Mountain View County (MVC) council has been given an update on the Mountain View Regional Waste Management Commission 2019 budget.
The review came during council’s recent regularly scheduled meeting in council chambers.
“This budget is a very realistic budget,” said Deputy Reeve Angela Aalbers, who represents MVC on the commission. “We are trying to be realistic in how we run this operation versus always trying to appease the membership to keep the fee for service as low as possible and then running into debt.”
New administration for the commission assumed management and administrative services in September.
While the annual commission budget would typically be completed in September, the board directed administration to complete a review of the commission’s operations, renegotiate material contracts, and refine financial controls in an effort to improve the commission’s budget process and overall operations and financial management practices, commission CAO Michael Wuetherick said in a letter to council.
“Over the past three months, administration has completed a thorough review of the commission’s past budgeting processes including a detailed analysis of all revenue streams, assessment of operating costs, forecasting capital requirements for 2019 and beyond, and finally working on reconciliation of the commission’s reserve accounts and long-term debenture obligation,” he said.
Administration and the commission board will be focusing on developing a business plan that will be used to forecast future fee for service levels and capital project requirements over a five- to 10-year period, he said.
“The primary goal of the plan is to develop a long-range financial plan and operating strategy that all the commission and member councils can use as a tool to improve long-term financial planning, and also for strategic decisions,” he said.
The board will be conducting a strategic planning session this month.
“This will be the first step in preparing a common direction for the commission defining level of service goals, long-range planning for waste management service for the region as a whole over the next 20 to 30 years,” he said.
“The ultimate goal of the strategic planning process is to improve the financial and operations performance of the commission, while maximizing the value of the current assets to the benefit of all members.”
The 2019 operating and capital budget approved by the board in November includes combined operating and capital expenditures for 2019 of $3.1 million, an increase in transfer station tipping fees to $225 a tonne from the previous $190 per tonne fee, and an increase in the municipal fee for service to $34.67 per capita compared to the 2018 fee basis of $13.03 per capita.
“For 2019, the municipal fee for service includes components for the landfill, transfer station and recycling services as follows: landfill fee of $405,122, transfer station fee of $324,628, and recycling fee of $475,826,” he said.
“Faced with increasing costs due to inflation and changing regulatory requirements, the commission’s recent business model has relied on increasing tipping fees to balance the books.
“In order to mitigate market risks of not attracting sufficient commercial tonnage to offset costs, the board has approved an increase in the municipal fee for service for 2019 while setting the landfill tipping fees to be more competitive in order to generate additional revenue.”
The county’s contribution to transfer site in 2019 will be $122,000 (compared with $84,981 in 2018), recycling $173,000 ($85,000 in 2018), landfill $152,000 (zero in 2018), for a total of $453,235, compared with $170,354 in 2018.
Council passed a motion to receive the report as information.
