MOOSE JAW — Major snowfalls earlier this year forced city hall to spend more time hauling away the powdery precipitation and blow through almost 80 per cent of its snow operations budget.
City administration presented the first-quarter financial report during city council’s May 12 regular meeting, with data showing revenues and expenses from Jan. 1 to March 31.
While discussing the document, finance director Brian Acker pointed out that the public works division’s expenses were 34 per cent higher for Q1 compared to the expected level of 27 per cent.
Specifically, of the $5,904,290 budgeted for this year, public works spent $1,995,973 compared to the expected $1,608,258.
The finance report noted that an overage in snow operations was one reason for the increase, as the city budgeted $1,596,259 for the year and spent $1,236,691 in the first quarter instead of the expected $827,233, using 77 per cent of the budgeted amount.
“As you will recall, we had some significant snow events in the first quarter, and as well, we did a significant amount of work around clearing snow and getting ready for the potential spring flooding,” said Acker. “So that’s caused that (line item) to be up significantly.”
The second reason the public works division’s expenses were higher is because repairs to the fleet vehicles were $246,000 over budget, he continued. This has become “an ongoing theme over the past few years,” because as the fleet grows older, the city faces significant increases in maintenance costs.
The city uses its equipment regularly and has related operating expenses and equipment reserve revenue contributions to make, Acker added. When expenses with the former exceed the latter’s revenues, that results in a loss.
Bevan Harlton, director of operations, said the city contributes money to each unit for repair and maintenance, but when those machines experience “catastrophic or unexpected” repairs, those costs become unfunded through the current funding model.
“So … we have five units that had, between hydraulic systems and transmission systems, significant failures (and) significant issues,” he remarked, noting that the city usually exceeds the amount in the equipment reserve making these unexpected repairs.
Meanwhile, the public works division faces a gap with commissioning new equipment, which was less of a problem in the first quarter but “more prevalent” last year, Harlton added. This means it takes time to make new machines usable since the supplier must ensure they’re road-worthy first.
City manager Maryse Carmichael said that while the public works division’s expenses are over budget, this report is just for the first quarter, while the city used its heavy machines frequently in February and March to prevent spring flooding. Therefore, staff had to repair machines more since they were used more.
“I’m not overly worried (about) this overage because I know it’s the first quarter and there is more time in the year to monitor (expenses),” she added.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, May 26.
