City announces budget surplus of $31 million

Edmonton can add a large chunk of change to its rainy day fund thanks to a $31-million operating budget surplus announced Thursday.

A third of the money is from lower than expected snowfalls and a decision to use more city staff than contracted crews to clear snow at the end of last year. Higher than expected job vacancies among city staff, lower overtime and various staff leaves also contributed $8 million to the budget.

The city earned $6 million more from the Epcor dividend because of the decision to transfer drainage to the city-owned company.

Those items more than compensated for lower than expected revenue. The city earned $5 million less from its recreation centres because of lower than expected attendance and prolonged facility shutdowns.

As well, fewer than expected people paid bylaw fines, traffic tickets or road transit.

For transit, “that’s just a result of the economic downturn,” said branch manager Stacey Padbury. “It was lower than we budgeted.”

Council dealt with the question of what to do with a surplus during the fall budget discussions. They voted to allocate $3.5 million to affordable housing, $2 million to develop a new 10-year development and transportation plan, and $2 million to speeding up implementing the transit strategy with its overhauling of bus routes.

That decision will need to be confirmed by council Tuesday. Another $7.9 million is being pushed forward to next year for projects that were started but not completed. Anything leftover will be transferred to council’s financial stabilization reserve.

The surplus is less than half the operating surplus Edmonton saw last year. With a tax-supported operating budget of $2.7 billion, city officials report the surplus is in line with the approved budget. It’s worth 1.2 per cent of the overall budget.