Town of Coaldale to release its annual Comparative Financial Analysis

The analysis will compare the Town’s 2020 financial performance to the financial performance of six other similarly sized municipalities, as well to the financial performance of neighboring Lethbridge and Lethbridge County.

At its May 24 Regular Council Meeting, Coaldale Town Council reviewed a first draft of the Town’s annual comparative financial analysis which compares Coaldale’s 2020-2021 financial performance to the financial performance of a number of other similarly sized and/or neighbouring Alberta municipalities (Blackfalds, Taber, Innisfail, Edson, Drumheller, Ponoka, Lethbridge, and Lethbridge County).

Structured around measuring five (5) financial “benchmarks” (operating expenses, taxation & assessment, assessment growth, population growth, and executive compensation), the analysis uses population statistics to calculate standardized, per capita performance metrics based on publicly available data that can be found in each municipality’s audited and published financial statements. “In designing this analysis, we wanted to make sure that we would be, to the extent possible, comparing apples to apples. To that end, we focused on analyzing the financial performance of municipalities that are similar to Coaldale in both their size and their proximity to larger urban centres”, said Cam Mills, Director of Growth and Investment for the Town of Coaldale. “We also made sure to calculate per capita comparisons so our residents would know what each of these similarly sized municipalities spends or collects in terms of total revenue per person rather than in general,” added Mills. “The basic idea here is to provide our residents, business owners, and potential investors with an easy-tounderstand snapshot of how Coaldale stacks up financially against its peers.”

Over the next few weeks, Town staff will finalize the comparative analysis and publish it on the Town’s website. “We’re excited to see this analysis released to the public so our residents can have a better understanding of where, exactly, the Town sits financially,” said Town of Coaldale Mayor Jack Van Rijn. “In Council’s 2021-2025 Strategic Plan, we identify service excellence and, in particular, communicating with our residents around key service levels as a major focus area. As a Council, we believe that financial reports like this are essential to facilitating precisely that kind of communication.”