The Strathcona Regional District is in a good financial position going into the end of the 2020 fiscal year, as a third-quarter financial report shows.
The report was discussed at the Nov. 4 board meeting. Chief adminstrative officer David Leitch said that things were looking good for the district, despite the pandemic.
“Hopefully that alleviates any anxiety going forward, we’re looking good,” he said during the board meeting. “The regional municipal services are looking good.”
The report compares surpluses to those from 2019 from various areas of the district’s overall budget. Generally, operating expenses for the year were down from their projected amount. Property tax requisitions and other sources of revenue for the district remained generally stable. The surpluses are generally due to less spending across the board because of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the slow down of activity, money allocated to certain projects was not spent how it was expected, which contributes to the surplus.
“It’s been a rather unique year and we’ll continue to monitor everything,” said chief financial officer Mike Harmston. “We’re still early on in the budget cycle, but we’ll keep reporting as we progress through the year.”
“What we’re doing here is showing that anticipated surpluses are looking good, there won’t be any business cases brought forward to the board,” Leitch added. “Therefore in early January what we’ll do is provide a draft budget that includes the assessments and year-to-dates to give you the heads up that things are looking quite good.”
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