Supreme Court decision on parking lot will affect Gander budget
As Gander prepares for its budget, a Supreme Court decision has left it re-evaluating its finances.
After years of court battles over who is responsible for snowclearing and upkeep of the parking lot around a local strip mall, the Supreme Court decided in June the town is responsible for keeping the area clear of snow and for maintenance.
The town was charging business owners for the service up until the court decision, and now money that’s owed will be left out of the town coffers, and it also has to pay back some business owners who kept up to date with their snowclearing expenses.
Gander Mayor Claude Elliott said the situation will affect the town’s budget for 2016, but the extent is not yet known.
“We’re still waiting for legal advice on that whole situation,” said Elliott. “When it comes to paying back expenses, we don’t know how far we’ve got to go back or what we’ve got to do, if we’re going to appeal it or not. So far, we haven’t received any legal advice.”
It was announced $781,051 in charges would be written off at the council meeting on Sept. 23, but Elliott said that number could change, depending on which way things go.
“Until it’s all settled, we don’t know how accurate that number is,” he said.
The 2016 budget is expected to be handed down in December, and Elliott said there will be a lot of number crunching as part of that process.
“It will certainly impact the budget going forward, depending on what the final outcome is,” he said. “What to do will be a decision for budget time.”
When asked what the current situation means exactly for the budget, Elliott said it’s too early to tell.
“That will have to be decided during the budget process,” he said. “We don’t know what the final outcome will be so it’s hard to say anything now. It would be a bit premature to figure out exactly what it’s going to cost us, because we don’t know the final figures.”
Elliott said a number of business owners hadn’t been paying their snowclearing expenses, which means that is money the town won’t have to pay back.
“The businesses that haven’t been paying are not a problem — we won’t have to pay back to them,” he said. “It’s the people that have been paying are the figures we don’t know for sure just yet.”
Elliott said the town expects to get some legal advice soon.
“We’re expecting pretty soon because the budget process is going to start next month and we’d certainly have to know by then,” he said.