Coming to a 3.997 per cent property tax increase for the 2025 budget is said to be part of Lethbridge County Council’s balancing act of fiscal responsibility and ensuring both short and long-term success of the municipality.
Service enhancement, enhancing infrastructure and fiscal responsibility are three focuses Reeve Tory Campbell says stand out from council’s discussions. He says finding ways to not just maintain but improve the services residents receive from the county was a large conversation and impacted many of the topics brought forward; along with looking at ways to invest in municipal infrastructure. Fiscal responsibility was also a focus Campbell highlighted, with councillors focusing on the demands being seen in the community today being addressed but also planning for possible challenges in the future by investing in municipal reserves.
“When we talk about the external pressures we are facing, that is those rising costs from inflation, increases to the carbon levy, the contracted services that we have, recreation funding, mandates and the continued downloading from the province those are all things that are forced upon us,” Campbell says.
Two of the infrastructure improvements the county will be investing in in 2025 include road improvements in some subdivisions throughout the county along with seconds of Range Road 22-5 near the CPKC marshalling yard and a bridge replacement on Kipp Road. Campbell says investing in this sort of infrastructure and improving these roads and bridges is an important step that needs to be taken to support the community along with producers in the area. He explains producers and farmers are getting better every year and are “producing more and more on less and less”; but that continues to increase the pressures being put on county roads.
“Our roads weren’t designed for this 40, 50, 60 years ago so we are seeing that increased pressure. So how do we address that? We need to be on the roads more we need to [figure out] how do we adjust our level of service, how do we shift our level of service to make sure we are providing our producers with the infrastructure so they can deliver their goods to market.”
“Then on the back side of that, we support agriculture by continuing to promote ourselves as part of Canada’s premier corridor, by being the home to add value to those crops to the process. ”
Part of that added value according to Campbell is continuing to attract Agri-Food businesses to the region.
He says every time council sits down for budget discussion it is important to come in with open eyes, using the best information that will help the county deliver the best value to ratepayers.
