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Council candidates speak up on budget

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Two city council candidates are concerned incoming councillors might not be able to put their own stamp on the 2011 budget if the spending review starts before the October election.

The city’s 2011 budget process starts in earnest in September, when the current council will review the three-year capital budget and user fees. Council will create a preliminary outline of their thoughts and ideas for the budget prior to the election, however the new council won’t be able to make a stamp on the document until Nov. 8.

Cam MacKay, who announced his candidacy at the end of April, said the current budget process is an improvement over what’s been used in years past, however the election will still divide the budget into old and new council priorities.

“In your first year, you have no control over anything,” he said. “There should be more venues to make modifications after the election.”

Although he says he understands why new councillors need an orientation session to come up to speed on city policies, procedures and finances, MacKay doesn’t agree with allowing senior administration to run it, saying it could create a conflict of interest.

“How do you adequately represent the population when you have administration telling you how things work?” MacKay said. “There should be some separation from council and administration.”

Interim budget

Fellow council candidate James Van Damme said the idea of having the previous council lay the framework before the election is helpful and agrees with MacKay that the process is good for the new council coming into the middle of the budget.

However, instead of having a formed budget ready for them to work with, Van Damme said he would prefer to see the city pass an interim budget to cover the first few months of 2011 and let the new council build its own budget.

According to the province’s Municipal Government Act, municipalities are allowed to pass an interim budget for a portion of the year until a more permanent one is approved.

“The first three months, council needs to get their feet wet,” Van Damme said. “We should freeze any spending increases until we get our feet wet and come up with new ideas for revenue.”

Since he declared his election plans in December, Van Damme has made efforts to learn about the city’s operational process. If able to design a budget with the new council, he would like the city to set more aggressive revenue targets and create a tax system that would rise slowly to help cover capital projects without large tax increases every year.

“I see a lot of fat in the budget,” he said. “We’ve got to make sure we’re getting the best value.”

Both MacKay and Van Damme said they saw the budget process as an issue of common sense. For MacKay, who holds an accounting degree, he said the catch is that those who are elected to the new council need to possess that trait.