Wilowcale Bridge

By Cheryl Jahn

City Spending Capped

Council caps discretionary spending

May 15, 2019 | 11:57 AM

PRINCE GEORGE – Some recent surprises when the bills came in on projects has prompted Council’s Finance and Audit Committee to tweak the City’s discretionary spending practices. And it was approved by Council at the last regular meeting.

Previously, the City Manager had the discretion to approve a budget overrun of $1 million per project, while Directors had the discretion to approve a maximum overrun of $250,000. The number of projects that discretion could be unexercised was not limited. Now it is.

Council has approved a limit on the total amount of discretionary spending. Under the new provisions, the dollar-figure for that spending is not changed, but the new guidelines set out the following:

“Cumulative budget amendments in a calendar year of up to 5% of the total operating budget may be approved by the City Manager. If the cumulative budget amendments in a calendar year total 5% of the total operating budget, subsequent budget amendments must be approved by Council.” With the current operating budget, the discretionary spending will be capped at $7.5 million.

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“There’s always that balance for Council between bottle-necking staff from being able to do their job, but at the same time, we realize, we have a very important job to do too. in terms of oversight.”

And while recent project overruns have been the source of concern, the future is a bigger one.

“More so the anticipation of what’s coming because what we’ve seen in the last year as the gas projects come in, as Site C come in, is a dramatic escalation in costs all around,” explains Garth Frizzell, the Chair of Council’s Finance and Audit Committee.

The City has a few projects coming up this summer, including the new Fire Hall #1 and the new library entrance.