Water:
• Water rates were not increased between 2006 and 2017, resulted in an approximate $7 Million deficit in this department, as per noted in audit
• Council of 2016/17 prudently doubled water rates as a start to closing the deficit gap
• Increase in 2019 of .5 of a cent which further closed the deficit gap
• Increase in 2020 of .002
• Our cost to make water now is 3.7 cents/litre and we are selling for 1.0 cents/litre
• Proposed 5% increase in draft budget 2023/24 = over 1 cent which for residents is on average a $5.00/month increase (based on 10,000 litres which is the average monthly household usage in NW)
• Water usage can be controlled by user.
Mill rate: taxes
• Residential and commercial mill rates (taxes) have not been increased in 10 years
• Our mill rate (taxes) increases have been isolated to hydrocarbon and pipeline
• The Mill rate is used to fund Reserves and balance the Town on Norman Wells operational and capital budgets for the cost of doing business
Operations:
• 2016, 2017, 2018 were Capital heavy project years because of the availability of CWWF, BCP, ICIP infrastructure grants; all 3 of which no longer exist and have not been replaced
• All grants were engineer completed and project managed
• All projects 100% funded and reserves were emptied for cash in order to subsidize operations
• Opening balances for 2016 were circa $1 million with $4 million in dedicated reserves, closing in 2018 with dedicated reserves of less than $30,000
• Council of the day was able to ensure that $ 4 Million remained untouched in Gas Tax funds for the future. This was used for many capital projects the Town was able to legitimately cash flow new capital projects without jeopardising operational funds.
• Annual contributions of approximately $700,000 in CPI and Gas Tax are made by the Federal level of government and brokered by GNWT to the municipal level of government
Actuals of Operations
2017 – $9,197,881
2018 – $10,100,337
2021 – (after adjustments for amortization) – $7,842,487
Total adjustments for amortization (as per Town financial policy) between 2019 to 2021 which were the result of corrections to 2016 to 2018 amortization calculations by administration = $3,949,347.00
The draft 2023 operational budget expenses = $6.6 Million dollars showing a 2 million dollars savings in operational cost even with the cost of living rising.