A 4.8 per cent increase to the 2016 municipal budget is the goal as council begins budget deliberations in earnest this week.
Capital funding sources and expenses for 2016 total just over $16.7 million in the district draft budget, not including $4.4 million in capital costs for the pending Oceanfront development.
The draft includes more than $5 million on transportation and transit, $4.4 million for sewer projects, $770 ,000 for the fire service and $825,000 for information technology upgrades.
Other line items that impact Squamish families day to day include $102,000 for the Squamish Public Library for a new digital projector and a family washroom for the children’s area that is part of a larger library renovation.
“The existing bathrooms in the foyer are located far from the children’s area, and feedback from the public has identified that a family bathroom in the children’s area would be considered a safer option than the current public bathroom,” said library services director Hilary Bloom.
A recent safety audit carried out by community policing also recommended adding the family bathroom, she said.
The district plans to fund $33,000 of the total, because the library was bequeathed $69,000, according to Estelle Taylor, chair of the library board.
The budget process includes long-term planning from 2016 to 2020.
“The way we sort of think of things, we’ve got capital budget, which is the [concrete] stuff… and some of that is paid through borrowing, just like you borrow to do a renovation on your house kind of thing, but some of that is paid through revenue, so taxes,” said Mayor Patricia Heintzman just before budget deliberations began this week.
“We’re trying to put X amount of money in reserves so we can build those up. We use our long-term financial plan to help sort of model how we are doing that. We are also trying to do more of the smaller projects, so under $300,000, we are trying to do those through revenue instead of through borrowing – that is the shift we have been trying to do for the last five or six years.”
Heintzman stressed the budget process is just getting started and the budget itself is an “organic document.”
This year, the process will be more interactive, according to Heintzman. People can use Twitter, Facebook and email to ask questions while watching budget deliberations.
Within the council chamber, audience members can raise their hands to ask questions or make comments.
Council will try to answer questions on the spot, while deliberating, she said.
Heintzman said council hopes to have a final draft budget completed by the end of January.
Documents and information can be found at squamish.ca/budget.
