A statement made in their article suggests that the R.M. saved $400,000 for the shop in the five years after the 2015 referendum which put a halt on the R.M.’s plan to build a new shop at significant expense. Financial statements from the R.M. show that $400,000 was put away in two deposits, the first $200,000 in the fall of 2013 and the second in the fall of 2014 for a total of $400,000 which remains today. None of this money was saved after the 2015 referendum.
After the 2015 referendum, the costs of this Council’s day-to-day operations escalated, and the R.M. found itself in financial trouble. Instead of cashing in the $400,000 shop fund which the R.M. obviously couldn’t afford, Council cashed in two term deposits in 2016 for a total of $455,000 and put the money into general revenue to try to stabilize their finances. These term deposits were money put away by previous Councils years ago. This Council hasn’t saved a cent for a shop but has spent $55,000 more than the money allocated for the construction of a new shop. Their financial problems continued in early 2016 and they made the decision to take out a $350,000 operating loan as a safety net because they were close to being unable to pay their bills.
In the Reeve and Council’s statement they provided numbers in their 2021 operational budget that predicts a surplus of about $13,000. However, the R.M.’s financial records indicate that, as of September 1, it is already $100,000 over budget for wages in 2021 with four months left in the year.
Taxes to the ratepayers went up in 2021 due to assessment value increases but there is still not enough money to operate the municipality’s day-to-day operations due to the excessive number of employees and the cost of inflation.
That brings us to the question the concerned ratepayers have: “Where is the money going to come from to build and maintain our roads that are currently in dire need of rebuilding and repair?” The current Reeve and Council haven’t saved any money for a shop; they just reallocated $400,000 of our savings that was invested years ago when the municipality was under better management.
When Reeve Digney was asked by some ratepayers at an R.M. meeting about building roads he replied, “We can’t afford to build new roads.” Now we are left wondering how they can afford to build a multimillion-dollar shop when day-to-day operations already indicate a deficit in their budget. We as ratepayers need our Council to start addressing the ratepayers’ concerns. As our elected officials, the Reeve and Council should be representing the voices of the ratepayers; instead, they have disregarded our concerns entirely. We don’t need answers like our Reeve provided when he was questioned by a Last Mountain Times reporter about what he was going to do about the opposition toward building a new R.M. shop. He replied, “Too bad, so sad.” Councillor Davis stated to Council regarding the concerns of the ratepayers wanting a referendum, “Give the ‘clowns’ their vote.”
We as concerned ratepayers feel this Council has lost its way and does not seem to realize that if they don’t curb their spending the R.M. roads and infrastructure are going to break down even further than they already have. It is abundantly clear that the only way to pay for a new shop is by substantially raising taxes. So, we are asking ratepayers of the R.M. of Mount Hope #279 to VOTE NO to building a new shop because we can’t afford it and it will lead to financial ruin.
Submitted by a committee of concerned ratepayers from the R.M. of Mount Hope #279: Doug Edwards, Kevin Gettis, Wayne Hicks, Steve James, and Ian Saul
- Idea’s and opinions expressed here are those of the author. This has been published as-is, without editing.
