2024 Municipal Budget

February 16th, 2024


To the Town of Creston Mayor and Council:


I am not writing this to say anything clever. I'm not even sure I understand all of the financial statements and clever marketing. I am curious, if this is a proposed budget and you state you want to hear views from the community, why does it say in the leaflet I received on February 13th. that the 7.3% tax rate increase is already approved? Have you all ready made your decision?

I just want to remind you that the majority of the people in Creston do not earn a lot of money. Half of the population is over the age of sixty with limited incomes and increasing health related expenses. We all know what inflation is and what it is doing to us. I also know there are many families out there struggling to pay bills, buy food and keep up with increasing mortgage payments. I remember what that was like. Does the mayor or town councillors? This may be difficult for some of you to understand, but give it a try. For many of us, coming up with an extra 100 dollars when taxes are due means going without some necessity, or having to deny a child access to a school activity. Am I getting through to you? It also contributes to a less vibrant downtown, as we all have less money to spend and businesses suffer.

I am not unrealistic. I realize that some increase may be necessary to cover inflationary costs. However, the Town needs to do their part to reduce costs, not increase them. Town of Creston residents need Town Council to start making fiscally responsible decisions that actually represent the needs of the community. Learn to make do with what we have without increasing taxes. Hold your managers responsible for their overspending of the taxpayer's budget, don't excuse it by approving an even bigger budget in 2024. We do not need the additional new expense of a procurement officer, emergency management coordinator, or a fire services support coordinator. If we have managed without them up until now we can continue to do so. Our population base has not increased enough to warrant continued expansion of the Town's work force. I am sure there are also other ways to reduce costs. For example: the mayor and council and the Chief Administrative Officer, Mike Moore could strive to stay within last year's budget. Did you see the overspending that occurred in 2023 in the proposed budget for these positions? The budgets were overspent in 2023 and greatly increased in the 2024 budget. Details of expenditures would be interesting. Are these available to the public? Mayor and Council need to remember that this is a DRAFT budget, and these budget items can still be changed. Residents need to make our elected officials aware of our opposition to unnecessary spending.

On a final note, I would have liked to have reviewed the facts and put more time into this, but we are only allowed to provide feedback up until February 16th, as stated. I do hope that you mean to consider feedback from all concerned citizens, and not simply provide lip service to the ideas of citizen input and transparency.

The Town infrastructure is something that you "can pay me now or pay me more later". There have been complaints raised about the condition of the road between Highway #3 at Collis Street and Highway #21. Citizens have complained for years about this street; it is full of potholes and is deteriorating rapidly along its length, especially from Comfort Welding including the turn on 1st Avenue N.W. There may have been an opportunity to pave this section at a reduced price when a full paving crew was here for McDonald's. However, that did not happen.

I really don't believe expanding government in a time when our country wide GDP is less then 1% You councilors should be focused on job creation outside of government and through this, realize an increased tax revenue instead of blindly raising taxes. Have any of you considered what's going to happen to the multitude of fruit farmers that just lost everything this year, when they have to go pay their extra 7% property tax when their broke? Free wills a funny thing that government doesn't understand. If you keep raising taxes people are and WILL move out of the area, decreasing overall revenue. Ask the provincial Alberta NDP what happened to business tax revenue when they raised it 4%....revenue crashed. We're in a recession, we're all burning away savings and your raising taxes lol. Very, very, irresponsible, lazy, Liberal governance on Crestons part.

Ridiculous to overspend and go into reserves. A Procurement officer? Seriously, you CANNOT be so irresponsible when you have the opportunity to maintain or even reduce taxation instead. You don’t have to be a neuroscientist to figure out that you do not buy the paint before you build the house.

We still are in dire need of more transit buses particularly handi darts. Route expansion would be an asset, ie: bus to Nelson for Doctor/specialist appointments, more days for service on request for rural areas for people to get to work, school, etc. With these problems solved far less vehicles would be on the road, less pollution, and with the price of gas, insurance, etc. and elderly people who can't drive and need bus transportation, this is something that should be done a.s.a.p.

We did the on line municipal budget survey and there was no place for comments as with the printed survey. Some of our input requires comments as we have nuances to our answers... "yes but..."

I did survey #2 online and there is not place for comments like in the paper copy. I checked yes for all the questions because I believe they are all important and in the long run will save us money for example: storage - less travel; Municipal Services Workflow - things done in a timely manner; Purchasing/Procurement, employ has time to find the best deals. Active Transportation, is just good for everyone.

What is the impediment to merging surrounding districts like Canyon, Erickson, and Wynndel with the town of creston?