Resident voices concerns as town budget deliberations approach

It’s budget time. At the Jan. 30, 2023, council meeting, the budget was tabled to council. Council was clear in their direction to have the Audit and Finance Committee review the budget and give their feedback.

I attended the Audit and Finance Committee meeting in person. Besides the election of chair and deputy chair things seemed OK, until administration instructed the committee that they would be reviewing the budget based on a mandate established for the 2022 budget because for 2023 this mandate is not established yet. They could not make any recommendation (possibly to save money and reduce the budget). They were to advise only. So, they simply were able to review each budget paper and determine if the verbiage was acceptable or not. I have a cost reduction proposal for your consideration. The only committees we should have are the committees that are legislated by law. This would reduce the costs within the committee’s budget centre, we wouldn’t have to pay overtime to the staff members attending these meetings and time off from work for managers and