The city of St. Albert has once again received a national award for its annual budget for the fiscal year beginning Jan. 1, 2025.
To receive the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award, presented by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA), the city has to satisfy nationally recognized guidelines for effective budget presentation, a news release said.
"These guidelines are designed to assess how well the city's budget serves as a policy document, financial plan, operations guide and a communications device," the city said in a news release. "Budget documents must be rated 'proficient' in all four categories and in the 14 mandatory criteria within those categories to receive the award."
Some of those criteria, accessible through GFOA's website, include explaining the long-term, strategic goals of the budget document, the priorities and issues of the upcoming year, and providing an overview of significant budgetary items and trends.
The 2025 budget was approved at the Dec. 17, 2024 council meeting, following the city's budget deliberation process. The city said it focuses on maintaining the high standards of services provided to its residents, businesses and community stakeholders.
St. Albert's 2025 budget included a 3.6 per cent property tax increase, as well as details on how it planned to advance council's priorities, including Lakeview Business District.
"We are honoured to receive this award for our municipal budget for the 20th consecutive year," St. Albert Mayor Cathy Heron said. "This award shines a light on the quality of our budget as it is measured amongst our peers in North America. It showcases our city's commitment to ensuring transparent and quality budgeting practices in creating our budget year-over-year."
St. Albert's financial services manager Suzanne Findlay said she and her colleagues were proud of the work it took to be recognized so many years in a row.
"It is a lot of hard work that's put in by staff," Findlay said. "We certainly start looking at this even when we go to start working on our proposed document that goes out in the fall. We're very proud and very happy that we were able to be a successful candidate for it again."
