External agencies could get budget asks, mayor says

The majority of Prince Albert’s external agencies could end up happy with what the budget committee decides later this week, according to the city’s mayor.

External agencies – third-party or city agency not governed by the City – presented their 2015 requests to the budget committee on Monday ahead of this weekend’s negotiations. All of the requests were received and filed as information, that is, forwarded to the Nov. 14 and 15 discussions untouched. At that time, they could be approved, amended or denied altogether.

But the news could be good for the most part. Mayor Greg Dionne said that this is the first year that he’s seen “reasonable” requests from the agencies.

“They’re not an increase of 10 or 20 per cent, some of them are one per cent, some are three per cent, which [is] in the range that we’re looking at our budget.  And so, it’s hard for us to say ‘no’ when that’s what we’re looking for.”

Several of the agencies presented their formal requests to the budget committee, and a few of the requests weren’t for extra funding that would come directly from the general fund. The Prince Albert Downtown Business Improvement District (BID) asked the committee to consider setting aside 10 per cent of parking meter and ticket revenues for a reserve fund for downtown improvements.

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The general fund budget is projecting $695,000 in revenues from both sources combined in 2015.

And in the coming year, the Prince Albert Arts Board will be transferring all of its existing funding to the areas that benefitted from the funds. The more than $44,000 that the board transferred to the Mann Art Gallery will go directly to the art gallery from the City. The board and the City are also working to transfer responsibility for the E.A. Rawlinson Centre’s operations to the City.

A further $242,800 that went to the arts board in 2014 will be transferred to the department of community services to run the E.A. Rawlinson Centre.

Hank Ethier, an arts board member, said a thoughtful redefinition of the arts board is required. The vision of the future includes the board acting as an advocate for the arts community.

“The arts board would like to focus on growing arts and strengthening that community,” he said.

The arts board is looking for nearly $37,000, which the City will consider as an unfunded request. The funding would allow the all-volunteer board to hire a part-time employee, as well as maintain its website. It’s also hoping for in-kind support to use a City-owned space to house its files.

Other agencies, such as the Community Service Centre, did ask for small funding increases to offset the cost of rising salaries and fuel. The community service centre is looking for an $800 increase for the seniors’ transportation program and $7,800 for the special needs transportation program.

The John M. Cuelenaere Public Library is seeking a $233,910 grant increase to offset an increase in operational costs. Much of that increase includes a transfer of funds from the Wapiti Regional Library’s grant, which has, in the past, been transferred from that agency to the library to purchase material for the John M. Cuelenaere Library.

And with the City now directly funding the Mann Art Gallery, the gallery’s new director/curator, Jessie Campbell prepared a presentation to demonstrate how the City’s funding of the gallery compares to other municipalities. Using cheesecake slices of varying sizes, she explained that in comparison to galleries in Swift Current and Yorkton, Prince Albert funds its art gallery at a rate of about $1.21 per resident.

The Mann Art Gallery is asking for nearly $21,000 to cover the full staffing costs for the gallery. Campbell explained that this is a 50 cent per resident increase in funding.

After the meeting, Dionne explained that the requests that he has an issue with are the ones that need the $20-30,000 increase. He didn’t point to any requests in particular.

“And at some point, I’m going to propose to council that if our taxes go up two per cent, that’s what the external agencies should do.”

Looking ahead to the weekend budget negotiations, Dionne indicated that the committee is still looking to remove items from the budget.

“I can tell you this, there’ll be some items cut out of the budget already.”

The committee will also consider the future of a few City-owned buildings. In the budget documents, the City states a clear intention to tear down both the old SPCA building and the Girl Guides Hall. But there are also plans to sell the Prince Albert Kenshukan Judo Club’s dojo on First Avenue West. The building is already on the market, and Dionne wants interested buyers to contact him.

Dionne said that the Prince Albert Judo Club will be staying in the building until the end of June, so possession of the building won’t go to a new owner until September.

“But what it does [is] it allows some of our housing programs, like P.A. … Community Housing to apply for funding to the government because that’ll be a perfect location to put in affordable housing.”

The 2015 budget deliberations will take place on Friday and Saturday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at City Hall.

For live updates from this weekend’s budget meetings, follow @thiajames on Twitter.

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames