Big Valley council has approved its 2022 Operating and Capital budgets and have managed to maintain zero increase for its municipal tax rate following the regular Thursday, May 19 council meeting.
Although the 2022 budgets were passed during the April 21 council meeting, amendments were brought back for council consideration and approval to avoid potential budgetary deficits.
“The operating budget amendment was necessary because revenues had been overstated in the original budget that was passed, and had to be amended so we didn’t end up with a potential deficit,” Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Elaine Macdonald explained.
Council passed the operating budget in the amount of $654,115 and a capital budget of $140,000.
CAO Macdonald notes, despite the amendments to the Operating budget, this will not impact the zero increase to the municipal tax rate, and village residents will also see no increase to their municipal water service fees.
Council also authorized the use of $15,342 in Municipal Operating Support Transfer (MOST) funds to help balance the 2022 Operating budget. Municipalities across Alberta received provincial funding in 2020 to help offset additional operating costs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which included provisions for lost revenues.

Westview Co-op bounced back in 2021 after a tough year dealing with COVID-19.
Westview Co-op held its AGM on Tuesday, May 10 to look back and evaluate the progress made in 2021.
“It was definitely a better year. Through that, our sales were up from $109 million to $126 million,” said general manager Mike Isaak. “Part of that is there is some inflation in there and definitely there were some fuel challenges from the previous year.”
He said the grocery business held on, and agriculture had a bit of a tough year.
“In general it can simply be because of the weather,” he said “That was a factor, but at the same time we were still able to manage accordingly. We also had a stronger patronage refund from Federated which helped support us and got our net savings to $3.5 million, compared to a loss in the previous year.”
The sales were also fueled by a strong home and building centre.
“This was part of the pandemic piece with people doing lots of ‘Do It Yourself’ projects. With not being able to travel, those restrictions definitely helped continue to support that business,” he said. “It slowed down later in the year though.”
In the Drumheller area, the Westview Co-op gas bar in Drumheller received an investment in new pumps. Westview Co-op also added EV charging infrastructure at its QE2 gas bar near Olds as well as in Carstairs.
“That was part of a Federated Co-op initiative,” said Isaak.
Westview Co-op’s equity allocation was $1.4 million to the members this past year, and just over $500,000 was paid in cash.
The Co-op saw one director retire this year, and no new directors have come on. Brad McDermid of Eagle Hill retired. Harvey Walsh of Olds is president and Kathy Little of Drumheller is vice president, Grant Hindbo is secretary. Other directors include Eric Poettcker of Linden, Shane Billings, Tammi Van Tighem, and Joe Bowhay. There are two vacancies.
There may be some change in the near future at the former Greentree Mall site. Isaak says they have tendered the demolition on the site, and hope to see the building come down this season. This is of course dependent on whether a suitable tender comes in.
“If the tenders come in ridiculously high we’ll have to decide what to do with that.”
Overall he said the Co-op is in a strong position for the future.
“We continue to grow and focus on our safety performance and our people, and continue to build our business,” he said.