By meadowlakeNOW

City receives positive feedback on 2016 financial statements

May 25, 2017 | 3:51 PM

Overall, the City of Meadow Lake is operating in a fiscally responsible manner, according to its auditor.

At Tuesday afternoon’s city council meeting, Dallan Oberg, the city’s auditor, was in attendance to speak to the draft 2016 financial statement for Meadow Lake. 

Oberg said despite some accounts receivable issues, the city is doing quite well at keeping budgets balanced, and is currently operating with a surplus of approximately $2.5 million. He said Meadow Lake’s reserves – which are restricted cash for items including machinery, facilities, etc. – are fully funded, which Oberg said are only common for about 25 per cent of the municipalities his firm audits each year.

“You’re in the positive, your debts are under control, and you’ve invested in your community,” he noted in his presentation to council. “One thing that I like to see is that you’re spending money on capital. Some other municipalities aren’t spending money on infrastructure, and haven’t kept up with inflation and utility rates. It’s like any business, you have to spend money to avoid spending more down the road when there’s a problem.”

Oberg added even though Meadow Lake’s ratepayers saw a tax increase this year, it was the second lowest amount in the province. It equated to 1.89 per cent.

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“It’s not always a bad thing to increase taxes when you have a good fiscal policy in place with council,” Oberg said. “Your strategy will allow you to have money in case of emerging issues. You’re doing what’s best for the community as a whole.”

Mayor Gary Vidal said council members were questioned why a tax increase was necessary if the city is operating with a surplus.

“If we don’t have small increases, we’re just losing ground on inflation,” Vidal said. “[I can understand] It’s tough for the community to understand for the things they can’t immediately see. We’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars replacing valves that are a huge issue. I give this council credit for making the hard decision to keep going with that, then once the work is done, we can finally get to the things that appear on the surface like our roads.”

In an interview after the council meeting, Vidal noted the surplus came from a couple different areas.

“Part of it was that our expenditures ended up being less than we’d anticipated in the budget,” he said. “However, in our transportation budget, we didn’t spend as much money as expected because they were short staffed and they just didn’t get to some things. On the flip side we saved some money in [the] water treatment area… with some new chemicals.”

He noted the city invested $4.3 million into assets, paid off $331,000 of debt, and did not borrow this past year.

“This has created a strong position for us,” he said. “We only have one debt on our books, and we’re looking to get a better interest rate, and I think that creates some flexibility for us going forward when plan for investment in capital. This means investing any from purchasing a half ton, to our updates to the West Service Road, our water treatment plant, working on underground infrastructure, lagoons, recreation facility – any long-term assets that will last over time.”

He credits the collective work of council and the city staff for their contributions and diligence in operating in an efficient manner.

“Managers have been making good decisions for the most part, they deserve a lot of credit for that,” Vidal said. “We still have things that we need to do better, and we’re going to continue to challenge them to do that. Our people in the office and out in the field providing leadership are a big part of why we have financial success.”

Vidal said that council will strive to continually find efficiencies to allow the city of Meadow Lake to grow.

“We’ve tried to be responsible and reasonable,” he said. “We can’t promise people zero tax increases all the time, that’s just not realistic. We want to invest in the right things, so we’re not regretting the decisions we made now 10 years down the road.”

Council approved the statements following its in-camera meeting with the auditor.

kathy.gallant@jpbg.ca  

On Twitter @ReporterKath