In her presentation to council, the executive director of CMHA Battlefords Branch, Jane Zielke de Montbrun, explained the interpretation of the Cities Act regarding their tax exemption is in dispute. Section 262 (1) (p) states that the following is exempt from taxation “so long as the buildings and lands are actually used and occupied by one of the following institutions, the buildings and land attached owned by a division, branch or local unit of: (i)The Royal Canadian Legion Saskatchewan Command; (ii) the Army, Navy and Air Force Veterans in Canada; (iii) the Disabled Veterans’ Association of Saskatchewan; and (iv) the Canadian Mental Health Association (Saskatchewan Division).”
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That is $1.5 million over the original submitted cost of the project of $13.6 million. Of that overage, Bayer said half of it is made up of construction PST, which was a provincial government dictate that came in after the city applied for the project in 2017. Checking with the feds, Bayer said there was nothing that could have been done by city staff about it. Essentially, he said, the timing of the submission is the driver of that cost. Bayer said it was a cost the city would not get back. “You used to get refunded the cost of PST, and no longer is that the case,” said Bayer.
But while COVID-19 was something that caught a lot of people by surprise, the pandemic was something the city saw coming. As early as January, the events in China and elsewhere around the world where the still-unnamed novel coronavirus was wreaking havoc were noticed by city officials. Before the pandemic was even declared in March, the city was working on a pandemic plan and they had also struck a deal with Battleford for a joint administrative committee to deal with the pandemic response. A temporary pandemic policy, based on an existing document that was already in place at City Hall, was approved at council March 9 just days before the first COVID-19 case hit Saskatchewan. At the council meeting, city manager Randy Patrick and director of protective services Lindsay Holm cited the urgency of getting something in place right away; their concern that something big was about to happen proved prophetic.
That means the budget, with its proposed one percent property tax increase, now heads to council for discussion and potential adoption on Monday, Dec. 14. In the end, there were no changes to the proposals administration had put forward on taxes. The consensus at the end of the night was to stick with the one percent increase in the general fund, which will flow to capital reserves. For utilities, the consensus was also to stick with the proposed zero percent increase in the utilities fund. The consensus is also to go with a zero increase to Underground Pipes and Asphalt Replacement for 2021.