Town passes 2026 budgets
The Town of Strathmore approved the capital and operating budgets for the 2026 financial year during the Nov. 25 budget meeting.
The operating budget was approved for $44,259,300, and the capital budget was finalized for $8,721,000.
“I can confidently say there was not a lot of meat left on this bone – in fact I would argue there was no meat left on this bone for us to pick at,” said Coun. Melissa Langmaid. “That makes it both a very easy budget for me to review, and also a very difficult budget because I would really like to find that meat on the bone that we could find some savings on, but there just was not a ton there.”
Similar to what was noted during the Nov. 20 budget meeting, council stressed that the overall municipal tax increase was set at 2.8 per cent. Last year, the budget was approved with a 3.62 per cent total increase.
Residents must still prepare to stomach a significant tax increase due to the provincial government’s education requisition, which is beyond the Town of Strathmore’s control to influence.
The town’s operational reserve policy mandates a minimum reserve balance of five per cent of the operational budget. This time around, that equates to $2.212 million.
Coun. Claude Brown motioned to reduce the proposed operating reserve contribution from $638,200 to $404,000, aiming for a 1.2 per cent tax decrease. This reduction was suggested to cut the $100,000 financial stabilization contribution and reduce non-annual recurring expenditures by $134,000.
“Reserves are what-ifs that will happen in the current year, and … should we require more payment into policing, and it doesn’t happen this year, then the reserves are just a means of building up money that we could be paying into that,” said Brown.
“Once that does become operational, it will be introduced into the budget. I do not believe that there is a risk in reducing the reserve at this time and breaking even.”
Brown’s motion was defeated in a vote of 4-3 against.
After accounting for all planned expenditures, administration estimated the uncommitted operating reserves sit at $3.421 million.
Seven community protective services projects were approved for funding, totaling $2,596,000. These included the final payment on a fire truck, $100,000 for the front-end engineering design of a new fire hall, $220,000 for a bush buddy replacement, $195,000 for a modular fire training center, and $850,000 for Phase 3 of the Family Centre Arena roofing project.
The town received over $27.6 million in capital requests for 2026. The current year capital requests funded was noted by administration to be at a little over $8.7 million. This represents the greatest amount of unfunded projects since 2023.
“It’s a country-wide problem talked about at all levels of government. It affects local government as well. It is important to note that while there is a $19 million deficit, it is just like our own home balances,” said CAO Kevin Scoble. “We all have things that we want that we can’t necessarily (afford). So, it is about building the reserves for what we absolutely need for future infrastructure.”