WAWA — The Wawa council had some tough decisions when discussing their budget at their February special council meeting earlier this month.
The proposed budget recommends a 3.8 per cent tax levy increase, meaning the average residential property that has an assessed value of $100,000 will see a monthly tax increase of $8.21 and a water and sewer rate increase of $4.77. Combined the draft budget proposes that ratepayers will pay an additional $156 per year.
“I think $156 is a lot of money to a lot of people in our community as costs are rising in everything,” Mayor Melanie Pilon said.
The pandemic has put a lot of strain on a multitude of economic areas throughout Wawa. In particular, an unstable interest rate and inflation on the labour market, fuel costs, and supplies.
Treasurer Manuela Batovanja pointed out that one of the contributing factors to the increase in taxes is due to meeting regulations and legislation from higher governments.
“We have to have an overall responsible operator and operator-in-chief for our water department. We have to have an asset management plan. That is an ever-living document that requires a lot of work. Particularly in 2023, we have asset retirement obligations to meet,” said Batovanja.
According to Batovanja, asset retirement obligations require municipalities to access aging service equipment and infrastructure on their environmental impact. Municipalities are also required to have a replacement plan and revenue before assets can be replaced.
For example, Batovanja said that the Wawa landfill expansion project needs to have a post-closure plan much like a mine would have before they open.
“The new thing this year is that the asset management plan obligation reaches far beyond the landfill and it’s attributed to all of our assets now,” said Batovanja.
Much of the municipality’s revenue is dependent on the airport, which Pilon found concerning stating asking staff if the municipality has a contract with Alamos, which operates a mine in Dubreuilville, to continue utilizing the airport for the foreseeable future.
"That isn’t a revenue source we should not become dependant on and at this time it looks like we are,” Pilon said.
Pilon said that Alamos has a projected 25-year plan to utilize the Wawa airport; however, she also understands that relying on one source of revenue could be detrimental.
“They are still a business. An agile business who are able to make business decisions that may or may not include the Municipality of Wawa,” said Pilon.
The Wawa airport is expected to bring in a total of nearly $785,000 in 2023.
Wawa’s total operating budget revenues is just over $14 million which is a $205,976 increase from 2022. It’s projected that 41 per cent of the municipality’s revenue comes from residential and commercial taxation, while 35 per cent of revenue comes from conditional, and OMPF Hydro Dam grants, which are considered a high-risk investment.
“If we lose those grants, those revenues will have to come from somewhere. They are either going to have to come from increased user fees or if we find some new user fees, an increase in taxation unfortunately, or a decline in services,” said Batovanja.
On the other side of the coin, the municipality’s expenditures show an increased cost in training and salaries for protective services at 10.08 per cent.
“We’ve lost some firefighters and we need to add some new firefighters to the department, and there are legislative and regulated requirements to training. They can’t just show up and start fighting fires. They have to be trained properly and there is a cost to that and a time period,” said Batovanja.
In addition, the Municipality’s expenditures show an increased cost of garbage collection, utility, and fuel purchases at 10.49 per cent.
Batovanja shows an example of the cost of fuel over the last two years which has increased by 77.76 per cent since 2021.
Currently, the Municipality has committed $9.8 million to reverse for future use.
Although Batovanja engages council to consider that reverses are going to increase over the next four years, she also wants them to be aware that next year council might have to dip into them for particular projects such as repayment of aging equipment and infrastructure.
Wawa clerk Maury O’Neill recommends at a future council meeting that council approves the 2023 budget with the 3.8 per cent levy increase, but suggested that Council have several options to consider in lowering the proposed tax levy such as reducing the number of capital projects, eliminating programs and services, and increasing user fees.
Moving forward, the municipality is seeking public consultation before approving the budget, which is set for March 21.
