In December
2013, Council gave first, second, and third reading of Golden Loan Authorization Bylaw 1326 (Councillor Hern opposed). Council directed staff to
forward the loan authorization bylaw to the province for approval in anticipation
of a referendum in early 2014 permitting $5 million in borrowing to fund the
town’s portion for the New Building Canada Fund (NBCF). I opposed the bylaw as
I felt that borrowing was not warranted at that time.
The province
would not approve the loan authorization bylaw as it did not specifically
stipulate the amount that will be borrowed and to which projects and what
amounts it will be directly applied.
In a report
to council on Tuesday, staff wrote;
“While it is
clear that completing a significant number of the infrastructure projects will
require a measure of long term borrowing, staff feels it is not the appropriate
time to do so;
- Council still has yet to establish a comprehensive reserve policy which will have significant long-term policy effects on the scope and nature of services in the future;
- Significant short-term borrowing for fleet replacements will imminently impact debt load over the near term;
- Federal gas Tax revenues are still uncertain;
- The asset management and other reserves have some capacity and resiliency;
- Current revenues and expenditures cannot support raising the corporate debt load;
- Utility rates have yet to undergo review and adjustment this year and;
- The practicality of holding a borrowing bylaw referendum now dictates it should be undertaken at the time of the general election, a prospect formerly indicated by (some) councillors as undesirable.”
The report
went on to state; “It is the staff’s position that following the reserve
restructuring exercise and utility rate review slated for later this year, a
review of short term borrowing implications, Gas tax reconciliation, the
election, the financial planning process for the 2015 budget, and a strategic
priority setting session next spring and our corporate work plan capacity,
council and the corporation will be in a far better position to determine the
scope and nature of a future borrowing bylaw as well as its specific
application”
Clearly town
staff are moving in the right direction!
In response
to this report, Council approved a list of projects proposed by the staff that
can be financed using NBCF support without borrowing.
I fully support this
action. To see the reasons for my opposition to the Borrowing Bylaw Click Here
The opinions expressed in this Blog are my personal opinions and may not represent the opinions of other councillors nor the opinions of council.
