The RM of St. Andrews hosted their 2026 Financial Plan Presentation on April 9.
After the land acknowledgement and the opening of the public meeting, St. Andrews CAO Brent Olynyk started the presentation,
“The financial plan is more than numbers. The financial plan is planning for our community. This is our municipality guided by people committed to serving and supporting the community,” said Olynyk in the opening to the meeting.
Olynyk introduced the Mayor, council, and administrative teams before turning over the presentation to Mayor Joy Sul for the Mayor’s message.
“I want to share a bit about the work that went into it and how we got here. This wasn’t a quick process. Council spent two full Saturdays and an additional evening going through the numbers, line by line, asking questions, challenging assumptions and having some very real discussions. There was a lot of debate, both with administration, and among council members, and that’s exactly how it should be,” said Sul.
She explained that at the beginning of the process, the increase in taxes was planned to have been much higher than it ended up being, but through difficult decisions and reviewing priorities, they arrived at their current draft budget.
“These are not choices we take lightly, but they were necessary to strike the right balance. Like many municipalities, we’re dealing with rising costs and growing demand on infrastructure and services. At the same time, our rate of growth has not kept pace with many other municipalities in Manitoba. That means we have to be especially thoughtful about how we manage our finances and plan for the future. At the end of the day, this budget reflects the balance of keeping taxes as low as possible while still maintaining the services residents rely on and planning responsibly for what lies ahead,” said Sul.
Olynyk then came back to talk about the importance of financial planning.
“We direct limited resources where needed most. We prepare for current and future growth, and we maintain and improve infrastructure,” he said.
He explained that all of this is in service of shaping the future of St. Andrews.
Olynyk then described the financial planning process, which is lengthy and includes many steps.
Overall, he described the process as a balancing act between maintaining low density for residents, maintaining high-quality services and keeping taxes low. Olynyk explained that getting all three of these options at the same time can be difficult, but they’ve done their best to reach a balance. He also said that rising municipal costs are a real problem.
“Costs are rising across all core services, fuel, utilities, equipment, materials, infrastructure, construction, wages and labour are all rising,” he said.
Olynyk explained that, like a household’s budget, costs like the sudden rise in fuel prices, have also hit the municipality, and it’s not just fuel, it’s many different parts of the municipality’s budget that they are balancing.
Olynyk then discussed some of the things that increase costs that are unique to St. Andrews, such as the size of the rural municipality, which requires that they have three different fire departments to safely serve the entire area.
“We have 763.8km of total municipal road. Now, in the neighbouring RM of West St. Paul, they have 50 kilometres of road. So, we’re probably 14 or 15 times higher than West St. Paul in the kilometres of roads we have to take care of. So, our cost for the Public Works budget would be higher,” he said.
Olynyk mentioned that this year they are going to be spending a record amount of about $4.4 million on public roads and have many projects in the works planned for their roadways.
He then spoke about recreation and culture. Some points that he brought up were plans to invest in a new soccer field, away from the airport, and that they are going to continue to connect trails in the community.
“It’s good to connect the community. It’s good for people to exercise, and they do. And also want to point out we have an arena, and our arena won an award this year. . .We won a volunteer award. St. Andrew’s hockey rink was recognized in Manitoba, and I just wanted to point that out,” said Olynyk.
Olynyk pointed out that they are doing some things to try to keep taxes low, such as encouraging some growth as part of a community balance, but he also wanted to highlight the RM’s ability to get grant funding and form partnerships, which he credits to all of council, but particularly the Mayor and councillors who have gone out to talk to other levels of government.
He also encouraged residents to participate in the upcoming census, as gas tax is allocated from the federal government based on census population data, so making sure you’re counted means more money for better roads in the RM.
Olynyk next discussed the challenges that the RM faces as it’s not experiencing the same growth as other RMs in the province.
“Home growth helps support our community, expands the tax base, helps keep taxes more stable for existing residents, supports the services that people rely on every day, and allows investments in roads, recreation and community safety. This is going on all over the place,” he said.
From there, he got into the details about how municipal tax is calculated, explaining that it’s based on your property’s assessed value. Olynyk explained that the municipal tax bill is made of two parts: the municipal tax levy, which is 40 per cent of your total taxes in St. Andrews, and the education tax levy, which takes up the other 60 per cent of your tax bill.
Residents should know that education taxes have increased more than municipal levy taxes this year. There are students in St. Andrews attending four different school divisions thanks to the large size of the RM. The Seven Oaks School Division’s education tax levy increased by 3.3%, Lord Selkirk School Division’s went up by 10.8%, Interlake School Division went up by 14.56%, and the Evergreen School Division had a 11.65% increase.
“Kids need to go to school. We need to make sure this next generation is ready. But it costs a lot of money. Just remember, when you’re getting your tax bill, where most of that money is going,” said Olynyk.
The overall municipal portion of taxes in St. Andrews are also going up a little this year.
“We’re at 1.99% increase this year. Last year was a decrease, so that’s why you’re seeing a little increase this year,” said Olynyk.
He explained that for your taxes, there are many benefits.
Road maintenance, fire protection, recreation and basic services like recycling and snow removal are some things we’ve come to expect but something that’s been an increase that the RM has seen the need for that people may not know about is cyber security.
“We’re spending a lot more money on cybersecurity now. It’s critically important for risk management, public safety, and legal compliance. The government’s starting to tell you now you have to be at these standards. We are a leader. We are a leader in the province for municipalities,” said Olynyk.
Some other projects that Olynyk spoke about is their lagoon pilot project, which is on the horizon with the goal of increasing capacity while keeping the environment in mind, and their flood mitigation program, thanks to increased monitoring with drones.
Olynyk then compared their tax rate increase to neighbouring RMs and the City of Selkirk. In summary, they were about the same as a few RMs and a few others, including the City of Selkirk, had higher tax increases by percentage. West St. Paul was the only RM in the chart that had a lower increase, as it had no increase in taxes for residents this year, but due to the growth in West St. Paul, the RMs are managing very different budgets currently.
“So on the average, we’re doing pretty good with the 1.99%, I would say,” said Olynyk.
Taxes are due October 31, 2026. Please allow at least 5 business days for funds to reach the RM. Olynyk reminds people that the taxes need to be in the RM’s account by October 31, so please send electronic funds early so it’s not still in transit on the due date.
The final portion of the meeting was a question and answer session where residents were able to learn more about the financial plan.
To check out the financial plan meeting yourself, check out St. Andrews’ YouTube channel at www.youtube.com.
