Maple Ridge city council has started its budget process for 2024 spending, but so far there is no tax increase being put forward.
The city’s 2023-2027 five-year financial plan called for a proposed property tax increase of 4.2 per cent for 2024, with a 3.4 per cent increase for general purposes, and 0.8 per cent for infrastructure replacement. However, numbers in the five-year plan are only a starting point and are typically adjusted during council’s budget meetings.
The 2022 tax increase was 5.65 per cent, driven in part by a new RCMP contract.
The presentations from department heads and managers took place on Tuesday, during a three-hour council workshop. There were no public requests for new spending, and the meeting was a review of operations.
In early January, there will be a “budget and strategic direction” presentation, and it will be followed by a period of public engagement, where the city will gauge support for initiatives. The final adoption of the financial plan is scheduled for March. The province has set a deadline of May 15 for local governments to have an approved budget.
At council’s Dec. 12 workshop meeting, city CAO Scott Hartman started the first of several discussions staff will have with council.
He explained last year’s budget process was a three-day “marathon session,” which will be broken up this year.
Hartman said staff heard from council “that you wanted time not only to digest the information, but to really think about some of the strategic alignment and questions that you would have, and then allow us to go to the public and solicit their input and their feedback.”
Hartman offered a corporate overview, noting the city has $2 billion in assets, including all roads, bridges, and infrastructure, and will invest a proposed $116 million in infrastructure in 2024. City hall also oversees an operating budget forecast for $150 million, he said.
The city has 831 employees: 603 CUPE staff, 57 career firefighters, 75 paid-on-call firefighters, 105 RCMP officers, and 96 exempt staff. The population is 96,400 as of 2022, with 33,000 residences.
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Some highlights from the department presentations:
• The fire department responded to a record number of emergency calls as of Dec. 8, at 6,488 – about a 14 per cent increase over the previous year. That included approximately 500 overdose calls.
• The building services department oversaw total construction valued at $204 million in 2023.
• Engineering operations paved 25 km of new roads, replaced 652 square meters of new sidewalks, and maintained 734 km of storm and sanitary sewer mains.
• Human resources had 165 new hires in 2023, with 123 being CUPE, 18 exempt staff, and 20 paid-on-call.
• Facilities, parks, and properties maintains 70 parks with 49 playgrounds, more than 210 km of trails, six synthetic and 20 grass sports fields, and stewards more than 14,500 trees in the “urban forest” in parks and on streets.
• Recreation services taught 6,600 kids to swim.
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Council is not scheduled to meet again before Jan. 9.
“The next phase involves public engagement to gauge support for proposed initiatives early in the New Year,” said city spokesperson Pardeep Purewal.
“Council will then receive a budget recommendation, with the projected impact for local taxpayers, informed by community input, for deliberations in February. The budget recommendation will reflect council’s strategic priorities, external pressures such as labour settlements and the cost drivers associated with new legislation from senior governments.”
