A new user fee schedule presented to the committee of the whole during a special meeting Monday afternoon will see a $200,000 increase in revenues to the 2004 budget shortfall of $2.8-million, treasurer Peggy Dupuis said afterwards.
But as to what the revised fees—and any new ones—may mean to the taxpayers of Fort Frances remains to be seen as the schedule will not be made public until a meeting March 15, at which time council will reveal the proposed budget in its entirety and then welcome public input.
Clerk Glenn Treftlin said after Monday’s meeting that the proposed new user fee schedule has not been passed into a bylaw by council yet and so it was not official.
Presenting it to the public at this time, and out of context when not accompanying the rest of the budget, would be premature, he added.
The revised user fee schedule was the result of discussions by the various executive committees over the past few weeks. The committee of the whole briefly discussed a couple of items in the budget, including business licences, at Monday’s special meeting.
Coun. Tannis Drysdale noted a butcher’s licence, for instance, would cost $30 and a second-hand store would cost $25.
There was a consensus there were several inequities in the business licence fees, and councillors agreed to standardize all business licences at a rate of $35 (with the exception of pawn brokers).
Mayor Dan Onichuk also brought up the fact he was aware of some contractors from out of town operating here without temporary business licences, and that the town should try and enforce this better, to which Rick Hallam, supervisor of the Planning and Development division, agreed.
Dupuis also noted a few corrections to the user fee schedule, and in doing so revealed that, if the schedule is adopted, non-residents will be paying $20 per cubic metre of treated water purchased from the town in the future.
This move was first reported in the Feb. 11 edition of the Times.
As mentioned above, the public will be presented with the town’s proposed budget at the March 15 meeting at 6 p.m.
But before then, council will remain busy with numerous budget-related meetings. They will meet for an in-camera meeting today at 5:30 p.m. to discuss the 2003 corporate audit and its relevance to the 2004 budget.
A regular council meeting is slated for this Monday (March 8), followed by the special public meeting March 15 and then another meeting March 18 as a follow-up to that public meeting.
There then will be a regular council meeting March 22, at which time the user fee schedule is to be up for adoption. There then will be yet another special committee of the whole meeting March 24.
Council is hoping it will be able to pass its finalized 2004 budget at a special meeting March 31.
(Fort Frances Times)
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
