As an editor, I sometimes shake my head when reading stories prior to publication.
Not because these stories are poorly written – we are award-winning journalists here, if you hadn’t heard already – but because of the contents of said story.
Last week was another example of this.
As I read Melissa Dunphy’s story about North Perth council delaying budget meetings until March and April, my colleagues could hear me mutter words from my office that are not suitable for print.
To paraphrase, I asked aloud what the municipality was waiting for.
According to Becky Belfour, North Perth’s deputy treasurer, the budget committee wanted the new council to be sworn in and acclimated to their positions before starting the budget process. There was also mention of “finishing touches on new budget software that will, in future years, give multi-year budget information and forecasting.”
At this point, the palm of my hand met my forehead.
The same week I was reading this story, nearby Bruce County and the Municipality of Brockton passed their 2023 budget.
This begs the question: those municipalities had new council members, sworn in roughly the same time, yet they are able to pass their 2023 budget by mid-February. Why can’t North Perth?
Based on the timeline presented for upcoming budget meetings here – March 8 (operating budget), March 22 (projects), April 5 (overview of the previous two meetings) and public engagement (virtually, I might add) on April 19, we’re looked at May before the budget is approved and passed.
Five months into the year they are budgeting for.
By now, staff and council will have identified any major projects that need to be completed in the calendar year, such as bridge replacements and road repairs. Quite often, staff will ask council for pre-budget approval on items like this to start the tender process so that the project is completed in the budget year and to get the best possible price. By tendering a project too late in the year, a municipality runs the risk of not getting a good price.
As for the operations portion of the budget, other than approving a new position, most of that budget is already set in stone – wages will surely get the standard cost-of-living increase, hydro for buildings and fuel for vehicles are a necessity and those bills will get paid no matter what the cost, and the business of the municipality must be conducted.
With the major projects being known – and more often than not being the biggest piece of the budget pie – why not just continue with the remainder of the budget process?
The way some municipalities conduct their budget process is baffling to me. I am a firm believer that if you are going to have a budget for a calendar year – Jan. 1 to Dec. 31 – you should have your budget in place by Jan. 1.
To pass a budget in May is essentially rubber-stamping a document presented to council.
I understand there are challenges that come with swearing in a new council near the end of the year, such as North Perth did in 2022, however the budget is an annual thing. There is no reason why the first draft of the budget could not have been presented to council as its first order of business, or special meetings called to deal with the budget deliberations.
To say delaying the process is for the benefit of the new members of council (two councillors – Sarah Blazek and Marc Noordam – of the 10 council members are new) feels like an excuse. They signed up for the job and knew what the challenges and expectations were when they were sworn in.
When running a business, you don’t operate for the first five months of the year without a budget. Why should a municipality be any different?
Kudos to Banner staff
Last week, we learned that the Banner has been nominated for five Ontario Community Newspapers Association 2022 Better Newspapers Competition awards, and the Independent Plus has been nominated for three awards.
As I was quoted in last week’s Banner, these awards are reflective of all of the work put in by the staff at Midwestern Newspapers. That’s something we should all be proud of.
For the sake of brevity, I won’t rehash all of the nominations here, but I will say this: congratulations to Dan, Melissa, Marie, Janine, Peggy H., Peggy W., Jackie, Sandy, Eric, Brad and the rest of the crew on being nominated for these awards. It’s an honour to work with such a great team, and for this team to be recognized by our industry peers.
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Mike Wilson is the editor of the Listowel Banner. Comments and feedback are welcome at mwilson@midwesternnewspapers.com.
