For Immediate Release: 18 November 2022
At the regular meeting of council held on Thursday, 17 November 2022, the Oromocto Town Council passed resolutions to adopt the 2023 operating and capital budgets and the Oromocto utility operating and capital budgets. The budget is balanced without any tax rate increase for residential properties in Oromocto and a 3.5 cent increase for residential properties in the newly formed Ward 4 of Lincoln. There will be a slight commercial rate increase and a fixed rate increase to the water and sewer utility operating budget.
“This budget was challenging as the Town is faced with the local governance reform and amalgamation with the LSD of Lincoln; a $100,000 reduction to its community equalization grant from the Province of New Brunswick; and a new fee of $245,000 to support the Regional Service Commission’s mandate,” said Mayor Robert Powell, “and with the demands for infrastructure renewal, there is a need to increase the fixed water/sewer rate from $12 per quarter to $37 per quarter in order to sustain the service. There will, however, be no increase to the water consumption rates. ” He added, “the budgets approved continues to demonstrate our commitment to using our available funds in a very responsible way.”
There will be two tax rates established for residential properties. The rate for Oromocto will not change and remains at $1.4051 and the rate for the former LSD of Lincoln will increase to $0.9007. The multiplier for non-residential properties multiplier will be set at 1.7.
According to John Jackson, Chief Administrative Officer, “This budget allows the Town to proceed with the initial stages of planning of the cultural and recreation centre and planning for a new sewage treatment system; to catch up on some delayed capital reinvestment in roads, equipment and fleet and to cover the inflationary increases to power, fuel, insurance and wages.” He added that “this budget does not allow us to replace all of the aging fleet of fire fighting vehicles and equipment for public works, or to significantly upgrade some of our old infrastructure (arena, library, community centre and arts and learning centre).”
The Chief Administrative Officer presented the budget to Council at a public session held on 13 November 2023 which included the following capital budget highlights:
• Increased funding for paving and road construction $1,415,000 (Waasis Road Overpass, Brizley Street, Watling Crescent, Long Street, MacKenzie Avenue, McElroy Crescent and Wharf Road)• Increased funding for water and sewer $477,000
• Increased funding for equipment $287,000 (TMR equipment for Fire Department and a chipper)• Increased funding for building maintenance $287,000
• Increased funding for parks and recreation $356,000 (Gateway accessibility upgrades, TransCanada Trail re-surfacing and MacKenzie field soccer goal replacement)• Increased funding for fleet replacement $1,495,000 (salt truck, plow truck, trackless, field tractor, two fire trucks (phase one of two) and an excavator).
The Town of Oromocto is pleased to share with you its feature from the
"Insights with Terry Bradshaw" television program.
