Despite some challenges the Municipality of Sioux Lookout has managed to keep the tax rate down.
Council has approved the 2021 budget and a 0.3% tax hike.
Mayor Doug Lawrance says some sacrifices were made to balance the books.
“Capital was what probably took the biggest hit. We deferred many capital projects that probably we should be, we would like to address, but just trying to keep the budget to that point.”
Capital budget estimates come in at $9,382,175.
The operating budget for this year is $31,866,917.
Lawrance says a number of outside factors impacted budget deliberations this year.
“Right across the province all municipalities are faced with increased insurance costs. Actually that’s about a 0.3% increase right there for us. But for most municipalities I think insurance costs are going up anywhere from 20%-40%. So that’s a bit of a hit.”
Lawrance says the pandemic and declining revenues from a lack of user fees and facility closures also proved to be difficult.
He says the future outlook is unclear given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think we tried to put ourselves in a good position. We’re addressing some of the things we will be addressing in the Service Delivery Review and other things that have been on our plate that will continue to keep us as an efficient municipality and serving people’s needs.”
He adds, “I think the municipality is in a very good position. I think we recognize that we’re reasonably young, and vital and a growing municipality. And we have to continue investing in our future. We tried to balance that in striking this years budget.”
