At the March 12 meeting city council outlined their plans for dealing with budget for the coming year.
By law the budget must be approved by May 14. As that is just two months away, budget deliberations will get underway at the next meeting scheduled for March 27. At that meeting staff will present a draft of the budget and the estimated impact on municipal taxes as a result.
At the meeting on April 10 staff will bring forward Community Grant requests for council to determine where or if they fit into the budget, and public works director Bill Horne will discuss capital works and capital purchases for the coming year.
The first opportunity for residents to give their input on the budget will come at a special Committee of the Whole meeting on April 16. Based on the feedback council will give further direction to staff at the meeting. The following week, council is scheduled to give three readings to the budget budget and the week after that there will be another public consultation. Following that discussion, council can give staff more direction and give the first three readings to the property tax bylaw.
At a special council meeting on May 7, council is expected to adopt the budget and property tax bylaws, though chief financial officer Dan Rodin notes that there is some flexibility there and a special meeting could be called before the May 14 deadline.