Tax increase expected in Cold Lake’s “no frills” budget, says Copeland

Mayor Craig Copeland says a tax increase should be expected for Cold Lake ratepayers in the upcoming 2024 budget, a “no frills” document.

This week the City has undergone several budget meetings in preparation for the 2024 fiscal year.

Copeland says this year’s budget talks have been a challenge.

“Everybody’s dealing with inflation, and municipalities are no different. Probably one of the tougher budgets discussions that I’ve been involved with in my 19 years,” Copeland said on The Morning After. 

“There’s a lot of things hitting us. Utilities, you got your streetlights, you got all your your your natural gas, and all your buildings, everything is going up in your cost of living. We did a really nice labor agreement with the city staff, what we feel was very fair. And so some of those costs will now start to really impact the budget. And so some of the policing costs that we’ve funded other officers in the past, so things are catching up.” 

The City is assuming a lot of debt with a few major projects on the way, including Lakeshore Drive improvements and the Public Works Shop build.

On the capital side, not many more major projects are expected, with the pinch coming hard on households and municipalities alike.

“To say it’s going to be a zero per cent tax increase — there’s no way,” Copeland said. 

“There will be a tax increase. We’re almost finished and we’re trying to get that number as low as we possibly can. We realize that everybody’s hurting, both in the business community and residents. You know, everywhere you go, everything’s gone up in the year, so we totally appreciate it. We’re going to try to soften the blow as much as we can.”

Each municipality has to pass at least an interim budget before the calendar year, and towns and cities cannot run a deficit.

The City is going to try to use provincial dollars on Lakeshore Drive, which they set aside $6 million to get the project rolling in 2023.

An application has been made to the Municipal Sustainability Initiative Capital fund for $1.857 million of the 2023 project funding for Lakeshore Drive.

“We’re getting a bit of blowback on that. That road was failing, where if we didn’t do something, that bank would have fallen into the water. And all people have to do is sort of walk and go look at Lakeshore Drive right now, especially with the north end of it. And you’ll see how tight the road and the bank is there with the way it’s carved out right now.”

City council will look to pass the budget in their first meeting in December.

Morning After with Craig Copeland