Three years after budgeting a $3 million deficit, the City of Charlottetown finds itself back in the black.
Coun. Melissa Hilton, chairwoman of the finance committee, announced at Tuesday’s regular public council meeting that the city is showing a surplus of $11.2 million for the 2017 year.
The number comes from the city’s consolidated financial statement of operations from its new accountant, MRSB.
Needless to say, it left Hilton with a big smile on her face in what was her final regular public council meeting. She was defeated in the recent municipal election.
“The city worked very hard (on this) over the last year,’’ Hilton said following the meeting. “We have new accountants, MRSB, and they worked very closely with our old accountants, ABCE, and it’s all about making sure that . . . we’re just meeting our standards and so luckily today it’ll all be posted showing a surplus of $11.2 million.’’
Hilton said that surplus was aided by money the city gets from the federal and provincial government.
It took longer than usual to release the consolidated financial statements. The 2016 numbers came out in June 2017.
Hilton said there are reasons for the delay.
“This is the first year that there’s actually been a 15-month budget,’’ she said, referring to the fact municipal budgets will now coincide with provincial budgets. “That, of course, takes things into consideration but also the fact that we do have new accountants (to help) meet our standards. It makes sure everything is up to snuff going forward (and that) it will be a smoother ride for those in City Hall and also our accountants.’’
Hilton stressed that this isn’t extra money that can be thrown at big projects.
Still, the city has a rather large debt to deal with. It was estimated during the municipal election campaign that it was as large as $100 million.
“We have incredible staff that will lead (the new council) in the right direction. Maybe we’ll go back to a debt reduction strategy where certain money is put aside to deal with our debt.’’
Hilton said the city found ways to save money when it faced that $3 million deficit three years ago — of course, having the province write the city a cheque to help pay for all that snow removal didn’t hurt either.
“We really buckled down and made sure that we were responsible with our spending,’’ she said, adding that the city paid down that deficit in one year instead of the two it originally planned to do it in.
Hilton did not have a budget document with her and wasn’t able to locate anything specific that may have contributed to the $11.2 million surplus.
