Sechelt’s plan to have its 2022 budget at a semi-final stage before the end of 2021 hit a snag and won’t happen.
On Dec. 10, the municipality’s recently recruited communications manager Lindsay Vickers told Coast Reporter that the public information meeting on the budget slated for Dec. 13 would not be proceeding. “The District is still working on balancing the budget, so will postpone next week’s meeting to Dec. 20 in order to be able to provide more information to citizens,” Vickers wrote in an email. No details on timing or format for the event were provided or posted on the secehlt.ca at that point.
Also postponed was Sechelt’s plan to have its 2022-2026 Financial Plan Bylaw in front of council for three readings at the Dec. 15 council meeting. The next opportunity for the bylaw to be considered at a scheduled council meeting will be on Jan. 19.
“Fortunately, we are months ahead in the budget planning process this year and we are confident that the budget will be approved long before the May deadline,” Vickers wrote.
Sechelt introduced the first version of its 2022 budget draft on Nov. 10. That document contained a review schedule that included the mid-December meetings.
The draft spending plan was the subject of public in online participation meetings on Nov. 15. At committee of the whole meetings hosted Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 changes to the draft were recommended. Most of those adjustments were aimed at reducing proposed spending levels. In Sechelt’s original 2022 budget proposal, a property tax increase of an estimated fifteen per cent over 2021 levels would have been needed to fund the coming year’s operations.
