A Sundre resident and business owner asked frankly during a public open house to discuss capital projects what kind of financial situation Sundre is in.
“What shape is Sundre in as a whole, financially — where are we sitting?” asked Tom Mennear, during the Oct. 18 information session at council chambers.
Vic Pirie, Sundre's director of finance and administration, painted an otherwise optimistic outlook on the present, but also underlined the heavy infrastructure spending the municipality will be faced with over the coming years.
“At the end of 2015, which is the last year of audited financial statements because our financial year is at the end of December, we were sitting with about $3.5 to $4 million in reserves to be used for some of these projects that you're seeing here,” started Pirie.
The town over several years has been astute in setting money aside, he said, adding the year ended with a nominal surplus and that operational expenses are within the budgets that have been approved by council.
“So we have a strong cash position with adequate reserves being put aside. Are they enough? No,” he said.
“It would be nice if we had a lot more money in reserve. But given the size and capacity of the community, the reserves are at a pretty fair and adequate level,” said the finance administrator.
All things considered, Sundre is sitting reasonably well, he said.
“The problem we're faced with is the magnitude of the issues going forward. You go to any community, and there's always way more needs — both operationally and infrastructure wise — than they have the capacity to deal with. And that's what we're trying to deal with now.”
Hence the reason behind preparing and planning out a five-year capital budget plan that can spread out important infrastructure projects over a period of time to make the monumental cost more bearable than trying to incur it all at once or in a short period of time, he said.
“The idea tonight is for you to have an opportunity to go around and look at each of the years and see what is being proposed, what the amounts are, where the money is coming from — we'll try to answer whatever questions you have. Council will take that information forward.”
To make a long story short, Pirie said Sundre is by no means in a “dire financial situation.”
“But we do have infrastructure pressures and operational pressures.”
