'Not a re-opening of the budget': Lethbridge SPC prepares for two-day economic update

Lethbridge City Hall is seen in this undated image. (CTV News)

LETHBRIDGE, ALTA. — The current economic conditions and financial position of the City of Lethbridge will be the focus of a two-day economic and finance standing policy committee (SPC) meeting starting Wednesday.

City council will convene as the SPC for an overview of the current conditions and the impact they have on the city’s financial position and resources.

“It’s not a re-opening of the budget, it's actually going in and taking a look at specific things that are coming forward to city council,” explained Darrell Mathews, chief financial officer with the City of Lethbridge.

“So, that could be some conditional initiatives – there's a number of those coming forward – there's also a number of bylaws coming forward to have fees and services changes inside of it as well as some other asks from the community and other departments.

“There is also some optimism in regard to what we’re seeing going on in the inflationary terms. So, obviously, inflation has come down, the Bank of Canada is lowering their rates – that’ll take some time to go through.”

The process will begin with Mathews giving a presentation on the current economic conditions, utility pressure, taxation pressure, Alberta’s consumer price index, labour market and impact on reserves.

“There’s been a lot of inflationary pressures and a lot of things have occurred in the marketplace, including the prime leading rates being fairly high, so what that does is slows down some of our areas in development, specifically in land development and so forth within the community,” said Mathews.

Following the opening presentation, the committee will hear more than 20 presentations and submissions on a range of topics.

Items up for discussion include the Lethbridge Fire and Emergency Services, city-wide sponsorship program, parkland growth and capacity impacts, Indigenous programming at the Galt Museum and Archives, water and wastewater, graffiti abatement and a financial update on the Lethbridge and District Exhibition.

“All of the initiatives inside of here are typically with one-time funding sources already factored into the tax rates that are already within the operating budget,” Mathews added.

“So, it's just a re-confirmation or looking at whether or not they'll continue with those initiatives.”

There will be no increase to the current 5.1 per cent property tax rate during the economic update meetings.

The city’s capital budget is a plan that includes one-time construction costs and associated funding sources required to complete capital projects in the community.

The city's operating budget involves the day-to-day costs of delivering municipal services and programs such as police, emergency services, roads and parks.

Any recommendations from the economic review will be sent to city council for potential approval at a later date.