Not all onboard with transit plan  

Jasper municipal councillors have approved Jasper’s 2024 operating and capital budgets, but members of the local tourism bureau remain concerned for Jasper’s fiscal future. 

After six marathon sessions to deliberate on what administration presented to them on November 21, councillors whittled down a proposed 16 per cent rise in year over year net tax to a 10.6 per cent increase.

“The 2024 budget addresses significant reinvestment in aging infrastructure to ensure our municipal assets continue to serve future generations of residents,” Jasper Mayor Richard Ireland said in a statement.

A month ago, at the start of their budget talks, Chief Administrative Officer Bill Given introduced the process by reminding councillors that in 2023’s inflationary economy, interest rates and the cost of borrowing has gone up. He also noted that more than $1 million of the 2024 budget’s increases were non-discretionary, including $600K in mortgage payments to pay for facility renovations; approximately $400K in staffing costs added last year; plus annual cost-of-living increases. 

Councillors were therefore challenged to find reductions which would, besides reducing the tax burden, help appease members of the local business community, who, on November 28, voiced their concerns alongside Tourism Jasper’s plea for austerity. However, after administration presented a suite of revenue and savings opportunities—including increasing paid parking rates and removing a proposed full time staffing position in the Community Development department—council was able to reduce the net impact of the tax increase by about $347,000.

That was on December 12. A week later, after making more tough decisions on external funding requests from non-profit groups, spreading some municipal positions over two-year terms and electing to reduce operational services in certain areas, the tax increase had been pared down to a 10.6 per cent increase—with the overall impact to tax payers being almost another percentage lower once an “over-levy” from prior years is applied.

“Under the budget as approved, 57 per cent of residential properties will see an increase of $18 per month or less,” the municipality’s statement on the approved budget notes. 

Still, the increase is concerning to Tourism Jasper, according to the organization’s president and CEO, James Jackson. 

Jackson said while he and his colleagues appreciate the percentage number coming down from 16 to 10, the group’s larger concern is “that we will find ourselves having this conversation again next year,” and noted the municipality is operating at 95 percent of its debt limit in 2025.

“[That] only leaves one material option, and that’s to increase taxes further,” Jackson said.

During earlier budget sessions, some councillors expressed their discomfort with Jasper approaching its debt limit. The Jasper Park Chamber of Commerce’s president, Troy Mills, also mentioned the debt limit when he presented a statement to council. A debt limit is the maximum debt that the municipality may undertake in a fiscal year. It’s legislated by the province at 1.5 per cent of a municipality’s annual revenue.

“What happens if we hit that debt ceiling?” Coun. Helen Kelleher-Empey asked.

In response to Kelleher-Empey’s concerns, CAO Given noted that Jasper has taken on significant debt to make reinvestments in its recreation facilities and the wastewater treatment plant, but that as a community with growth restrictions, Jasper’s long term capital needs are unlikely to grow significantly in the near future. 

“I don’t know that there are other items that we would need additional multiple millions of debt for,” Given said. 

He added that in extreme situations the province has the ability to manipulate the municipality’s debt limit.

“The province has been know to provide relief on the debt limit for municipalities that need to access that,” Given said. “But I can’t foresee anything that would put us at or over our municipal debt capacity.”  

An item that would require Jasper to borrow about $726,000, were it to proceed, would be the construction of a storage facility to house a municipal transit fleet. During the budget discussions, it was revealed that Jasper has qualified for a $5 million federal grant, to be used towards capital projects for zero-emissions public-transit. All told, the capital projects proposed have a value of $8 million, meaning the municipality would be required to source $3 million of the project cost.

While keeping the line items—zero emissions buses, e-bikes and infrastructure, for example—in the 2024-2028 capital budget will have no net tax impact in 2024, some councillors were not interested in going down the road of electric-powered transit without a better roadmap.

“I’m not against green energy, but I don’t feel I have the information to support this,” Kelleher-Empey said, defending her motion to remove the transit portion of the capital budget.

After her motion was defeated 4-3 (Councillors Kathleen Waxer, Scott Wilson, Wendy Hall and Mayor Ireland were opposed), Tourism Jasper echoed Kelleher-Empey’s sentiments.

“Committing to years of yet-to-be confirmed operational costs and further debt with only four months of data and no transit master plan is dangerous,” Jackson commented.

The JPCC’s Mills said the business community feels the project has been rushed.

“It’s a big project, one which comes with a big bill,” he said.

But Councillor Waxer spoke for the majority of councillors when she said she would prefer to keep the window of opportunity open.

“I’m reluctant to throw that [$5 million] away at this point,” Waxer said. 

In 2024, an anticipated rise in visitor paid parking revenue to $1.35 million will help cover the operation of municipal transit expenses as well as the renovation of Jasper’s recreational facilities. 

Council also committed $388,857 in total community group funding to support organizations such as the Municipal Library, Habitat for the Arts, the Jasper Artist’s Guild, the Jasper-Yellowhead Historical Society, and the Heritage Folk and Blues Society. 

Continuing support for crisis-response needs in the community will be aided with a part-time term position in the municipality and $12,500 of operating funding to the Crisis Team Jasper Society for after-hours service.

The 2024 Capital budget totals $41.2M, 58 percent of which is funded from outside sources, 30 percent from debt and 11 percent from reserves, the municipality stated.

Capital budget projects of note include updates to the transportation masterplan; the ongoing construction and improvements to the Jasper Arena, Activity Centre, and Fitness & Aquatic Centre; the replacement of the fire department’s Aerial Truck; the development of Parcel GC for a 40-unit affordable housing block; and the purchase of three zero-emission transit buses over two years. 

Next steps in the budget process include bylaws to set utility rates in January, and taxation rates in the spring before 2024 tax notices are sent out to property owners in June.   

The finalized capital and operating budgets are available on the municipal website.

Bob Covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com