By Sebastian Kanally, Times Chronicle

Oliver town council is deep in discussions about the five year financial plan raising tough questions about whether to take on debt, tax rates and where they can trim costs.

The draft budget was presented by John Kurvink, chief financial officer for the town of Oliver on December 11 and a second draft was discussed on January 22. While details are still being worked out many large projects have been decided on.

The total operation for the town of Oliver for 2024 will be $15.1 million. This is split into operating costs, which is set to be a little over $10 million, and capital projects which comes in at around $5.08 million.

The capital expenses are broken down into $2.6 million for water projects, $1.9 million for general expenses such as building, equipment, vehicles, land, and road projects, and $485,000 for sewer projects.

The budget for 2024 as it stands now will see no debt added to the town, but some reserves will go into the red in 2025 if no changes are made.

Part of the reason there will be no debt added is the 15 per cent water tax rate increase and the 30 per cent sewer tax increase, passed in December of 2023.

Water Councillor Rick Machial was particularly disgruntled by the 15 per cent water increase. “We have to think of those people, where are they going to come up with that extra money?”

He went on to say you have to borrow to pay for some of this stuff.

“So those increases are based on us actually doing it and just sticking it to our users, good luck. Look what happened in Osoyoos. We can’t just do that to people,” he continued.

Councillor Aimee Grice noted that they wouldn’t be able to lower the rate without going into the red, and debt funding still has to be paid for. Council already unanimously approved the rates in December.

As the first ideas of their plan for the budget revealed back in November 2023, this new budget is the result of Kelly Mercer, director of operations for the town and Kurvink, taking the reins, from what was left to them by their predecessors.

The largest project coming in 2024 will be the Co-op Ave project. This project will see curbs and gutters, as well as storm and black water drainage installed on the North side of the road. The project will also see a three-way stop installed at Station St. and Co-op Ave.

Kurvink noted in his presentation that 99 per cent of the projects are considered priority one “critical” which the town has characterized as crucial in “maintaining key infrastructure or delivering core services.”

This critical assessment echoes the cautionary alarm Kurvink sounded back in November when talking about the depleted state of town infrastructure.

A big ticket item in the general category of vehicles is a new street sweeper which comes at the cost of $470,000. The new one will be more effective and able to operate on the highway. The money will be coming out of the community works fund (CWF).

The town met on January 9 with the Fire Department to go over their budgets. The department sought a full structural protection unit to deploy around the province for wildfires. While not remembering the exact numbers, town staff noted it would generate “significant” revenue from fighting fires and would pay for itself in a few years. Revenue from this unit would then go towards purchasing a local structure protection unit.

Councillor David Mattes asked if town staff could put together a business case on this line item. He reasoned that since the unit is not for Oliver specifically and will be deployed in areas of the province other than Oliver: “we are going into business”.

Since they are going into the business of wildfires he would want more information on whether it was economically viable.

Mayor Martin Johansen says he would be struggling to support this as well, noting that “this is a bit of a red flag for me unless the business case comes back all bells and whistles”.

Town staff will be bringing back this assessment to the next meeting to discuss the budget.

There were some other equipment projects that were added since the first draft of the budget, most having to do with the fire department.

These include wildfire upgrades for three fire vehicles at a cost of $34,000, and three additional self-contained breathing apparatuses at $35,000, among others.

Plans for phase two of the Ditch Trail were also added for 2024 at a cost of $122,000. Replacement of decorative pole ornaments was also added, the cost of which will be dispersed over three years at $26,000 in 2024, $15,000 in 2025, and $10,000 in 2026.

The town spent almost three million dollars on capital projects in 2023. Out of these projects, some will be carried over into 2024.

Projects such as the Black Sage pump station well and electrical upgrades which came to $358,000 will be carried over.

The Rotary Beach discharge connection upgrades, paving and hydrant extensions at the firefighter training grounds, and the Town’s contribution to Co-op lane paving will all be carried over.

The total of carry-over projects is $758,000 and is not considered in the 2024 budget.