Wednesday, March 22, 2023

Prince Rupert residents to gain first glimpse of City's Budget plans for 2023 tonight

The start of the 2023 Budget process begins tonight, as Corrine Bomben, the City's Chief Financial Officer, makes use of a Special Committee of the Whole session, to provide the first look at the city's financial planning for the year ahead.

The Special session was announced on Tuesday, setting the time of 7 PM tonight for the CFO's presentation which will be streamed live on the city website.

As they note in their advisory, tonight is not a public engagement session, but rather that of an information session. 

The opportunity for public feedback on the proposed budget plan will come next month as part of the April 11th and 24th Council Sessions.

Monday night's Council session provided somewhat of a theme setter as to what to expect tonight.

With Mayor Herb Pond and many of the councillors noting of the challenges that remain for the city when it comes to operations and infrastructure.

The recent funding announcement of 65 million dollars from the Province was one which they greeted with gratitude, but were also quick to point out, was separate from he day to day financing of running the city and the decisions required towards that.

"So I hope people can separate it in their mind, this is massive in helping us deal in a backlog, but it sure doesn't deal with it all.

But the budget of running police, fire, recreation, all of those other things and ongoing road repair and everything else, is a completely separate matter" -- One segment of Mayor Herb Pond's commentary on Monday evening related to the city's budget issues ahead

Following tonight's session, the City will be providing resource material for the public to review in anticipation of the two public consultation periods ahead. 

As well as an opportunity to use their online portal Rupert Talks to offer guidance on budget themes.

The session tonight can be viewed through the City Video stream available here.

It should also be posted to the City of Prince Rupert YouTube Archive following the session tonight.

The Committee of the Whole Budget Special is not the only gathering for Council tonight.

The City's website indicates that two other sessions for the Council membership are set for this evening.

A Special Regular Meeting to take place at 4PM, followed by a Closed Council session.

So far, the City has not provided any details as to what the agendas for those two sessions will consist of, or what topics are to make for their discussions.

More notes on civic themes can be reviewed through our Council Discussion archive.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.

No comments:

Post a Comment