2021 Budget - Reserves

The holidays represent a good way to demonstrate why it is important to have savings or reserves.  During this festive time, we can over-extend our pocketbook and we are left with some hefty year-end debt to usher us into the New Year. Unless, of course, you saved an appropriate amount of money in anticipation of your annual holiday shopping.

The Municipality has several different reserves or “savings”, each one with a very specific purpose, so that we can afford things we need, or the community wants.  This biggest expense the Municipality needs to “save” for in reserves is asset replacement and repair which is typically a very large expense.

You likely would not spend money you didn’t have or didn’t know where it was coming from. In municipal government relying on cash we do not have or are unsure if we would receive it would not be considered a "sustainable source of funding". You cannot plan your financial future around a possibility.  In the same way, the Municipality cannot depend on unreliable sources of funding – like a one-time grant or overstate revenues to lower the tax rate because it's unstable, unpredictable and unsustainable.

“Saving” for the future through reserves provides a predictable, stable and reliable source of money when the Municipality needs it whether it be for an asset repair or an emergency and is intended to keep taxes and other user fees stable.