Town council approved the Canora 2020 budget on May 5.
There is no increase to property taxes this year, said Michael Mykytyshyn, chief administrative officer, Town of Canora. With some uncertainty due to the COVID situation, council is concerned with the economic impacts that are yet to be determined and agreed to table a fairly conservative financial plan for the year.
As always, the budget is revenue neutral, showing $4,932,720 in both revenues and expenses, said Mykytyshyn.
Both municipal and school tax mill rates remain the same as last year. The municipal mill rate is 14.05 with factors of .85 for residential properties and 1.5 for all others. The municipal minimum taxes of $1,260 for land with a building and $1,000 for a vacant lot remain unchanged.
With no increase to rates, municipal tax revenue for 2020 is $1,854,151, which is actually down a bit from last year due to a drop in some assessments.
Under the policy set by the province, school mill rates were also unchanged, with residential at 4.12 mills, commercial/industrial at 6.27 mills and agricultural at 1.43 mills.
The Town鈥檚 revenue sharing grant increased by $45,248 to $460,248 for 2020.
With the current social distancing requirements, there are several aspects of Town operations that have been affected or are undetermined and/or subject to change moving forward. Many of these will be directly dependent on the conditions set by the province.
Council has already decided that the campgrounds will not open at this time as it will be very difficult to meet the provincial requirements for its operation.
And, while department heads are cautiously optimistic, it may be possible that the swimming pool will not open this season. This would affect not only the patrons of the facility, but means that more than a dozen local students may be without employment this summer.
There will be one part-time student opportunity for an employee to maintain the Town鈥檚 flowers and trees for the summer, continued Mykytyshyn.
The golf course, which is run by the Canora Golf and Country Club, is now able to open, but under strict guidelines that will certainly affect usage and operations. As a result, council remains committed to provide some financial assistance to the golf club to ensure the course infrastructure can be preserved.
In other departments, work will continue as usual.
Lesia, Canora鈥檚 welcome statue, is celebrating her 40th birthday this year and she will be getting some cosmetic improvements.
Construction of a permanent farmers鈥� market structure at the CN Station House and Visitors鈥� Centre will begin soon.
The landfill project is progressing. In the past year, Tetra Tech Canada has prepared Phase 2 and 3 Environmental Site Assessments, Feasibility Study and an Environmental Monitoring Plan for the facility.
It is now known that the estimated cost to close the landfill will be $2.4 million, reported Mykytyshyn. The Town has applied to the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP) to help offset these costs. It is hoped that the decommissioning can be put off for a year as this does not include the cost of building a new solid waste management facility. It will be up to Saskatchewan Environment how long the Town is able to continue operation of the existing site.
Other projects in 2020 include the completion of the effluent treatment system at the water treatment plant. Installing equipment to treat the wastewater from rinsing the filters at the plant will cost about $325,000. This work is also a requirement under federal and provincial environmental regulations.
Work will continue on the promotional area on the corner of Railway Avenue and Norway Road. Trees were planted last year and this will be a multi-year project.
Town council and partnering rural municipalities are preparing to order a new fire truck this year and the down payment will be around $300,000. Once it is ordered, it is anticipated that delivery of the truck will be in 2021.
It is hoped to replace the water main on Eighth Avenue West at a cost of around $106,000, some of which will be shared with property owners if approval for a local improvement goes through. This street has been plagued with water breaks and the pavement has broken down. It only makes sense to replace the water mains before repairing and repaving the street.
Smaller projects include compressor upgrades at the skating and curling rinks and continued improvements to the ball diamonds at the sports grounds.
Pumps at the water treatment plant and reservoir are set to be rebuilt for about $63,000.
The 2020 budget includes about $466,727 in transfers to reserve and about $341,984 in withdrawals from reserve for capital projects listed above. This will bring the Town鈥檚 appropriated reserve total to more than $1.8 million, concluded Mykytyshyn.
