After another lengthy meeting, Prince George city council has approved a budget with a tax increase of 6.78 per cent.
To keep the levy below seven per cent, mayor and council voted on some cuts to service categories and enhancements.
Although it was suggested to increase the snow control budget by $1 million, council decided only to increase that budget by $500,000. Council also deducted $65,000 from human resources but added a one-time expense to the communications budget for $50,000.
A request from the RCMP for four additional officers at a cost of $883,128 was also a major point of debate.
Coun. Tim Bennett put forward a motion to fund just two additional officers, cutting that budget in half, but that failed. Coun. Kyle Sampson then put forward a motion to ultimately approve the addition of four officers, but hiring two later in the year, keeping the budget at $441,564.
Council approved one of the two municipal employee member requests by the RCMP for $77,923.
They settled on $594,220 for new fire staff and a new fire admin clerk was approved at $76,519. However, hiring new fire staff will be delayed until the spring in order to allocate funds but for the next phase of the proposed new fire training site study.
A request to increase the road rehabilitation budget by $300,000 to account for the increased cost of asphalt and aggregate also failed.
The Little Prince Train was given an extra $25,000, instead of the requested extra $75,000 in operating funds for the year, meaning the train should be able to operate two days per week this season instead of just one day per week.
Council also directed staff to come back with a more fulsome report on options for the future of the Little Prince including the possibility of corporate sponsorship and grants.
A motion to cut the budgets for two outreach workers from the bylaw services budget was debated, with Coun. Sampson stating those positions should be funded by the province. However, council decided to keep the two positions and lobby the province for the funds.
The capital budget was also approved. The only project that was removed from the capital budget was the Memorial Park Cemetery Enhancement Project, which requested an enhanced entrance feature to improve access and create a stronger identity for the civic facility.
It had a budget of $315,000, which council decided to keep in the General Infrastructure Reinvestment Fund.
Council also decided to pull several projects from the “unfunded” list to be discussed in a committee of the whole meeting at a later date.
These included projects like playgrounds, parks and trails, library decking and flooring upgrades, and an improved bus pullout on Tyner Boulveard.
“This is important. We as a team, we do not take this lightly. I think the last few days demonstrate, we as a team and understand when I say team I mean administration and council, we understand the importance of this exercise under very trying circumstances,” said Mayor Simon Yu at the end of deliberations.
Council ultimately passed the budget in two meetings rather than the scheduled three meeting so the Jan. 29 budget meeting was cancelled.
