Members of Regina’s city administration shared concerns surrounding the potential rise in workload they’re facing – with a proposal to overhaul the city’s accounting systems and practices.
The concerns were heard after Mayor Sandra Masters put forward a motion to amend the city’s accounting practices. The amendment would align the system to industry standard and make them more concise and understandable.
Both City CFO Barry Lacey and City Manager Niki Anderson told council that overhauling its accounting system and practices would present workload challenges – as the city is already dealing with vacant positions.
“This requires a lot of work by professional accountants in the organization to figure out exactly how we do this. How the systems have to change, how we interact with our third-party stakeholders – be that the library, be that Buffalo Pond Water Treatment Corporation, EDR, REAL – how that all gets consolidated into our budget,” Lacy explained.
“A substantial amount of work, compared to what I have on my plate and my team, more importantly, has on their plate today.”
Anderson, who is also REAL’s board chair, said city CFO Barry Lacey is required to attend meetings every couple weeks, "for an hour or two."
“[The accounting changes] would require significant number of staff to do significant work,” she went on to tell council.
Councillors Jason Mancinelli and Bob Hawkins brought up concerns related to workload capacity when the REAL's interim board was named on Nov. 24.
“Some people said I was angry [during that meeting],” Mancinelli said. “I was upset and scared but I wasn’t angry then.”
“I am angry now,” he added.
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“I was told there was no capacity problem,” Hawkins responded.
Hawkins also serves as council’s representative on the REAL board of directors.
“The [interim] board is illegally constituted,” he added. “It is riddled with conflict of interest.”
The changes would make the city’s budget more understandable for the average Regina resident.
But require admin to overhaul its accounting system.
“The [current] budget is comparable to audited financial statements that are released,” Lacey explained. “I will admit, that is challenging, even today.”
“Moving to an accrual-based budget solves that problem but creates another one,” he added.
The motion was referred to quarter one of 2024 to allow for administration to report on what the changes could be and how much they may cost.
Hawkins was the lone councillor who voted against the motion.
“It’s one thing to talk about the mill rate,” he said. “But that’s not the only thing the taxpayer wants to know.”
The proposed mill rate increase by admin was 2.2 per cent.
For an average home assessed at $315,000, the recommended mill rate represents an approximate property tax increase of $51.61 a year or $4.30 a month.
With the launch of the city’s new green cart program, residents will also now have to pay for their brown garbage carts. According to the city, a 360 litre cart will cost $23.73 per month and a 240 litre cart will be $16.12 per month, with the average monthly cost adding up to $8.52 for the smaller cart, the city said that amount "covers all waste services."
Those waste service fees will be part of water utility bills. That will mean a total increase of $15.12 a month on the average residential property’s utility bill, the city said.
Hawkins says all residents, not just the average household, want to know what the increase to their monthly cost is.
Correction
A previous version of this story suggested city council’s concerns were focused on potential workload issues for the interim board of REAL. The discussions on Friday, Dec. 15 rather focused on city administration’s concerns centered on a proposed accounting system overhaul – and its associated capacity issues. CTV News regrets the error.
