Earlier this month, West St. Paul held its 2025 financial plan public hearing in order to give the community a general overview of the municipality’s 2025 financial plan.
The meeting started with West St. Paul Mayor Peter Truijen welcoming residents to the public hearing.
“The financial plan today demonstrates the benefits of the growth that we have seen in our municipality in the past years,” he said.
He then explained that the financial plan has already gone through many steps before the public hearing takes place.
“Where do we see West St Paul in the future? Our vision is a wonderful West St. Paul as the most desirable municipality in Manitoba to live, work and play,” said Truijen.
He explained that part of what the municipality is accounting for in its budget decisions is also future growth. West St. Paul is a quickly growing municipality currently over 8,300 people, and the RM is projected to have a population of 10,000 to 15,000 in the next 15 years.
With that taken into account, Truijen said that he was happy to announce that the mill rate for the municipality is going to decrease this year from 7.715 to 6.629.
“Council is happy to present this budget with a decrease in the mill rate for the third year in a row. With this decrease, we will be able to maintain enhanced services and programs the municipality provides for our residents and businesses in West St. Paul. These are important priorities for council,” he said.
He explained that this is possible because of the continued levies that the municipalitiy is receiving from new developments.
In the year to year comparison that Truijen showed, he explained that they have achieved an 18.7 per cent decrease while their assessments have increased.
Truijen also said that though currently 84.2 per cent of revenue for the RM comes from residents, there is going to be a trend of that moving towards the ‘other’ category in their chart, as there is more business development going on in the RM, and with that, there will be a shift.
“Approving and monitoring the budget is one of our greatest responsibilities as council. We have a duty to ensure your tax dollars are managed carefully and transparently. This provides money to ensure that the needs of our residents are met with local services and programs, and this is how we implement the vision and goals of our municipality. Council sees community feedback as a key component of financial planning. We believe that the community should be involved as much as possible,” he said.
Truijen explained that your taxes at a municipal level go to key services in our community like fire protection, snow removal, garbage, yard waste and recycling collection, road maintenance, trails parks playgrounds, fields, skating rinks, public grass cutting, drainage, dust and weed control, mosquito control, children’s, adult’s, and seniors programming, Canada Day events, street lights, emergency services and handi-van services.
Truijen said that, like every year, there is a municipal portion and an education portion of your tax bill. In West St. Paul’s case, for every $100,000 of portioned assessment, there is $283.32 going towards the municipality and $703.08 going towards education.
He said that, should you have questions about the education portion of your tax bill, you should reach out to the school division that your house is in, as the municipality isn’t involved in that process.
Truijen said that with increased population comes increased costs.
Some notable increases from general operating budget expenses are an increase to legal expenses because of the municipality’s upcoming municipal board appeals, an increase of staff benefits because of an increase in staff, because of the increase in population the RM has increased it’s complement at the fire department from 30 to 39 staff, there’s an increase in public works staff and more which from what Truijen said seemed to be largely related to the RM’s increasing population.
“We are fortunate that we have a high level of professional employees with various degrees of knowledge and experience that have helped us to get to where we are today,” said Truijen.
He then went on to show a slide that described the increasef number of houses in the RM. At the last census, the RM had 2,270 homes. As of Dec. 31, 2024, the RM has on its books 2,999 homes. Costs per home broken down by service indicate that $366.24/year goes to fire protection services, $81.69/year to snow clearing, $306.07/year to garbage, recycling and yard waste, $249.22/year to the Access Centre, and $229.27/year to planning services.
“Once again, key capital projects for 2025 reflect what we have heard from residents in our community. The main strategies reflected with these capital items are safety, beautification, services and infrastructure,” said Truijen.
The carryover projects from last year are: the administration building project, surveillance cameras, public works building energy modelling, shelter and benches on the north side of the Grassmere Walking Bridge, water reservoir expansion, the Access Centre gym basketball backboard replacement, business park sign, and the sign for the administration building.
New projects for this year include 34 projects. Some are tech upgrades, equipment upgrades, bike racks being added to neighbourhoods, trail sign upgrades, the recreation strategic plan, mailbox notice boards, sewer projects, speed reading signs, Willis Road reconstruction, a walking path/sidewalk down Kapelas east-west, and more.
“All together, there are 25 road renewals and maintenance projects for the RM costing an expenditure of $2.1 million,” said Truijen.
He explained that most of these were on public work’s maintenance list this year, with the exception of Willis Rd. and Seiler Rd. which he said needed repairs.
Next up, Truijen discussed park projects.
“We will see a large investment in our Access Centre in 2025. This includes the completion of the trails around the ball diamond, the asphalting of the parking pad by the rink, as well as some indoor improvements to the kitchen, board room, office, new gym equipment and storage,” said Truijen.
He reminded residents that taxes are due on Sept. 29 this year by 4:30 p.m. and there are no exceptions. For online banking payments, he asked that residents allow for 5 days for funds to reach the RM.
