After a delay of more than four months, those in the Municipality of West-Interlake will finally get an opportunity to see the 2016 budget. It's the second year the budget has been delayed, after the 2016 budget was only passed in early August. The province requires municipal budgets to be submitted prior to May 15th, but West-Interlake was granted an extension as they worked through the challenges of amalgamation, as well as the working with a new format to input financial data.

Reeve Randy Helgason credits the work of CAO Larissa Love, as well the province for providing support throughout the process. While the document's presentation is significantly delayed, Helgason says they're pleased with the budget and they're also going to provide a bit of an extension for tax payers to address the late presentation. 

Randy Helgason

"It's late in coming, but I guess it's better to have all the figures correct, and go from there. We've also extended the deadline, the taxes don't have to be paid until the end of November, as opposed to the end of October. It gives people a little extra time to pay their taxes."

He says the mill rate in the Ashern area had increased, but they worked to hold the line for the municipality's ratepayers. He says those who attend the public hearing on the budget tonight can expect to see minimal tax increases for the municipality.

Helgason notes the included in the document presented tonight will be taking place over the fall, or next year. He says some of those projects include drainage, improvements to the boat launch at Silver Bay, and some work in the town of Ashern.

With the 2016 budget finally in place, West-Interlake's council and administration need to hit the ground running for the 2017 budget. Helgason feels that with everything in play at this point, they're not anticipating any delays in their 2017 budget.

"We'll be working on it in the new year. Now that we've got all the kinks ironed out, I don't see this happening in 2017."

Tonight's public hearing takes place at the Centennial Hall in Ashern, beginning at seven o'clock. Helgason says last year's presentation was well attended, and they're expecting quite a fewresidents  to show up for this public hearing.