Budget season is well underway in the Town of Creston, with the 2025 Draft Budget now open for public review.
Each year, the town creates a budget to guide how the municipality allocates its limited resources to ensure council’s strategic goals are achieved in a fiscally responsible manner.
The process starts every fall for the upcoming year and must be adopted by council no later than May 13.
The town held several public consultation sessions in the fall during the budget planning process, asking residents to consider the town’s current level of service and decide whether it’s acceptable or not, as well as what services they’d like to see cut or increased.
Mayor Arnold DeBoon says the feedback gathered in the planning stages helped shape the draft budget, although the comments indicated that the community is generally pleased with the town’s level of service.
“There seems to be a very high level of contentment with the level of service that we have. At this point, we are maintaining the level of services to our community, so you won’t see big changes or big increases. Our budgets basically are keeping pace with inflation,” said DeBoon.
While there are a few slight changes to this year’s budget, DeBoon noted one significant change will be the proposed $30,000 increase in funds for its Infrastructure Replacement Reserve.
“We are adding a few items this year, but we really try to maintain a level of capital savings for when things go wrong, or when we have very expensive repair that we didn’t anticipate, so that is included in the budget.”
Other changes include an obligated increase of $302,932 in the 2025 operating budget, which a civic document states is for known contractual increases only. These include wages, benefits, workers’ compensation, insurance, and operating costs resulting from completed 2024 projects.
Additionally, the municipal police budget is slated to increase by $131,043 to meet contractual obligations with the federal and provincial governments for policing.
“We really are trying to stay firm this year on what our plans have been previously established as. So again, not a lot of changes. We are dealing with inflationary increases and focusing on our capital savings plans more than anything else.”
The public feedback period closes on February 11.
Staff will compile all the feedback and present it to council on February 25, when all three readings of the plan will be moved by councillors.
Then, on March 11, the town hopes to move the budget for adoption.
You can find the draft budget and a link to provide feedback by clicking here.
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