By Angela Brown

N.B. year-end numbers favourable despite challenging year

Jun 30, 2017 | 12:08 PM

The City of North Battleford presented its 2016 financial figures at council’s meeting Monday, showing it managed to come through the year in good-standing despite the challenges.

Finance director David Gillan said he is pleased even though 2016 “was a tough year” the city came through well when comparing budgeted to actual numbers.

He said Husky Energy is still reimbursing the city this year for costs related to the 2016 Husky oil spill that impacted North Battleford.

The city finished the year with a total revenue of $5.7 million more than budgeted. From that amount, Husky Energy contributed more than $4 million related to the city’s local oil spill response.

In operating expenses, the city underspent by about $800,000. 

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Some departments underspent, such as policing, since the RCMP contract came in under-budget by $400,000.

Some additional savings also came from other departments, notably operations and maintenance came in at $412,000 under budget.

When budgeted projects aren’t completed in the year, the funds are carried forward to use in the next year.

Also under operating expenses, for the utility fund for water expenses, the city overspent by $3.3 million.

Gillan said the city “overspent dramatically because that’s the department that took the brunt of the oil spill expenses,” as the water department managed the Husky-related expenses.

Overall, the city had a $3.4 m surplus for general and utility funds in addition to the budgeted amount.

For the category surplus available for capital including UPAR, the actual numbers for the year-end showed a variance for a $3.3 million surplus, versus the budgeted amount. 

The city spent $1.8 million on building four new wells following the oil spill, which will add to its permanent infrastructure.

It also invested funds in connecting to the Town of Battleford’s water system and installing a specialized filtration system for the North Battleford water treatment plant, as part of the oil spill response. 

“There was excess surplus but it was all spent on capital items,” said the finance director. “Overall this surplus shows up as an incease in assets invested.”

City manager Jim Puffalt is also satisfied with the 2016 results and the auditor’s statements.

“Thumbs up, thumps down, it all worked out, it balanced in the end,” said Puffalt.

The city uses a zero-based budget so revenues and expenditures balance out, he added.

“Any type of surplus we get goes into capital so at the end of the year we are basically at zero,” said Puffalt.

angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW