The City of North Vancouver is holding the line on most of its operating expenses, and finance department staff say a two per cent tax hike is a realistic option for council.
Meeting as the city finance committee Monday night (Jan 30), councillors heard presentations from several city departments and external agencies. Most requested budget increases in the low tens of thousands while two - the fire department and corporate services - reduced their expenses from 2011.
The committee does not make any decisions at this stage in the budget process.
The overall city budget, in this early draft, is expected to be $58.1 million, a $1.3-million increase over the previous year. The bulk of this increase is $343,800 for the RCMP contract and a $687,000 fund earmarked for contracts with CUPE and the firefighters' union. Those two contracts are still in negotiation and staff was not able to offer any further details in public.
On the revenue side, staff expect to see about $600,000 in new taxes and fees, leaving a remaining $667,000 to be covered by a rate increase of 1.67 per cent. Staff suggested rounding that off to two percent and adding the difference to infrastructure funds.
Staff also presented options that would see an additional one percentage point hike to pay for greenhouse gas emission reduction projects or a combination of GHG work and new clerical positions.
City tax rate increases have hovered between three and four per cent for the past five years.
"Our order of magnitude is unlike any of the other municipal services," said Supt. Chris Kennedy of the North Vancouver RCMP. "It's not just straight-line accounting."
The detachment fields between 128 and 130 officers, Kennedy said, who are responsible for both the city and the District of North Vancouver.
"For this year," he said, "we have a (contract) increase of about $260,000. . . .$75,000 of that is for Lower Mainland Division integrated services and we have no control over that.
"I know we're all waiting for this new RCMP contract. I hope, from my perspective, that it's going to bring cost containment and accountability. I know both mayors have stressed that."
Fuel costs for police have more than doubled over the past three years, to $80,000, said Kennedy.
"On our overall budget, not a significant hit, but it is a 150 per cent increase so we're going to start examining ways to try and reduce our use of fuel, reduce the use of a car, and get our members back out on foot - and get them healthier," he said.
Kennedy's presentation also called for funding of two new positions to handle criminal record checks and other clerical tasks.
Finance director Isabel Gordon said she was budgeting $65,000 for the city to purchase offsets from the Pacific Carbon Trust, as required by the province. It's possible, she said, that the province might permit that money to be spent in North Vancouver on carbon-reducing projects. A further $31,000 is needed to meet WorkSafeBC standards.
North Vancouver recreation commission requested an additional $50,700 to cover wage, benefit and utility cost increases. The city library asked for additional $29,500, primarily to replace declining revenue from interlibrary borrowing.
Both the North Vancouver Museum and Archives and The Arts Office maintained their 2011 budgets.
Human resources director Susan Ney told council that given the demographics of the city's employees, as much as a quarter of all workers were eligible to retire "right now."
What's more, she said, her office is finding it increasingly difficult to find new hires with the right skill set, particularly in engineering.
"A competitive compensation package, programs that are valued by employees, and an excellent work environment will be of increasing importance to the city for use to be able to hire and retain the skill that we need to provide services to the community," she said.
Council was presented with a list of capital projects to consider and prioritize. A larger discussion of capital costs will happen at the next finance committee meeting Feb. 27. Councillors may also give first reading to their 2012 tax bylaw at that meeting.
Follow us on Twitter: @NorthShoreNews
