SUNDRE — Residents and ratepayers will soon have an opportunity to learn more about, and also provide input on, the municipality's level of service.
Linda Nelson, chief administrative officer, and Chris Albert, director of corporate services, presented a brief recap of a lengthy document detailing the municipality’s 2021 levels of service during the regular Feb. 7 meeting.
“Each department has their own level of service document,” Nelson explained. “It is further broken down into the different components that each department provides to the community, recognizing that not every service is out on the street visible with graders and plows and flowerbeds. There’s also work that happens behind the scenes.”
Administration sought to open the door for discussion as there is an upcoming public open house scheduled for Thursday, March 24 from 3 to 6 p.m. to be held at the Sundre Community Centre's gym.
The objective, she added, is not only to provide some insight so people can obtain a better understanding of the services provided to the community by the municipality and how that impacts the budget, but also to get input from residents.
“We do intend on having another open house (at a later date in the future following impending council budget workshops) for the public that will show those numbers based on their input,” said Nelson.
The Master Level of Service 2021 document is available in full on the municipality’s website, www.sundre.com, by clicking on “Corporate Services” under the “Your Government” tab and then selecting the document from a list on the left-hand side of the page. Also available are Master Level of Service documents dating back to 2019.
Seeking clarification, Coun. Jaime Marr asked if administration doesn’t just use a set formula with for example automatic inflationary increases, and that other factors are considered when projecting future costs.
“Absolutely. So, there is a lot of work that goes into these documents so that we don’t just add an inflationary number to the cost,” said Nelson.
“The way that these numbers are (calculated), is it varies a little bit by department,” added Albert.
Mayor Richard Warnock wanted to know how administration budgets for third-party fees that the municipality pays through departments like planning and development.
“We have no control over the outsider, third-party fees. So, how do you build that into the document, because you don’t know what their price will be six months or a year from now,” Warnock asked.
Those outside costs, said Albert, are incorporated into the total budget along with salaries, contracted services, materials, supplies and so on.
Responding to question from Coun. Connie Anderson about a revenue gap between 2021 and 2022, Albert said the municipality has not changed utility rates over the last couple of years.
“So, we are projecting that our costs are actually increasing, but we will not be increasing our rates,” said Albert.
Council went on to pass a motion accepting the presentation as information.
