Northern Sunrise County is working on its financial blueprint for the next year. The county held its first public budget meeting last week and the first draft is projecting a surplus of $ 4,003,834. Reeve Carolyn Kolebaba says the county has a very strong budgeting process. “Even during downturns or diminished economies we have a tax base that allows us to operate as well as we have,” said Kolebaba. “Council and administration have always been forward thinking, yet still fiscally responsible in the decision making process.”
One area Kolebaba is concerned for future budgets is the downloading of services for the provincial and federal governments to municipalities. “One example of that is policing,” mentions Kolebaba. “For policing for populations under 5,000, we didn’t have to pay (the province) because we didn’t receive a service that was similar (to bigger centres). Now the province has decided that we need to pay through a formula that would use our equalized assessments. We find that unfair because we feel the formula should be based on population.” Here is a link to the draft budget.
The entire interview with Kolebaba can be found below:
– Kenny Trenton, Trending 55 Newsroom
