August 11th, 2023
Responding to questions via email, CAO Camille Box said, “Council passed the third reading of the mill rate bylaw Friday morning. Notices will be printed today and will go out in the mail tomorrow. There were no changes from last year other than the four organized hamlet agreements previously approved by Council. Our revenue will be approximately the same as last year. The hamlet agreements are now attached to the tax bylaw, so they did not have to be approved separately again.”
In 2021 the RM had an interim audit completed, which hadn’t been completed in previous years. “They told us if we did the interim audit then the majority of the year is done and is finished..and it would greatly increase the speed that they could get out,” said Bob Schmidt. But that’s not what happened.
The group McKillop Taxpayer Network has taken notice of the delay. On their Facebook page, they posted that the RM has been late every year since 2019 and that the “Council is operating without an approved 2023 budget, giving tax breaks with lower mill rates to certain Organized Hamlets while waiting for the 2022 audited financial statements in order to complete and approve the budget.”
When asked about the delay, the RM said, “In previous years Council had passed the bylaw to extend the time to complete audited financial statements as a precaution, but they were finished and submitted on time. Council reviewed and approved a financial report that included an interim budget in May. The interim budget and YTD financials are reviewed at Council meetings.”
CAO Box said they will be looking at an earlier start date next year for both the interim audit and the final audit.“ I will be discussing with them a start date earlier in the year to avoid the situation we found ourselves in this year. This year they didn’t start until March. If they cannot accommodate an earlier start date, the RM will consider posting a ‘request for proposal’ for audit services.
The RM said that the Hamlet agreement would lower the mill rates for ratepayers in those hamlets, and the RM would make up any revenue shortfall with a special levy for that Hamlet.
