The budget for the RM of Portage la Prairie came down today. Reeve Kam Blight calls it aggressive.

"We're pleased with our budget. It's an aggressive budget. We have a lot of things we want to see accomplished. We're trying to do some more work to the Poplar Bluff Industrial Park, and get the infrastructure in place there. We're going to be continuing with the redevelopment with the Delta Beach campground. We're going to be doing some paving out there. And these are all actions we're taking this year. It's time to get moving on it, and we're at that point where we are going to. We set aside some money for that. We set aside some more moneys for continuing with our rural water lines expansion. We feel very positive here and very excited that we're going to complete the first round of rural water across our municipality. And that's very exciting for us, because this is a large municipality. We're looking at doing an improvement and expansion of the RM public works garage. We're throwing $100,000 at that just to give them a little bit more office space, and to add a couple of different bays at the public works. It does need a little bit of work. We're reluctant to spend too much money there until we know exactly what we want to do. Those of some of the items."

When it comes to taxation, Blight notes they're increasing tax revenue by about $48,000 or 0.7 per cent, after changes are made to the municipal mill rate. Blight notes while the rate's decreasing from 12.31 to 9.97, farmers will see an increse based on changes to assessment. 

Blight adds, "Naturally we want to keep the taxation as low as possible. And you have to understand with the new assessments that came out there's somewhat of a shift that has taken place again -- who's paying what -- who's paying the largest share of the taxation. So, those are certain things that we have to keep in mind. We did look at different options that were available to us in trying to adjust the portion assessment, etc. We're going to continue to lobby the province to re-look at that and rethink things."

He says they're going to continue to push to remove the school tax rebate cap on farm land, and looks forward to speaking to our new Minister of Education, Ian Wishart.

Blight says many grants have been issued, and the RM is informing residents they're going ahead and how much the RM has to pay along with these grants. For example, a grant for the Oakville lagoon expansion was applied for and was granted. $3.3 million sis being spent on the rural water lines, and two thirds of this is covered by the provincial and federal governments. 

The full list of highlights is as follows:

  • Poplar Bluff Industrial Park - road -$400,000
  • Heavy Machinery Purchases -$509,520
  • Drive In Road Upgrade -$115,000
  • Pave Hackberry Ave. West, Delta -$320,000
  • Public Works Garage Renovations -$100,000
  • Additional Surveying -$60,000
  • Regional Water Lines -$3,022,500
  • Lift Station Generators -$175,000
  • Oakville Lagoon Expansion - $932,400

Ending 2016 balance in General Reserve & Operating Surplus will be $4.6M
RM’s outstanding Debt drops from $8.9M to $7.7M

Blight notes the assessed value of farmland has gone up about 45%.  He notes the RM cannot control this as it is put in effect by the Province. In attempts to ease this increase, mil rates were decreased. 

 

Blight adds they're very proud of what they'll be able to accomplish in order to make our municipality a better place to live.

You can look at the entire plan by clicking here: 2016 RM Of Portage la Prairie Strategic and Financial Plan