November 25, 2013 - The One with EGM
Happy Sunday morning everyone! This past week we had a relatively short agenda for Council but a really busy week to follow so this is late. You have my sincere apologies :)
In this report:
1.EGM Presentation
2.Departmental reports
3.Town Clerk Appointment
Other Things - Budget Update
1.Enterprise Greater Moncton – Lois Scott, David Campbell and Ben Champoux presented on behalf of Enterprise Greater Moncton. EGM is mandated to work with local businesses on start ups and expansions, providing a variety of services to businesses to both attract and retain business in the Greater Moncton Area. It was explained to Council that through the ELC (Economic Leadership Council), chaired by Robert Irving, new leadership and processes will be in place, new vision and direction to be set and many exciting things to come from this group. EGM is funded by the tri-community and we are pleased to be able to invest in economic growth. EGM is asking for $120,000 this year, an increase over last years $90,000. In recent years, Riverview did not follow the formula set out to determine what each municipality would be required to pay and as such we had to play catch up this year, but it’s an investment we are ok making! A new formula is being worked on by the three Mayors however no announcements have been made yet as to what that might look like.
2.Departmental Reports –Each Director provided a brief summary of some of the work going on. Each department has seen growth and many exciting new things are happening.....
3.Which brings me to our next point...WELCOME to ANNETTE CRUMMEY, our new Town Clerk. This position was approved during the last year’s budget session. We are thrilled to have you with us and welcome to Riverview!
Small agenda this time but I do want comment a bit on the recent budget sessions as the budget has been the primary focus for us over the past few weeks. Council has held two public sessions for budget deliberations and I want to commend our directors for their work and specifically single out our finance department for preparing a great presentation. A lot of things to look forward to in 2014. Council reviewed the general operating budget and capital budgets as well as the utility budgets. We reviewed each department carefully. It’s important to ensure that in the budget process you not only plan for next year, but years to come. The budget has not yet formally been approved and there are still many things that could change. We did not get as much money from the provincial government as we had expected so at this point we need to reconvene move some things around. We are looking for road repair, investment in the phase 2 (feasibility study) for our wellness/civic center, maintain the tax rate, looking a balloon payment to drop our debt ratio for 2015! We are looking at $35 increase in water and sewer bills which amounts to less than $3.00 per month and leaves us well below both Moncton and Dieppe. More information will be released on details once the budget is approved (I don’t want to make any false claims that might get changed). Stay tuned for announcements on when the next session will be. We haven’t heard any dates yet.
As always if you have any questions or comments please let me know.
