The Village of St Pierre approved the 2023 budget with the mill rate rising to 17.345.

“It would mean a 2.7 percent increase in mill rate,” CAP Tina Bubenzer said. “This mill rate includes two debentures. So, the at-large mill rate is actually 16.999 without the debentures if you want to compare apples to apples to other municipalities as well as our utility is part of this operating mill rate where others are billed separate.”

In real terms, owners of a home valued at $87,000 will see an increase of $100 on their property tax.

“This two percent increase is just to allow for inflation for fuel and cost for parts, repairs for equipment. That’s what we’re off-setting this year because we’re preparing for the inflation, where as last year, we didn’t know that the gas was going to go up,” said Bubenzer.

The municipality approved a $2.7 million, budget on May 11 of which the revenue came largely from taxes. Other revenue streams included $62,779 general government sales of service, $17,000 from the cemetery; and $81,600 from recreation and culture services; $187,549 from provincial municipal tax sharing and $825,674 in conditional transfers from the provincial government.

When it came to expenditures, the village spent $703,823 on transportation services of which $72,500 was spent on engineering; $275,483 for equipment operators wages and benefits an increase over last year due to inflation; $238,640 for storm sewers; and $27,600 for street lighting.

“We applied for some funding for some more storm sewer projects, so we have a little bit of expenses there that we have to cover, but that will only be done if we get the funding through the province…We’re doing some more cleaning of our storm sewers this year. We kind of skipped a few years so this year we made sure we get that done,” said Bubenzer.

The village also received a provincial grant from the climate and conservation fund of $134,700, which will be spent on reducing infiltration into the town’s sewer system. The project is being tendered out right now.

“We’re looking at hiring an engineering or consulting firm to help us develop incentive programs to help alleviate the weeping tile and sump pumps being put into our sewer system. As well as, looking at ways to grout our manholes from infiltration from ground water so we can alleviate some of the surface water or ground water from entering our sewer system,” said Bubenzer.

In 2020, the village started a project of upgrading the size of the storm water system that goes to the creek by the museum. The village increased the size of the pipes in order to alleviate some of the surface water ponding on Hwy 59. This is a six phased approach of which the municipality is in the third phase of the project.

Government services was another expense at $488,072 of which $47,500 was for mayor and council indemnities; $200,344 for clerk and staff; $100,070 for office maintenance, advertising, website, operations, and IT services; and $26,700 for conventions.

For recreation and cultural services, the village will be spending $318,829 of which $209,460 will go into the arena and $69,500 will go into Parc Carillon.

“(The cost for the arena) is for operations and the community hall. (For the park) it’s for splash pad maintenance, campground maintenance, maintenance of structures, salaries, insurance is n there as well. On top of that is an operating grant we give to the library for $17,000 roughly,” noted Bubenzer.

For policing and fire services, the municipality is looking at spending $316,769 which is split between the RCMP ($161,262) and the fire department ($119,007).

“Police and fire goes up five percent every year. Slight increase in fire costs, but that is split 50/50 with the RM of De Salaberry,” she said.

Other expenditures include $119,600 for garbage collection; $58,950 community economic enhancements; and $48,000 to M. Richards, a consulting firm they use for economic development and development and planning. The village has also budgeted to put in a six-foot wide pathway for Jolys Avenue East between Parentau Road and Mulaire Street.

Debentures for the village include $7,112 for the Manoir expansion; $6,929 for the community dyke; $10,837 for new offices at 555 Hebert Ave.; $40,563 for lagoon expansion; and $18,738 for sewer renewal.

“We have five debentures. Two of them are utility debentures so we have one debenture for the lagoon expansion that happened in 2018 and then we have a sewer renewal debenture that we took out last year to realign and replace under our main line (Hwy 59), as well as, Jolys Avenue East and West we did some repairs there. We lined some of (the sewers) and did some replacements. So, all our main lines are all new.

“The debenture for the community dike from 2007, which will be done next year. In 2005, we helped the Manoir expansion that will expire in 2025. We have a debenture (taken in 2009), which this year is the last year for the old office,” said Bubenzer.

The utility operating fund is set at $313,273. Bubenzer said that money will be used for lift station maintenance. A new roof in needed on the main lift station and auto-dialers for emergency purposes are needed for lift stations that don’t have them already.