On April 18, RM of Wallace-Woodworth Chief Administrative Officer Garth Mitchell outlined the municipality’s 2024 financial plan in a public meeting held in Lenore Hall. The development of the financial plan began with a mandate of less than 2% increase in non-capital spending leading to a 0.16 mill increase.
Reeve Clayton Canart introduced the budget presentation noting that the past year showed significant accomplishments in the communities within the municipality with three fully functioning steering committees identifying projects and developing initiatives in their towns. Canart also noted the construction of a new daycare facility in Elkhorn and a new shop at the site of the municipal office.
He said a new well for the Wallace-Woodworth water utility is in the works and added, “This project, together with the creation of a water shortage plan, will help ensure our water utility will be reliable and resilient to changes.”
Canart said that despite rising costs the municipality has maintained a consistent level of taxation, although inflation will continue to put pressure on municipal finances. He said, “We do foresee the need for possible increases in the coming years to address rising costs.” This trend means a review of capital needs for equipment, projects and infrastructure replacement will be required.
Councillor indemnity
Councillor remuneration has been frozen since 2015 and this year a bylaw is proposed to update indemnity rates. If passed, monthly pay for the reeve will increase from $2000 to $2458, for deputy reeve from $1657 to $1958 and for councillors from $1333 to $1792. Per diem rates for extra meetings will increase by 25%.
Financial
The municipality is financially secure, with a nominal surplus of $8.74 million according to the 2022 audit. Looking at the surpluses since 2015, CAO Mitchell noted, “Our oil wells, and our oil companies are paying about half the taxation burden within our municipality.” Mitchell defended the sizable surplus saying it allows for a stable mill rate when sudden changes of assessment occur and enables the municipality to avoid financing costs when tax revenue decreases.
The total municipal assessment increased by about 2.34% to $435.268 million. The mill rate for the municipality at large this year will be 11.576, an increase of 0.014, resulting in tax increases of just a few dollars in most cases.
Several debts and debentures are shown in the financial statement, all related to water utilities in the municipality. They apply to the Ward 1 (Woodworth area) water treatment plant upgrade and the Ward 2 (Wallace area) water project. The Ward 3 (Elkhorn) lagoon construction received a grant for the entire project and did not require a debenture.
Reserve funds
Wallace-Woodworth has built up healthy reserves. The funds required for municipal services are held in dedicated reserve funds to be used for specific purposes such as machinery replacement, fire services or road upgrades. The road upgrade reserve fund, for example, receives 50% of earnings from oil royalties, mineral leases and surface oil leases up to a maximum of $750,000 annually. This reserve is for repairs or improvements to the existing municipal road system.
Revenue and expenditure
The total revenue for 2024 is projected to be $10.249 million with 55% coming from taxes, 19% transferred from reserves and surplus, 8% from provincial and federal grants and 5% from oil revenue. A surplus transfer of unexpended tax dollars from 2023 makes up 13% of the total.
Capital expenditures borne by reserves and surplus include a road groomer, a grader, the new Ward 2 shop, the new transfer station, the Elkhorn lagoon land purchase and the Elkhorn park revitalization, for a total of $2.152 million.
Operating expenses totaling $10.249 million are in the budget with transportation services at 43%, general government services at 19% and transfer to reserves of 13%.
Capital projects
The new Elkhorn Early Learning Centre (EELC) is fully financed with grant funding from the province of $5.17 million with project completion expected by December of 2024.
The grant is conditional on the facility maintaining a valid childcare centre license and EELC will receive funding from the provincial government for staffing, furnishing, developing programming and the daily operations.
The RM is responsible for providing the property to be leased to the EELC for $1 per year as well as any major repairs and regular outdoor maintenance. The centre will provide an additional 74 daycare spaces to support families and the local economy.
The municipality is building a new shop to service the Ward 2 equipment. Original tenders for construction brought in few proposals at high cost and included no local suppliers. CAO Mitchell said, “We rebid the project in basically a piecemeal, we sent out five different tenders for building construction, the concrete work, the heating and plumbing and HVAC as well as electrical.” The successful bidders have used local suppliers for the materials used in the building. The total budget for the build is $900,000 with $512,042.72 spent to date. The target for completion is this summer.
Reviews and updates
A new rate study is underway for the Wallace-Woodworth water utility with 2022 audited numbers. The RM will be requesting funding from the Manitoba Water services Board (MWSB), a Crown Corporation that assists in providing water and sewer facilities for rural Manitoba, for ten proposed projects over the next five years. These include a third Wallace supply well, the Kenton green sand media/sulphur correction, Kola’s new low pressure sewer system and lagoon with an upgrade to the water mains, Kenton water main renewals, a new water distribution to the village of Elkhorn, additional reservoir capacity for Wallace-Woodworth regional public water system, expansion on the pipeline for future customers, security at all sites, meter package upgrades and a Wallace booster station pump upgrade.
The transportation department is planning extensive repairs of rural roads with frost boils and new culverts a priority.
Economic development incentives include a main street improvement grant to assist businesses to upgrade their building exterior. Grants up to 50% to a maximum of $5,000 are available.
A tax credit program provides a credit for new municipal taxes generated by an increase in assessment due to building construction or renovation of commercial or industrial properties.
In the GIS department technician Shaelyn Tanguay, and asset management and GIS support Brianna Stonehouse – Hughes continue to collect data and add it to interactive maps of the municipality. These projects include culvert inventory and asset data collection as well as utility, property ownership and cemetery maps. The technology also enables data mapping for gravel stockpile volumes, road project grade elevations, surface water management and maintenance of the civic address program.
In closing, Reeve Canart reviewed some effects of inflation on capital items saying, “Six years ago we purchased a new pumper, and it was about $450,000. We're in the process of replacing another one and it's going to be close to $900,000.” He added that when the RM purchased a grader in 2017 it had a price tag of $400,000 and a new grader now costs about $700,000.
He said that Wallace-Woodworth requires a third well to enable the current pumps to work to full capacity and supply the quantity of water required for future development. The water source is in the Assiniboine valley south of Miniota adjacent to Hwy 83. The project is in progress and Canart said, “We are actually going to be building a road…from the highway to both well sites. Previously in flood conditions, we could not access the wells to do any repairs.”
Five ratepayers from Ward 1 and Ward 2 attended and brought questions to clarify the financial details in the budget and suggestions for improvement in road maintenance.
Copies of the budget document can be downloaded from www.wallace-woodworth.com
