SUNDRE – Although he acknowledged the carbon tax and inflation as being partly behind an estimated four per cent increase to the municipality’s operating budget, Sundre's mayor said the provincial government’s substantial hike to the police funding formula was the biggest culprit.
“It’s a very big contributing factor,” Richard Warnock said on Jan. 25 during a phone interview.
“I mean, the carbon tax is still a part of it and inflation is part of it,” he said.
But he added that having to absorb the substantially higher cost of policing represents the biggest part of the forecasted increase to operational costs.
Council had previously heard late last year during a discussion about the municipality’s four-year operating budget and 10-year capital plan, that the cost Sundre pays under the new police funding model was poised to increase to about $115,000 in 2023 from $85,000 in 2022. Next year, that funding requirement is expected to increase to $170,000.
Chris Albert, director of corporate services, told the Albertan in response to emailed questions that administration does "not track carbon pricing as a separate line item as it is encapsulated in so many other aspects of costs than just the required disclosure places like your natural gas bill.”
Elaborating, he said, "We treat the carbon tax as we would any other cost increase or fee or unrecoverable tax, in that our best guess of its impact is reflected in the four-year operating budget.”
Yet even though all of the municipality’s departments factor in expenses such as inflation and the carbon tax when preparing budget forecasts, the mayor said most of the four per cent increase to operations came as a result of paying much more for policing.
“That’s just disappointing, but it is what it is,” he said.
He added the estimated increase to the operating budget does not necessarily automatically translate to a tax hike.
Council has not yet set the mill rate for 2023.