COUNC

dun ny 1996

TO: Mayor and Council. June llth, 1976

REPORT

FROM: Finance Committee

Re: Funds for Anticipated Overrun in Welfare Costs and
Hiring of a Police Constable

At the request of Council the Finance Committee met to consider the above

two items which amount to approximately $44,000.00 in anticipated welfare
costs and approximately $8,400.00 for the hiring of an extra Police Constable
from August ist to the end of the year.

The Committee reviewed the Budget and Financial Statement and as Council is
aware from Budget discussions there are virtually no areas where funds can

be found without deleting planned projects. There may be surplus funds

develop during the course of the year, however, it is too early at this

Stage to determine whether or not any Departments are running under Budget

and we cannot, therefore, rely on the possibility of surplus funds being
available to take care of the welfare overrun. The Committee also investigated
the possibility of an extra tax levy in order to cover the welfare overrun

‘and also the possibility of timing of welfare payments in order to defer part

of this cost, however, there are no other alternatives in finding the money tc
finance this overage, ;

The Committee looked at two areas of possible cost reduction by eliminating
projects:

1. Secondary Highways Maintenance - if maintenance was stopped on secondary
highways for the remainder of the year, this might provide $12-13,000.00 in

funds.

2. Hiring of Firemen - if the hiring of new firemen was delayed until October Ist
rather than July lst, it could save approximately $27,000.00.

fhese two areas would provide approximately $40,000.00 which would provide the
bulk of the anticipated welfare overrun.

Extra R.C.M.P. Manpower

The Committee does not recommend hiring of an extra R.C.M.P. Constable as
proposed for the following reasons:

1. Council noted that the last report to Council from the R.C.M.P. contained
a statement of overtime. We have written for clarification on how overtime
will be handled under the new Contract proposal, however, we understand that
while under past Contract arrangements, overtime has been included in the
calculation of the cost per man,(i.e. averaged across Canada) the new method

of calculation will exclude overtime from the basic calculation but will charge
each municipality in excess of 5000 population with the direct overtime cost
incurred in that particular Detachment. This may involve added costs for the

year for our Police Contract.