2018 Budget Talks

I've forwarded your question to staff for an answer. Apologies for not acknowledging sooner.

UPDATE

Here are a couple of statistics to reflect the revenue generated by our building and planning departments to help answer your question.

·  Building and Planning Department revenues in 2017 are approximately $2.2M at mid-December. Building & Planning Dept. salaries for the teams in 2017 are approximately $1.2M.

·  Total building and license revenue from 2014 and projected out to 2018 exceeds our operations costs for building and licensing teams over the same time period by more than $3M. 

Hi there, I have provided this question to staff and will post a response as soon as possible.

UPDATE

In November of 2015, the City hired InterGroup to complete a utility rate review. The review set 5 year rates for electrical, sanitary sewer and water. Some of the changes in rates that resulted from the review (and specifically water rates) are:

- There was an adjustment to the Admin / Overhead Fee charged to all three utilities to more fairly reflect how this cost should be apportioned. 

- This change lead to the Admin / Overhead Fee for electrical being decreased and the Admin / Overhead Fee for water and sewer being increased. 

- The findings for the Water utility were that the Admin / Overhead Fee should go from $457,000 to $845,000. This was phased in over a five year period.

- The Utility Rate Review also looked at the Revenue Requirements for the Water Utility. The review identified a need for a 24% increase in the revenue requirement from $7,245,497 in 2015 and $8,983,398 in 2020.

- The increase is a result of the capital costs of some of our large projects: Ridgedale Reservoir, Carmi Reservoir and the Chlorine Generation system as well as the amount charged for Admin / Overhead Fees.

The City will be revisiting Utility rates in 2018.  

Staff are planning to take the Financial Plan Bylaw to Council on December 19 at the earliest. Whether or not this occurs depends on the number of changes that come out of the review of the draft plan and department budgets planned for Nov. 28-30. Assuming there are no changes, all three readings could take place during the same meeting.

Update:

Staff are preparing the draft 2018-2022 Financial Plan Bylaw to present to Council on Dec. 19 for all three readings. The next step following the readings is adoption of the bylaw at the first Council meeting in January (to be confirmed.) This timing ensures the planned work can proceed early in the new year.

Thank you for this suggestion. I will include it in the feedback to Council.

Update:

In my report, I mentioned there was a desire to see more on parks and recreation facilities in this budget and in my presentation I specifically called out the request from the pickle ball and tennis communities. This suggestion is being considered by the Parks and Recreation Master Plan steering committee. Stay tuned as that work proceeds.

It is now published on the site. We had provided a shorter version to encourage online participation and have recently put the full version here. Please note that feedback from the open house form and online poll was shared with Council on Nov. 28. The presentation is available in the library on the site. I will be monitoring feedback on shapeyourcity and will provide a summary of new comments or themes to Council at the Dec. 19 meeting if appropriate.

Hi Claude,

Dean Clarke presented the budget for the SOEC complex this morning. The budget includes financial information for SOEC as well as the PTCC and other facilities on the site. Here is a link to the presentation. You may also want to watch Dean Clarke deliver the presentation as he provided quite a bit of additional context including discussing the potential relationship with the Lakeside Resort convention facilities. (The video will be posted here as soon as possible.)

In response to your question about repurposing the PTCC, Sierra Planning and Management was hired in May 2016 to conduct a feasibility study and market analysis of the Penticton Trade and Convention Centre (PTCC). The study assessed the best use of the PTCC based on the facility components, functionality, financial performance, operational performance and the viability of the existing asset, analysis of the regional market share, and impact of the Penticton Lakeside Resort’s expansion. In short, the study found that full or partial repurposing of the PTCC was not justified and that the facility is complementary to the SOEC.

Here are some highlights of the PTCC:

• Over the last seven years, the PTCC has attracted an average of 117 events per year and around $1.3 M in associated revenues from rentals and event ancillaries. It has an established market position, and generates significant economic impact.

• During this time, the PTCC has averaged almost 250 event days, per year, with revenues averaging $5,500 per event day. From a financial standpoint, “the current financial performance of the PTCC indicates that the facility operates at a deficit (average of - $160,000 annually over the past 5 years), which is consistent with most of the comparable Tier 3 conference facilities researched [including Whistler Conference Centre, Prince George Civic Centre, Victoria Conference Centre, and NAV Centre].

• Relative to most of the other comparative conference facilities, the PTCC has the lowest operating deficit, both in total as well as on a per square foot basis” (Sierra Planning and Management, 2016).

• Looking forward, the PTCC has large conventions on the books including BC Water Waste Association in May 2018 (800 delegates), and the BC Fire Chief’s Association in June 2019, 2021, and 2023 (850 delegates).

For more information, the presentation and executive summary can be found here: http://www.penticton.ca/assets/Council~Meetings/2016/2016-10-18%20Committee%20of%20the%20Whole%20Agenda%20Package.pdf

Thank you for this suggestion. I will include it in the feedback to Council.

Thank you for your question. We will respond as soon as possible.