2021 Budget - Balancing the Budget

Each year Council debates and discusses the budget during a series of meetings in order to balance the budget and determine what they feel is an acceptable level of taxation and amount for user fees.  Municipalities can’t have budgets that don’t balance as set out in the Municipal Act, so all revenues and expenses must be equal. The first DRAFT of the budget was presented to Council at the October 6th meeting and is currently not balanced so Council and Staff have a significant amount of work to do. 

There are many competing demands for your tax dollars and user fees. Council needs to determine the services and programs residents require, along with the demands for repair and replacement of aging infrastructure. There are many other items, some out of the control of the Municipality, that also impact the budget such as:

• growth demands
• the property tax assessment base
• long term contracts
• economic trends
• the strategic plan
• new programming to deliver services
• debt levels
• staffing needs
• planning for future capital through reserve allocations
• pressure from external sources and legislative changes
• along with the day to day operating needs of the Municipality

In addition to the Municipal Act, the key legislation that impacts the annual budget are:

Visit our website at www.mississippmills.ca to see the DRAFT 2021 Budget details, view upcoming livestreamed budget meetings and watch for the Budget Survey coming out the week of October 19, 2020.