreed to raise the debt limit from 75 percent to 85 percent of what the province allows, which is two times the amount of revenue that gets brought in.
Mayor Melissa Blake says it’s a smart move.
“We’re absolutely certain with the 2013 budget, and the financial plans for 2014-15, if we have this kind of borrowing capacity, we’re not going to have to go back to our taxpayers and ask for them to support it with increased funding. We’re also not going to have to go back and say we’ve got to cut these projects, cause we don’t have enough for it.”
Council will debate the 2013 budget at its next meeting.
Chief Administrative Officer Glen Laubenstein says the spending is needed to play catch-up.
“It’s getting us ready to be where we should be right now, the retail numbers we have are about 25-30 percent of what we need today, not what we’ll need for the future.”
He says the spending plans aren’t too ambitious.
“In a lot of ways what we’re proposing,is things that most of us would agree should have been done 5-10 years ago, so a lot of what we’re proposing is just catch-up.
November 29th, 2012
