Council's Strategic Priorities:
Sustainable Infrastructure
Sustainability and Livability
Good Governance

What our Financial Plan includes to address those priorities:
• Over five years that the Financial Plan covers, we propose spending over $23 Million on capital projects including more than $2 Million for water lines, $2 Million for Sanitary Sewers, and $19 Million for other projects.
• 2009 major capital projects include completion of the gymnastics facility, road works along Beaufort, Guthrie, Stewart, Nimpkish and Knight Roads, sidewalks on Anderton, Stewart, Beaufort and Buena Vista (Ivy-Anderton) crossing beacons and bus shelters to improve pedestrian safety & transit, storm drain & sanitary sewer replacements, park land acquisition, and designing the next expansion of the recreation centre, that will include a new fitness centre.
• Helping to make these 2009 capital expenditures affordable will be our use of $570,000 in Federal/Provincial Infrastructure Grants, $425,000 in Provincial Grants for capital expenditures, and $300,000 from the Nature Trust of B.C. to help with the park land acquisition.
• We will acquire a new fire truck in 2010.
• The Town will begin updating its Official Community Plan in 2009.  This is the document that describes how we want our Town to grow and change.  The process of developing the Plan will require broad public consultation.
• The Town is looking at its own sustainability and its environmental footprint. It is undertaking a baseline Greenhouse Gas (GHG) inventory, has signed onto the Province's Climate Action Charter, and is establishing a "green team" to look into becoming carbon neutral with Town operations.
• The Town will take the first step of offsetting its GHG emissions by planting trees under the "Trees for Tomorrow" program in 2009.
• Service improvements will include increased bylaw enforcement, another RCMP Officer starting April 2012, and increased snow removal budgets for roads and sidewalks.
• Modest staff increases in Public Works and Parks departments to deal with increasing workload as we look after more infrastructure through recent Town growth.

What will this cost?
• General Tax increase of 4% across 5 years of Financial Plan, plus the new cost of recreation centre expansion (electors approved last November) starting in 2009.  The Town's general tax increase this year on an average single family home is $70.58 of which just over half was from the new taxation for the recreation centre expansion.
• Utility increases of $53 in 2009 ($3 garbage, $48 water & $2 sewer).  The $2 in sewer is the net of a $64 reduction in sewer parcel taxes that mostly offsets an increase of $66 in sewer user fees.  This shift re-balances parcel taxes & fees so that fees pay all sewer operating costs.