A new report is critical of the City of Flin Flon’s spending habits, but the mayor says the document paints an incomplete picture.
Manitoba Municipal Spending Watch, published by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), ranks municipalities according to per-capita spending and longer-term spending trends.
For the seven-year period ending in 2014, Flin Flon had the least sustainable level of operating spending of any sizable Manitoba city or town, according to the report.
“The report isn’t necessarily to criticize specific municipalities and tell them what they’re doing wrong, but it’s really to…get the dialogue going so that municipalities are really starting to keep track of their spending growth,” said Jonathan Alward, Manitoba director of provincial affairs for CFIB.
The report defines “sustainable spending” as operational spending that matches population trends and inflation. If a municipality loses 10 per cent of its population over five years, it would have to decrease spending by 10 per cent, and then add inflation, to be considered a sustainable spender.
CFIB examined the spending and population trends of the 10 Manitoba cities or towns with at least 5,000 people, excluding Winnipeg.
For the period of 2008 to 2014, the City of Flin Flon was by far the least sustainable spender. During that period, the city’s real operating spending grew by 14 per cent as the population declined.
Flin Flon’s per-capita operating expenditure rate, $2,566, was also the highest of any city, town or RM examined in the report, far higher than second-place The Pas at $1,979.
Flin Flon mayor Cal Huntley believes the report fails to tell the whole story.
“Let’s say for example your population drops but your municipal expenses (same infrastructure) obviously, remain the same,” he wrote in an email to The Reminder. “Then, given the context, there appears to be a huge increase in spending per capita. Take into consideration the costs to provide the same services and support the same infrastructure are not going to stay the same, and you will generate an even more dramatic trend.
“Does this mean you have a poor management and governance structure? Of course it doesn’t. What it indicates is one of the struggles many municipalities are dealing with. Fixed or increasing costs and little or negative population growth. Obviously with a growing community the percentages are mitigated.”
Alward said he understands that municipalities must maintain their infrastructure, but he noted the report looked only at operational costs, not major capital projects.
