SUNDRE — Council heard during a recent regularly scheduled meeting that the municipality’s finances are in good standing.
“The town is in a very good cash position,” said Chris Albert, director of corporate services, who in recent weeks presented the third quarter financial reports, cash statement, restricted surplus account status, and capital project listing.
According to background information outlined in council’s agenda package for the meeting, the municipality as of Sept. 30 has approximately $3.6 million in its operating account, which is a comparable amount to the previous quarter ending balance.
Additionally, there is approximately $863,000 in investment accounts as well as roughly $6.3 million in restricted surplus identified accounts, representing total holdings of just shy of $10.8 million.
“The other thing to note, is some of the cash-on-hand that is shown in this report, is for approved, in-progress, or to-be-started capital projects that are still unpaid for,” explained Albert.
In other words, he said that while some of the budget line items show cash in the bank, the funds are allocated for specific purposes and essentially locked.
“We don’t necessarily have them available to us — they’ve been committed as part of either the approved capital plan, or some other decision of council,” he said.
Only council, he later explained, can by way of motion direct administration to make changes to restricted surplus accounts or transfer funds from one reserve to another or toward a specific project that’s been approved.
Also going over departmental budget reports, Albert informed council that variances between predicted and actual costs are the result of a variety of reasons.
Some are as simple as certain items not yet being caught up as it is not year-end, while others happen when vacant budgeted staff positions remain unfilled.
Additionally, factors such as utility costs can be unpredictably volatile when markets unexpectedly fluctuate, he said, adding utility rates over the past six to nine months “have been crazy.”
“Rates are unstable at the moment — we don’t know where they’re going,” he said.
And of course the pandemic has also had a negative impact on revenues for a number of departments, but those shortfalls have been offset by reduced expenses, he said.
Mother nature can also throw wrenches into the proverbial gears, such as the powerful winds this summer that peeled off a portion of the town shop’s roof. While insurance covered some of those repair costs, previously hidden damage that was discovered during the assessment was not.
Extremely cold winter spells can also cause more pipes to freeze or burst than an average year, driving up costs such as in 2018-19 when excavations doubled the norm, while summer heatwaves that drive drought conditions spur on heavy water consumption that translates to higher revenues, as well as higher costs in some instances, he said.
Meanwhile, the Sundre Fire Department in “2020 had considerable contracted service costs due to organizational changes,” he said.
According to the financial documents in council’s agenda, the fire services department spent $69,001 on contracted services in 2020, compared with $22,865 to date in 2021.
“Also, revenues are currently down, but the costs are reflecting that as well and billings are being caught up,” he said.
There have also been changes in terms of what insurance companies are willing to pay for, and what the municipality can actually collect in revenues, he said.
“We’ve seen that change slowly happen over the last few years, and it seems to be continuing,” he said, adding that would be factored into the next budget cycle.
“We didn’t think it would progress as much as it has.”
Coun. Chris Vardas inquired what contracted services were being referred to under the fire department.
“Contracted services is the categorization of any sort of outside services or specializations that we use, whether that be audit, IT, specialized repairs — things like that would all fall under contracted services,” said Albert.
In terms of the contracted services in 2020, he added, “we had significant legal fees and consulting fees associated with the fire department.”
In 2020, the municipality contracted Behr Fire Services to assist with restructuring the Sundre Fire Department, ultimately leading to the hiring of a full-time fire chief.
Overall, Albert said this year’s third quarter financial reports are comparable to last year’s, and that administration anticipates finishing 2021 fairy close to what had been budgeted.
Council went on to unanimously approve the reports for information. Visit the town’s website, www.sundre.com, and select Meeting Minutes and Agendas under the ‘Council’ tab in the ‘Your Government’ section to find the detailed reports in full.
