PENHOLD - Budget deliberations in Penhold have begun.
The first budget meeting was held Dec. 4 with a second meeting scheduled for Dec. 7.
Penhold mayor Mike Yargeau said council and the town will look at potential public works projects and several strategic priorities for 2018.
Shortly after the election, council sat down with municipal guru Gord McIntosh, president of the Local Government Leadership Institute, to work on those strategic priorities.
"Now we're going to look at those again and see where our budget needs to go to reflect those priorities," said Yargeau.
While taxes are still unknown at this time, he said, council will work towards the best outcome it can.
“We're probably looking at zero or close to zero (tax rate) as far as the town side goes. We don't have the provincial school requisition yet," said Yargeau. "We thought we planned for it last year and they actually raised it considerably on us.
"This year we'll probably try to plan for the worst and hope that they keep it roughly where it was at," he added.
Some other areas the town will look at include creating an economic development committee or economic development officer, safe community committee and inter-municipal collaboration.
Yargeau also said the town is determining the impact of the carbon tax in its first year.
“The town did do an analysis a few months ago (on carbon tax numbers), so they do have a rough idea of how it's going to affect us,” he said, adding that numbers are still being confirmed.
Despite the unknowns, Yargeau said there are positives for the town in 2018.
"Things are starting to look up. We're probably in a better position this year than we were last year," said Yargeau, noting several housing starts and new businesses opening. “After our first two budget meetings we'll have a better idea of where council is at looking ahead to 2018.”
Mike Yargeau, Penhold mayor
"Things are starting to look up. We're probably in a better position this year than we were last year."
