Cartier keeps budget conservative

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/05/2021 (1830 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Uncertainty about how long the COVID-19 pandemic will last and what 2021 will bring has kept the rural municipality of Cartier’s budget conservative this year.

“(The pandemic) hasn’t really made anything dire for the RM,” Reeve Christa Vann Mitchell said. “Because it’s continuing and there’s kind of the unknown, we really don’t want to trigger (anything).”

Council has opted not to dive into big capital projects, Vann Mitchell said. The municipality held a hearing for its financial plan on May 5.

Taxes have increased marginally in the Local Urban District of Elie, from a mill rate of 4.416 in 2021 to 4.479 this year. The average homeowner in the area will pay $20 to $30 more in municipal property tax, Vann Mitchell said.

Folks with rural properties will see taxes decrease. Their mill rate will be 3.663 this year, compared to 4.713 in 2020. The at large mill rate bumps up to 6.027 from 5.683.

However, it will seem like people are paying higher taxes when they get their bills — this is because of the new education tax credit system, Vann Mitchell said.

Before, homeowners would get $700 in property tax taken off their bill, and they wouldn’t notice the money gone, Vann Mitchell said. This year, the province has lowered the education property tax credit to $525 as it moves to phase out the tax. The $525 will be part of people’s bills, and they’ll get a rebate cheque of up to $525 from the province later on to cover the cost.

Bill 71 needs to pass before Manitoba can issue the cheques, according to a provincial spokesperson.

Homeowners will not necessarily receive the full $525. The Headliner asked how Manitoba will determine how much money folks will receive in their cheques.

“The province will provide a 50 per cent education property tax rebate directly to residential and farm property owners over the next two years (25 per cent this year and 25 per cent next year) and a 10 per cent rebate on other properties in 2021,” the spokesperson wrote in an email.

Cartier expects school taxes will make up $4,212,995 — or 41.6 per cent — of its revenue this year. 

The RM has a budgeted revenue of $10,134,643. Municipal property taxes are planned to make up 34 per cent of the revenue, at $3,442,009. 

The municipality has budgeted for $5,921,647 in expenditures. It spent $5,690,082 last year, over $650,000 less than planned.

Cartier hopes to receive funding from the provincial and federal governments to plug 25 miles of water lines through the RM. It’s trying to get an Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program grant, where each level of government will pay a third of the project’s costs.

“If we don’t get those matching grants, it’s not feasible to ask a ratepayer to hook up,” Vann Mitchell said, adding she guesses the initiative could cost up to $4 million.

The RM has set aside money for surveying the municipality’s drain ditches, paving roads and continuing the fire department’s alert system, among other things.

The budget is on the municipality’s website.