The City of Grande Prairie is expecting to see a budget shortfall of nearly $270,000 by the end of the year.
Chief Financial Officer for the city, Danielle Whiteway says there is still plenty of time for the city to plan and come to a balance budget by year end.
“Typically in quarter one our forecasts are little a tighter, and there is still nine more months to go. We are expecting a slight shortfall now, but the good thing is we have the rest of the year to sort of manage that.”
“We do fully anticipate to get that to a balanced position by year end, but right now we are slightly forecasting short.”
Whiteway added that one of the reasons for the shortfall was because of a heavier snowfall then expected that took place during the first quarter of the year. However, the city did see some cost-savings come into play, like the accelerated transition for the Grande Prairie Police Service.
“The accelerated transition to the municipal police force, we’re seeing a slight amount of savings there.”
Mayor Jackie Clayton says the end-goal is to have the budget balanced by year end.
“We recognize that affordability is the top of peoples mind, balancing that budget is councils goal.”
Clayton mentioned that the financial report can be found online, and encourages resident’s to read it if they are interested.
“I encourage people who are interested in our financial report to go online and see this document.”
Administration brought this report to the Financial and Administrative Services Committee, on Tuesday, May 19.
