Town administration will be looking at what a 5 per cent cut to the 2019 operating budget would look like after receiving direction from council earlier this month.

Councillor Fred Makowecki requested corporate services to see if such a cut is possible ahead of budget planning scheduled before the end of this year. The town had an operating budget of just over $11.3 million in 2018, and a 5 per cent cut would mean administration would need to find about $500,000 in the existing budget.

“My thought process is that I’ve seen everyone have to pare back and the economy, in general, in the province being a tough one, I wanted to see whether there was room in there,” Makowecki says. “We have some initiatives we’d like to do going forward that is part of our strategy to attract and retain businesses.”

Part of the reason for the request is the possibility of a new conservative government in the spring elections, and municipal governments and public sector organizations across the province are wondering whether there will be funding and budget cuts if Alberta is under a new conservative leadership.

“If there is a change of government are there going to be austerity measures? Looking at that, if we run the exercise then we’ll know better what we can and can’t do.”

Part of the town’s operating budget is salaries, and administration has a number of vacant positions including directors for infrastructure and community services. The additional salary costs, once the positions are filled, shouldn’t be an issue in finding budget cuts, Makowecki says.

“This is definitely a part of the direction we want to go in and an integral part of that.”

Council green-lighted the potential borrowing of $5 million towards an application for disaster and flood mitigation funding to build a dike system along 40 kilometres of the Red Deer River at their meeting on Monday.

The town will be submitting an application for funding from the federal and provincial governments through the Disaster Mitigation and Adaption Fund to help pay for the project in hopes of flood-proofing the community. The extent of flood mitigation and locations of dykes would be contingent on the amount of funding received, if the grant is even approved.

CAO Darryl Drohomerski told council the move would show the town’s commitment to the potential project. He said the town had already approved the borrowing of $1 million so the town’s additional contribution would be $4 million, with borrowing spanning the years of the project.

Mayor Heather Colberg told the Mail the project is “literally speculation” at this point as funding is not guaranteed, but council has been working to lobby the provincial and federal governments to secure funding.

Councillor Tom Zariski said flood mitigation efforts in the community are due.

“This seems like an awful lot of money, and it is for a small community, but the reality is the Town of Drumheller – and people have to realize this – is a flood community,” Zariski said at the meeting.

“Literally thousands of people in this community in the spring are sitting on pins and needles waiting to see how high the water will go each year, and it absolutely brings everything to a standstill and it has hamstrung the community for 100 years,” he said, adding the project, if it goes through, will “get people in Drumheller out of this position where we have to look at spring with trepidation every single year.”

The town has a self-imposed debt ceiling of 18 million and the borrowing would have the town at nearly 55 per cent of their borrowing limit. At the end of 2018 the town’s debt was $9.2 million.

The government program provides funding to communities to support large-scale infrastructure projects regarding risks of natural disasters. Projects must have a minimum of $20 million in eligible expenditures.