Suppliers reap $28 million as City increases spending in 2015

2015 proved to be a good year to do business with the City of Prince Rupert, with the city ramping up on its spending plans and the city's finance department delivering payments totalling close 29 million dollars to a range of suppliers both local and out of town.

The review of the City's spending was included as part of the Statement of Financial Information released this week by the City of Prince Rupert, a requirement of fiscal transparency that must be disclosed before the end of June each year.

This years documentation indicates that the City has shifted its focus when it comes to spending, that after a number of tough financial years that saw spending plans tightly reined in to under the 20 million dollar range.

The largest portion of the 2015 amount was destined for the Receiver General for Canada, with the RCMP receiving $3.2 million and the City's share of Payroll deductions coming to $1.2 million for the year.

The Municipal Finance Authority also received a payment of $1.3 million as part of the city's debenture debt. While the Commission of Municipal Superannuation received just over $1.1 million for the city's portion of pension requirements.

Beyond the payments to government agencies, the City's largest payments in 2015 included $4.1 million for Prince Rupert's Broadwater Industries and just over $2 million for Adventure Paving.

Coast Industrial Construction also made it to the million dollar list, with a payment of $1.1 for services in 2015.

There are 99 companies or organizations listed in this years review provided through the SOFI report, with sixteen of those listed as receiving more than 400,000 dollars for work or services provided.

Those listed between 400,000 and 1 million include:

First Canada  $860,186
BC Transit  $663,490
Valkyrie Law Group  $645,006
BC Hydro  $573,113
Stantec Consulting  $436,134
Manulife Financial 625,009
Northwest Fuels $464,566
Rupert Wood n Steel  $442,570
Eby and Sons $439,512

The remainder of those on the list received payments range from 25,000 to 400,000 dollars.

At close to 29 million in spending for 2015, the numbers make for almost a nine million dollar increase in spending from the report of 2014, when payments to Suppliers were listed at just a bit over 20 million dollars.

Two years has clearly made a difference when it comes to turning the financial tap back on at City Hall, by comparison to this years report, for the year end of 2013 payments to suppliers had totalled just under 17  million dollars.

You can review the full information provided as part of the Report from the City's Agenda for the Wednesday Special Council session, the listings can be found from pages 18 to 21.

The Statement of Financial Information will also be posted to the City's website here.

More items related to the City's Budget planning and financial notes can be found here.

Further background on the work of Prince Rupert City Council can be found on our archive page here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review