City councilors again made no changes to Brantford’s preliminary $101-million capital budget for 2023 at a second meeting to discuss the numbers on Monday.
This year’s budget is a drop from the final capital budget of $134 million approved by city councilors for 2022.
The budget includes plans to purchase, build, maintain, repair and replace assets, including buildings, roads and bridges.
“The scope and scale of these standalone projects naturally vary from year to year based on current requirements and market conditions,” city treasurer and director of finance Joelle Daniels said of fluctuations in capital budgets. “The city uses a number of strategies, including contributing to reserves, to mitigate the financial impacts when circumstances in a particular year warrant higher capital requirements.”
Over several meetings this month, staff from city commissions and departments, along with local boards and agencies, will present their individual budgets to councilors.
The lion’s share of the capital budget – 93 per cent – is for public works projects to be discussed at a meeting on Wednesday. The remainder is for local boards, including library, police and John Noble Home; community services and social development; people, legislated services and planning; and CAO, including fire, finance, economic development and communications.
There are a total of 203 projects in the preliminary capital budget.
Funding for the capital budget comes from various sources, including reserves, developer contributions, gas tax (now called the Canada Community Building Fund), federal and provincial grants, and debt.
Monday’s meeting included capital budgets for Brantford Fire; people legislated services and planning; chief administrative officer; community services and social development; and the 2023 social services operating and capital budget, the cost of which is shared by the city and County of Brant.
Most of Brantford Fire’s $1.2 million capital budget, about $950,000, is for a new pumper/rescue vehicle, which will replace a 2005 model.
People, legislated services and planning has a capital budget of $2.2 million, which includes $625,000 for an electronic records management system and $350,000 for an archeological master plan update.
As the city’s reliance on technology continues to grow, the need to address electronic formating of records has increased, said Heidi DeVries, manager of people, legislative services and planning. Annual maintenance of the electronic records management system will be about $200,000 annually. The proposed project cost also includes moving records currently stored at the Brantford Airport, freeing up space there for some kind of revenue-generating activity.
The archaeological master plan includes an overview of the city’s settlement history and an inventory of sites. It maps areas of the city that have the potential to contain archaeological resources.
The social services capital budget of $4.5 million, shared between the city and County of Brant on a population basis, includes 20 projects, 19 of them related to the city’s social housing, mostly for repair work.
There are additional capital budget meetings planned for Wednesday and Jan. 23. The budget is expected to be approved at a council meeting on Jan. 31.
Meetings to deal with the city’s operating budget will be held in February.