Surplus reports raise ruckus gŏđŏ
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Council reviewed two reports from administration and finance concerning end-of-year surpluses for both Russell Township’s own municipal programs and projects and also from the Russell Public Li- brary board on its 2013 operations. Both re- ports ended up going to registered voting for both acceptance and approval as Coun. Jamie Laurin questioned the recommenda-
tions in each of them concerning dispersal of the leftover funds. “It’s not acceptable,” said Coun. Laurin, regarding the municipal budget surplus re- port. At the end of 2013 the township has a sur- plus of $430,000 from operations, most of it resulting from unspent salaries and over- time along with some employee benefits that ended up unused. There are also some unspent funds in the infrastructure budget for the year be- cause some projects were either not fin- ished or not begun for various reasons. Those monies are either rolled over into the 2014 budget for project completion or transferred to specific reserves dedicated to those infrastructure items. Coun. Laurin’s objection concerns ad- ministration’s recommendation that the $430,000 operations surplus be divided up nine reserve funds, including a $200,000 lump sum going towards the Embrun fire station construction project to help reduce the amount of the proposed municipal loan for that facility. Laurin said council should instead apply some of the operations surplus to the 2014 budget and eliminate the 2.48 per cent tax rate increase, making it a zero-level budget. Any leftover money, he said, can then go to the fire station project. Mayor Jean-Paul St-Pierre disagreed. He
said the budget surplus report was fine as is because it helps build up reserves that the township can then draw on in future when needed. Jean Leduc, township chief admin- istrator, also said the budget surplus report follows administrative procedure for finan- cial management. The rest of council also supported the budget surplus report recommendations in a four-one registered vote, with Coun. Lau- rin the sole dissenting vote. The library surplus report from township administration also ended up in a regis- tered vote with this time Councillors Laurin and Pierre Leroux objecting. Their main ob- jection is that the report does not include an actual library board resolution for dis- posal of the projected surplus. The report notes an estimate of more than $50,000 in unused funds from 2013 li- brary operations. Details on how the library board estimated that figure were not clear. Both the library board and township ad- ministration agreed that $38,390 from the library surplus should go into the human resources reserve for library operations. Council approved a resolution confirming that reserve fund transfer. Any further reserve decisions will wait until council receives a more detailed and explicit resolution from the library board to confirm all sources and amounts for the end-of-year public library surplus. mars 2014. Les timbres vendus au carnet passeront quant à eux de 63 sous l’unité à 85 sous. Ces hausses font partie du nouveau Plan d’action de Postes Canada, mis en place pour «réorganiser les services postaux et leur tarification afin de répondre aux be- soins émergents et futurs des Canadiens, tout en réduisant considérablement les coûts». La société d’État a également annoncé le retrait progressif de la livraison du courrier à domicile et la mise en place, d’ici cinq ans, de boîtes postales communautaires pour l’ensemble des canadiens. Le Plan d’action de Postes Canada vise un retour à la rentabilité d’ici 2019. En 2012, Postes Canada avait annoncé une perte avant impôt de 327 M$, une première en 16 ans. Au deuxième trimestre de 2013, la perte s’est chiffrée à 104 M$.
GREGGCHAMBERLAIN gregg.chamberlain@eap.on.ca
EMBRUN | The mayor and one of his coun- cillors butted heads over reports dealing with budget surpluses for Russell Town- ship operations.
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