Village Financial Audit

I noted an article in the most recent Rocky View Weekly reporting on our village's financial audit for 2012.  I want to commend Beiseker's village council and the village's staff for managing our village so well this last year. 

The village of  Beiseker has a cash flow problem caused by two things;

•  We still have a huge amount of back taxes owing!   Unpaid taxes have a huge impact on a small village like ours!  The tens of thousands of dollars owing could improve many things in the village, if it were available to us. It is very frustrating to have unpaved streets, broken sidewalks, and other issues within the village - and not having the funds available to address them!
•  The second problem actually comes from the provincial government.  As I've mentioned before, we collect the education portion of the property tax on their behalf.   They in turn withdraw this money from our bank account.  And therein lies the problem.   The province  withdraws the total amount, regardless of how much is still owing to the village by rate payers or has not been collected, yet.  We have no imput - They just take it!

Overall I was very pleased with the results of our 2012 audit.  If we can stay on this road of fiscal responsibility, our village will continue to do well - in spite of two problems I've mentioned.

Where's the Money Goin'?

The Village of Beiseker receives many different grants from the federal and provincial governments each year.  Some are "once in a lifetime grants" while others are presented to municipalities on a schedule (available every year, or every two or three years).

 The main ones are:

• MSI (Municipal Sustainability Initiatives) 
• Federal fuel tax rebates
• Streets Assistance grants
• Historical/Heritage Grants
• Infrastructure Grants
• Recreation and Facilities Grants

These and others could bring as much as $500 000.00 or more into Beiseker in a single year.

So; where does all this money go?  Many of the grants received have "strings attached."  That means that the grant comes with exact instructions as to what the money can be spent on; the funds must be directed to a specific project!

Here is a list of the major projects the Village of Beiseker has supported with these funds in recent years.  Some of these grants also require the municipality arrange to "match" the funds through local sources (municipal tax dollars, donations, etc.)

1. Main Street Improvement Program
2. Sewer lift station upgrades 
3. Purchase and installation of new water meters
4. Chinook Crescent upgrades
5. recent paving projects
6. Moving our library to the new Community Links building
7. Support of various recreational programs and facilities
8. Summer student employment
9. Beiseker Airport runway and taxiway upgrades (this was a one-time specific grant by Alberta Transportation)

To find out the specific amounts and their application, visit the Village of Beiseker website after the Auditors' Report has been submitted:  The auditors are doing their routine annual inspection of Beiseker's books right now.  Their report will be presented in a few weeks.