Special Meeting - Draft Budget for Consultation Transcript

1 ATTENDANCE & APOLOGIES ¶

▶ 00:00:14

Nothing was transcribed under this heading — a stretch of the recording with no speech the model could make out.

2.1 NOOSA COUNCIL DRAFT 2023/2024 BUDGET FOR CONSULTATION ¶

▶ 00:00:36· Carried unanimously 7-0 from council's minutes

00:01:00 Is there a requirement for that? No. Mayor Stewart: There's no requirement. I'm happy to, does anyone, would anyone... Deputy Mayor Stockwell: We might as well move to suspension of standing orders to allow the Acting Director to speak to the report for longer than normal time if necessary. Mayor Stewart: Okay and I'll second that. All in favour? You're now in a second. Thank you. Suspension now in place. Thanks Trent. Speaker 1: Thank you Councillors. Under Local Government Act and supported by the Local Government Regulation, Council is required to adopt a budget each financial year. Thank you. The budget process runs from December through to June so it's quite a significant annual project for Council and its officers. We require a considerable organisational officer and councillor support and input to ensure that we align our budget for the next financial year in line with our corporate plan objectives, our operational plan targets, our financial sustainability policy requirements and our liveability priorities.

00:02:00 A number of challenges have yet again been presented in this year's budget as occurs most years. Similarly to most councils and businesses across the region and nationally, Council is facing unprecedented economic conditions. Inflationary price pressures on imports, fuel and logistics, construction material and other projects are a major problem for us. As we all know CPI has reached its highest level in Queensland in this last quarter at 7.4% since the 90s. For context for Council's budget, even a 1% increase in inflation can equate to $1.5 million in additional costs. We also faced for a second year in a row with land valuations with significant increases which we have dealt with through the rating process. The aim of this report and the special meeting is to seek Council approval for the draft budget to be made publicly available for community review and consultation prior to its finalisation and adoption at the end of June.

00:03:00 As such the agenda in front of you does not include any budget information as this will only be released publicly. Following today's draft endorsement. This is the third year that Council has undertaken public consultation for feedback on its budget. While there is no regulatory requirement to do so, Council remains only one of a small number of local government authorities in Queensland who continues to take proactive steps for its budget to ensure community engagement. But it is important to recognise the extensive consultation undertaken prior to the commencement of the budget. Not only with the Corporate Plan which was recently adopted by Council, which received thousands of responses from the community, but before that with the Livability Survey from the prior year. These have provided robust community feedback to setting the priorities for the 2024 budget.

00:04:00 And this second round of engagement is about fine-tuning and ensuring that we have stuck with the priorities and are on the right track. It is also important to note as we close out that this draft budget is still excluded from the budget. It excludes the finalisation of Council's special rates and separate charges which are levied on rate pays in precincts such as Loosa Junction, Loosa Waters and Hastings Street. Separately, Council is currently engaging with these precinct rate pays through their respective business and associations and will finalise these over the coming month through the final budget. Council, if you're happy to, I'm happy to spend the next few minutes talking through some of the key elements of the budget. Councillor Finzel: Thank you, Tre. Thank you. Speaker 1: Let's start with our base budget. It's what we call our base. Business as usual. Back to basics. We'll light some budget, as some Councillors will call it. So making sure we do the day-to-day as we do every year as good as we can.

00:05:00 Some of the key challenges or changes with our base budget include the 2024 election costs which are on charge from... Thank you. Thank you. Mayor Stewart: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you. Thanks of course. Nice to have you. We had no! We had no! Yeah, I remember him calling me. Say it, thanks my friend. We have a number of key project initiatives that are proposed in the draft 2024 budget.

00:06:00 These include a range of activities including increased investment in maintaining parks across the Shire, including additional staff boots on the ground at the Botanic Gardens and at the Hinterland Playground, Botanic Gardens Master Plan, Race Recovery Initiatives, Reconciliation Action Plan, continuation of the Living Well in Noosa program, continuation of the Go Noosa Free buses, finalisation of our Destination Management Plan, increased flying fox management, as well as increased conservation management plans for heritage listed council buildings. In terms of capital works, we have another ambitious capital works program, a $39 million capital program. Over $28 million of that is for renewal to ensure that we maintain our assets in line with sustainable asset management practices before we invest in new or build more. A number of key projects continuing next year include waste strategy initiatives and waste

00:07:00 diversion infrastructure, continuation of the ZEM program, public amenity renewal, and including a proposal of a new changing places amenities that reach the report hall, and progression of the water for Brooklyn cycling strategy. The capital program does not include the circa $80 million of Queensland Reconstruction Authority disaster recovery works, which is fully funded externally. And as we progress those works, we'll bring those to a budget review. Our rates and levies. In setting our rates and charges, as we've known, the Valuation General's Office has again undertaken further land valuations for our capital projects. We've had land valuations for a second year in a row on our Shire. The average land valuation increase was over 62%. The challenge does not lie, though, in the increase in the percentage. Councillor Wilkie: The challenge lies in the distribution. Speaker 1: Some properties have experienced much higher valuation increases than others, many receiving an increase above 100%.

00:08:00 Over 2,000 were over 100%. However, conversely, a similar amount received an increase of anywhere between zero and 10%. So it's a challenge to make sure that we find the right balance, and that we're moving through that. In setting those rates, we've looked at a number of mechanisms available under the Act. We recognise the challenge of finding that right balance between equitably and risk-awareness. This includes a review of the rate in the dollar, and looking at a number of other options that could be available to us, such as averaging, cutting of rates, and some of our rebates, such as our pensionary rebates and discounts. This has been on the rate in the dollar. And for the majority of owner-occupied households that are on a minimum rate, we are proposing a net 5.5% rate increase. That's comprised of a 5.9% general rate rise, an equivalent 5.9% waste management increase, but we have held all the other levies and separate charges on a freeze to ensure that

00:09:00 we maintain a 5.5% increase, which is well below CPI. Overall, our general rate revenue remains a total increase of 7.3%, so a total increase in revenue remains within CPI as well. And last but not least, our fees and charges. Fees and charges are set to recover the cost of delivering our fees and services. They cover regulatory activities, such as planning, as well as commercial activities, such as holiday parks and waste fees. Council has over 1,000 fees and charges. For the 2024 year, 80% of those are within CPI, or up to 10%. For the small number that are above 10%, most are related to development fees and related to fees that we have not increased for a number of years due to rebate and given their small low value per unit per square metre fees and charges. We have a couple of new fees. Four new fees relating to building and plumbing applications, as well as noting the Council

00:10:00 report earlier in the year. These will be adopted separately to the budget to allow Council businesses and community to update their fees and charges before we move over to the coming months. And that concludes the brief summary of the detail that we've publicly released on our Your Say site today. I commence for the budget to go to the Council. Mayor Stewart: Thank you, Trent. Any questions for Trent? Councillor Lorentson: I have a question. How will we handle the cost of building and plumbing applications? I'd like to ask the Chair to provide a brief summary of the issues raised by community in the draft budget consultation. Speaker 1: Through the Chair, similar to previous years, we put the budget out for consultation for a two-week period. They'll be able to provide their feedback through an online survey, through direct email, or we'll also be holding an in-person session in the chambers two weeks' time. We'll compile all the feedback from that and work through a budget workshop with the councillors,

00:11:00 where there is sufficient and strong feedback in particular matters, the councillors will deliberate whether we make any further changes to the budget for its adoption on 30 June. Councillor Lorentson: Will there be an analysis of the community feedback, and will that be reported back to Council? Speaker 1: Through the Chair, yes, it will, councillor. We will present that with the budget adoption on 30 June. It'll outline all those key topics raised, the number of feedbacks related to the budget, and any particular detail that we feel needs to be identified separately. So we'll make sure that all that feedback is transparently published with the community. Councillor Jurisevic: You may have alluded to this, having been a bit late, but what was the level of input prior to the budget and the processes leading up to the budget?

00:12:00 Speaker 1: Through the Chair, key input to the budget was the corporate plan development. The idea at the start of the budget process is you want to see key input on key priorities. As timing worked this year in Ternfield, we had a situation where our key strategic document that sets priorities, the corporate plan, was progressed and developed and adopted over the last few months. So those corporate plan priorities are featured through the process, as well as the prior year with the Livability Survey and the Community Satisfaction Survey. You'll see a number of the project initiatives coming through for next year's budget are some of those key actions coming out of the corporate plan, such as the reconciliation action plan. Mayor Stewart: I'm happy to move to staff recommendation. I'll second that. Thank you. Councillor Finzel: Do we have to go back to the orders? Mayor Stewart: Yes. I'll move that we... Deputy Mayor Stockwell: You don't need to, but you can. Mayor Stewart: I'll move that we reinstate standing orders. I'll second that. Thank you. All in favour? Unanimous. Thank you. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: I'll move to staff recommendation.

00:13:00 Mayor Stewart: I'll second that. Thank you. Thank you, Trent. Thank you so much. Thank you. It goes at the end. I want to thank you at the beginning, too, because there's been so much work involved in this. There has been sleepless nights. There's been two 3am starts. So there has been a huge amount of capital, personal capital, that has gone into this budget. And we really appreciate you bearing with us. There's been a lot of robust discussions. But thank you for all your hard work. And please pass on our genuine thanks and appreciation to the team. So the draft 2023-2024 budget has been prepared with a back-to-basics focus and with reference to the recently adopted corporate plan. All councillors have been heavily involved in the budget process, which has been workshopped extensively. And our primary goal and consideration has been to minimise as much as possible the impact of costs to ratepayers, having to take into account the inflationary pressures on us, too, as a council, to continue to deliver the same levels of service to the community. Our budget discussions have been formulated around our recently adopted corporate plan,

00:14:00 as well as the 2022 livability survey and bi-annual community satisfaction survey conducted in the previous year, as well as feedback received through the 2022-2023 budget. Thank you. Feedback from the corporate plan process as well as the livability survey was significant and has provided sound insight into the community's priorities with more than 1,000 responses received in both instances. We are now seeking our community's feedback once again on the proposed draft 2023-2024 budget, which is open for consultation and feedback for two weeks, from Monday today, 22 May 2023, through to Sunday 4 June, for residents, businesses, community groups and business associations. We want to hear from you about your priorities, ideas, suggestions and areas of concern. Responses from you, our community, will inform and shape the final decisions for adoption of the budget from 30 June 2023. There is a lot in this budget, but highlights include, and Trent has alluded to many of them,

00:15:00 a continued approach to adopting a modest operating surplus, all key statutory financial sustainability targets being met. Freezing of all levies to ensure that all levies are in place. We want to ensure that we keep rates and general rates as low as possible and rates in general. A capital program of $39 million invested to maintain and improve the condition of existing infrastructure, as well as provide future growth. A disaster recovery infrastructure program estimated over $80 million to reinstate infrastructure impacted by the February 2022 floods, with funding provided by the Queensland Reconstruction Authority, as Trent has said. Key capital works projects including Lawn Hill Road bridge renewal, Garth Crown bridge renewal, Noosaville-Eumundi Noosa Road resource recovery centre expansion, as well as stabilisation works at Ross Crescent and increased investment in the Shires Road network. Proposed rates will be kept below CPI, 5.5%, for the majority of ratepayers who continue to remain on the minimum rate.

00:16:00 Also the formation of a reconciliation plan is part of this year's budget. The challenges have been significant and discussions very robust, with agreement in some areas and disagreement in others. There are aspects of this budget that I don't support, no doubt other councillors feel the same about different areas, but all areas have been heavily debated and like all decisions put forward, ultimate decisions are determined by the majority's support. The draft budget we put out for community consultation today is a collective one from all councillors who sit around this table. This has in so many ways been the most challenging of budgets. Councillor Wilkie, I think you said the most challenging since de-amalgamation. Record inflation, rising costs, staff shortages have all occurred. We've also, as a council, had to take into account the re-evaluation of our land for the second year in a row. In setting rates and charges, the Valuer General's Office has again undertaken a further land valuation for the second year to capture property prices increases in Noosa Shire.

00:17:00 The average land valuation, as Trent said, increase was just over 62% across the Shire, and the distribution between localities and property types in the Shire has been very diverse. Broadly, valuation increases are ranging from no increase in land value all the way up to over 300% for some properties. I'd like to quote from the agenda of our corporate services acting director, who said, the challenge for council is then setting the general rate, which is calculated by multiplying the unimproved land valuation by a rate in the dollar for each different category of land. Every effort has been made to moderate the impact of valuation increases, and has managed to keep most properties within or below CPI. However, it is not possible for council to mitigate the full impact of the state government imposed valuation increases for those minimal number of outlier properties with very significant valuation increases without creating significant adverse impacts to the majority of rate payers in the Shire who are on the minimum rate. So it has been challenging, but I think we've come to a good result.

00:18:00 And despite all that, we as a collective council have worked incredibly hard to deliver our draft budget that we now seek your input on. This is the third year that Noosa Council has engaged in public consultations for its budget. It is currently only one in a small number of local government authorities in Queensland taking these proactive steps to improve the level of community engagement through the budget process. We welcome our community's feedback. We thank you for participating in the budget. And we really, as I said, we really want to hear from you. This is your budget. This is your community. And again, Pauline Trent, thank you so much, and to our CEO who is also, and our director who's here, and directors listening, they have all sat in on this budget. And as I said, it's been really challenging with everything that's been presented to us over the last couple of months. But I think we're in a good space. And I think it's a good budget. And it's one that, as I said, it's a collective. And again, thank you for your hard work.

00:19:00 Deputy Mayor Stockwell: I've just got a question. It may be helpful for the community to say, wading through a whole lot of paperwork, to have an understanding of what the valuation was that got you the minimum general rate for principal place residents last year versus what it is proposed to be at this year's current valuations. Speaker 1: I might actually have to take that on notice in terms of what the value of the land property was last, this financial year, for the minimum. Our base rate category proposed for the next financial year is a base rate that goes up to a valuation of $800,000. But any property up to approximately $600,000 will receive a 5.5% net rate rise. So any property within that will receive a 5.5% net rate rise. Obviously, where properties have not moved in value, as we've shifted, some of those properties wanted to receive a reduction depending on the timings.

00:20:00 We've found the middle ground for the valuation and the rate of charges. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Thank you. Speaker 1: Thank you. Councillor Wilkie: Just to reinforce what the Mayor has already said, I'd like to mention that despite two land valuation rises in two years and near record inflation rates, the majority of rate payers will receive a 5.5% increase with over $400,000 of net rate rise. Moderating the impacts of two land valuation rises in a row and the highest inflation rates in three decades have been major challenges in preparing this draft budget for public consultation. As the Mayor said, consultation is not mandatory but provides a good way to foster understanding of a complex process and gain feedback from our community regarding priorities. Two land valuations in two years have caused stress to property owners and added further complexity. In an hour-long presentation to Noosa Council, the Valuer General Staff stated Noosa and some other Council areas received two valuations in a row because they were markets where property

00:21:00 sale prices had not flattened off and were continuing to escalate. With land valuations soaring, in some cases as high as 300%, this understandably caused some to believe rates would also increase by a similar rate. Fortunately, although Councils must base their rates on land valuations, they can adjust the rate in the dollar to minimise impact on ratepayers. Although Noosa Shire recorded an average 62% increase with some properties as high as 200% to 300%, the vast majority of ratepayers, 87%, will see rate increases below CBI of around 5.5%. In order to moderate the high level of increase and slide and moderate the bell curve of property valuations back into a minimal rate increase, means that some properties over $4,000 will see their rates decrease this year. Despite these challenges, the draft budget proposes an approach that allows our Council to continue to maintain and improve services, and the public and natural assets our community

00:22:00 love and is financially sustainable. Marjorie, I'm looking forward to the feedback we receive from our community on this. Thank you, Councillor Wilkie. Mayor Stewart: Anyone else like to talk to us? Councillor Jurisevic: No, you get on. Deputy Mayor Stockwell: Off you go. Okay. I'll leave it at that. You bring up. So, in the staff report, it alludes to that what's driven our thinking in the development of this budget is the feedback we got from 1,000 people or more on the Livability Survey and the corporate plan. So, I thought it's really important to have on record what those priorities were. So, the top 10 values in the Livability Survey, I've just got the ones that are over 51% up there. Elements of the natural environment, natural features, views, vegetation, protection of the natural environment, general condition of public open space, street trees, footpaths, parks. So, has the budget responded to that?

00:23:00 So, in terms of the natural environment and protecting it, there is a new initiative in there which looks at the starting of the rehabilitation of the eastern beaches in line with the Eastern Beaches Coastal Protection Plan or Coastal Management Plan, and associated with that some more money for enforcement. When we look at street trees. The footpaths, parks. We've heard that there's additional parks and garden staff going into both the botanical gardens and the Croy Hinterland Playground which is coming off the responsibility of the contractors. But also we've got in there another new initiative to look at the long awaited master plan for that botanical gardens which is lovingly cared for by those council staff and a large cohort of volunteers. So, giving them the opportunity to look for the future. We look at sense of neighbourhood safety. Landscaping and natural elements. Once again, street trees. And one of the things that didn't go up above the line in this current draft budget is an urban greening program.

00:24:00 Now, that's one that many of us would have liked to put up, but with budgetary constraints trying to keep it low to rate payers, that hasn't made it above the line. That might be something the community want to make comment on. But there is this other potential bucket of money sitting out there from the city deal, which is a large bucket of money for liveability. And that may be something that comes during this budget. We could look at that during the budget review. Walking, jogging, bikes paths, connecting. Okay. So, we have progressed the walking and cycling strategy, but still at the sort of 10 year pace it was originally. We've got a few little small projects going around to make missing links on footpaths. And we've got some renewal work on the trail network. But there's no significant big increase to get to that may be suggested by being in the top five priorities. Once again, this is something we can look at if that liveability funding comes from the federal government. So, if you can scroll down. When we looked at the corporate plan, we had three questions that asked people to provide

00:25:00 comment. And these qualitative responses identified the housing crisis as a really high priority. And what have we done in this budget? So, we have got allocations in there to progress. We've got two sites of council land and state government land to look at partnerships with housing providers and state and federal government funding at both Cooroy and Tewantin. And we have looked at potentially another officer, and that's predicated on getting state government money to do that process. Kin Kin Quarry is one that's a vexed issue for that community that we are really hamstrung until the judge comes down with his decision. Roads and traffic. Well, the budget is largely populated by youth. It's a huge amount of money. It's one of the key constraints on our budgeting for new initiatives is that we have to invest 90% of depreciation and roads being one of our largest assets, a lot of the base budget goes into that. So, but when we look at that in terms of transport, we've got requests for, you know, and I'll

00:26:00 leave that to the next one. We've got requests for it to go faster on that. Quite frequently, that's one of the big things that comes through. The initiative in there. And that's to enter into a partnership with the Zen Inc group, because they've been doing such fantastic job returning a whole lot of money for every dollar we've invested so far. And they're looking at probably the first community battery of over $500,000 funding in the near future, and the opportunity to grow that with the new arena. So that's one new initiative in that respect. Hinterland inclusivity. And obviously, councils around the table have all been very clear, keen to make sure that any new initiatives or dollars for that is spread across the Shire, not focused. But if you go to that last focus area, you see that the top two priorities, once again, is natural environment and traffic management and transport. And it's that top one I think is where I certainly would like to see more investment, but we're

00:27:00 not ready. I would have liked to see new income streams coming from the ability to charge day trippers entering the two key tourist precincts. I would have liked to see money to allow us to look at whole lots of parking restrictions to stop boat trailers taking up car spaces, to stop people camping overnight. They may be able to be done operationally, but what we have got in the budget is the studies and the investigations to take the next step. We have got camera cars for vehicle recognition and smart sensing to allow us to come up with a parking management plan, which will help us make the strategic decisions. Because if we were just to go down and regulate one area, it's probably going to have flow on effects to the residents nearby. So looking at that opportunity. When we look at the next one is focus on environmental sustainability. And I think I'll finish off there. We have the waste management strategy coming up. We know this council's committed in a couple of budgets time to achieve net zero emissions.

00:28:00 And the biggest source of emissions comes from our landfill, the methane coming from that landfill. We've got a motion on the books that says this time around we're going to charge the real costs. And we know the real cost of those methane emissions is over a million dollars. And we haven't added that to the waste charge. And there's a key reason. Because what probably is a good thing for all the residents to look at is our 10 year capital works. Because within that you'll see sizable investments going into the waste management area, into the resource recovery centre. Because we're looking at exciting things like the potential to waste to energy plants. We're looking at the potential to have capped parts of the landfill turned into solar farms. So that's where the big gains are going to be. But they're the issues. The community, when they commented on the corporate plan, gave a real clear message, came over and over again. They wanted us to be a bit more Nike. They wanted us to get down and do it.

00:29:00 So this is their chance to have a look at those priorities that I've outlined and say, does this budget achieve it? And what we want to know is where they think we've done it well and where they think more effort needs to be put in. Councillor Wegener: Thank you, Councillor Stockwell. That's a good speech. Councillor Jurisevic: Yeah, not much left to say. After years where you've said it all. Brian's stealing the thunder on the wasted issues and all the rest of it. But I'd like to thank the staff, all the staff in council for their time and effort in this. I'd like to thank all the councillors around the table. It has been a robust discussion. It has been one of the most, probably the most challenging budgets since the amalgamation. Because of the pressures, the external pressures of inflation and land valuations on this council. Trying to get the balance right. Trying to make sure that we're covering all the areas that the community want to see us delivering services and improvements on. Trying to manage that across the board so that everybody, every area is getting a level

00:30:00 of service or a level of delivery. And yes, as the Mayor alluded to, we might not all agree with everything that's in the budget, but we try to get the best balance we possibly can around the table to ensure that the most of the priorities that come through, through the corporate plan and through the community consultation. To date are being delivered and being delivered for our community. For me, after all this time, I'm glad to see that we're starting to deliver more on the waste initiatives. These are the priorities for the future that the emissions from the landfill, but also we need to start changing our understanding and our priorities. Stop calling it waste. It is a resource. It's a resource to recover and the more that we recover these resources, the less impact we will have on our community for the future. Landfill levy is now a reality in Queensland. It's been a reality down south for a long time and the initiatives that have come out of that landfill levy are starting to change the way that waste is viewed and waste is

00:31:00 dealt with. And Queensland is well and truly behind the eight ball in that regard. The Environment Minister has started, the former Environment Minister, has started some great procedures and we have some great initiatives in place working towards the change in waste in Queensland. For the future. So I look forward to hearing from the community on what we've put together here. Again, it's based on the input that we've had from the community to this point and a significant amount of input compared to what we've had in past years. And I think we've got the balance of initiatives and projects going forward as well as we can around the table. That's not to say that those things that we haven't been able to deliver today won't be delivered in the future. They've just, it's a matter of priorities and what we can deliver based on capability, based on available funding and opportunity still arises as Brian alluded to with the city deals coming forward for potential other projects in the future with other external

00:32:00 funding sources. And we always look for those wherever possible to try and save this community as much as possible. So again, I praise the efforts around the table. And throughout the building from staff with that, with their understanding and their initiatives coming forward to try and deliver to this community for the next, the next year. Thank you. Mayor Stewart: Thank you. Councillor Lorentson: I'll keep my, my little talk just brief, but I do want to sort of reference the consultation. To me, consultation is really important, something that we as a council have committed to. And I hope we're doing it better now that we've done it. We've got a little bit more experience. Process highlights transparency and it also needs to be meaningful. The budget has been informed by the corporate plan, the livability survey, community satisfaction

00:33:00 survey and we're again inviting feedback in the draft. The other bit of consultation, and I want to really reinforce it, we've got seven of us around the table. We live and breathe for this place. We talk to residents in this community and, you know, this morning I started off with a run through the National Park. Yesterday I was at a Board Riders. Saturday I was with the Mayor and other councillors at Cooroy, Pomona Lions celebrations. We live and breathe this place. We love this place. And I know, hand on heart, that this is a place where we're going to live and breathe. And everyone around this table, the executive and staff, we work hard to protect what we love and that's Noosa. So I hope that when you get the draft budget, please know that there has been a lot of sweat, a lot, a lot, a lot of robust discussion and we hope we've listened to our community and

00:34:00 I hope we've met your needs and expectations. And in particular, the focus has been on the community. We focus on back to basics. When you're on the street, that's what community are asking. They want to see what we do, not just hear about it. So I'm, I hope we've delivered that in the budget. Again, thank you, Trent, Pauline and our incredible hard working staff. We may not say it, but we so appreciate you. We may not say enough, but we really appreciate you. Thank you. And to the acting CEO, Larry Sengstock. I would like to acknowledge Larry and Kerri Contini in the room as well. Thank you. Councillor Finzel: Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

00:35:00 Yeah, a lot has been said around the table. I'd like to say thank you to all the staff, the executive team, the staff members, right through the organisation that have contributed so generously of their expertise and their knowledge and their patience with the process. And a big thank you, of course, to all my counsellors. We certainly have had some robust conversation around the table and community can be assured that all voices were representative at many different levels through various and robust conversations. When I think about this budget, I think about a few words like equity, collaboration, fiscal responsibility, and of course, responsiveness to our community. So I really want to let the community know that we have worked to our best of our ability with the support from staff to reach a consensus around this decision through very challenging times, and especially when we are on the street and we do hear about the struggles people are having and the day-to-day grind that we all can empathise with.

00:36:00 So I want to hope that this budget meets the aspirations of our community, that our voice represents their voice, and through this opportunity for them to provide feedback and guide us to what we may have missed as a priority or what we need to look further at, we're looking forward to that to contribute to the final decision making. I'd like to also comment, we've talked a lot around process and how we've reached where we've been. To me, the most important contribution to this is our people and their voice. Thank you. How does the man live in our environment, whether that's trees, vistas, lakes, mountains, or our built urban communities? And how do we respond to the people that live in our community on a day-to-day basis? That, for me, sits at the heart of this budget, and hopefully we can have a community that

00:37:00 is proud of our council, that we can show that we engender trust as we reach out to our community and invite their input into this process. So thank you again, everybody. Councillor Wegener: This budget process is a colossal undertaking. My gosh, is it big. As a new councillor, I just cannot believe the size and the amount of effort it takes. I just want to say thank you to the community for your input, the staff, councillors, and of course, Trent and Pauline. What a great job. It's been fantastic. And I feel very confident that this is a very good budget. Thank you. Thank you, councillor. Mayor Stewart: Thank you. Thank you, Trent. Thank you, Pauline. That brings us to the end of our meeting.

4 MEETING CLOSURE ¶

▶ 00:41:14

Council's recording ends before this item. Where a meeting resolved to close its doors, that is what the end of the recording means — see what council discussed in private.