Council approves CIP updates, accepts community survey as information

By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on July 9, 2022.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

Lethbridge city council on Tuesday approved several existing 2026 projects included in the 2022-31 capital Improve Program
They include 2026 CIP projects in Transportation, Environmental Utilities and Electric Utilities as well as existing ongoing 2026 CIP projects in Community. Council also agreed with a recommendation from the Economic Standing Policy Committee to reallocated other CIP projects with undetermined funding to 2027, and direct administration to make appropriate amendments to the 2022-31 CIP document as well as to bring a CIP funding update to the Economic SPC when the Local Government Fiscal Framework is determined by the province.
Last August, the previous city council approved streamlining of operating and capital budgets to achieve an aligned four year cycle.
Only four years had previously been approved within the current CIP so Tuesday’s approvals, says the City in a press release, “will allow the four-year capital and operating budgets to be aligned starting in 2026 for the 2027-30 budget cycle.
“This change will allow city council to approve budgets that will mostly be in place during their term,” said Jennifer Jerrod, the controller of Corporate Finance with Treasury and Financial Services said in the release.
“We had seen in the past that some terms of city council approve or make budgetary decisions that have largely affected the following term of a new city council. We applaud council’s decision as this will immeasurably help the City’s overall budget processes,” said Jerrod in the release.
Council on Tuesday also accepted as information the results of the 2022 community survey that was presented to the Governance Standing Policy Committee last month.
The report provided the results of the survey that explored residents’ opinions on local issues, quality of life municipal services and City priorities to inform decision making by city council.
Results of the survey were presented to a Governance Standing Policy Committee meeting in late June.
The in-depth survey, done by Ipsos, showed 90 -per cent of people have a positive perception about quality of life here. Of those, 34 per cent say quality of life is very good while 57 per cent say it’s good and another seven per cent consider quality of life poor.
Most residents feel their quality of life has stayed the same during the past two years but worsened perceptions are higher than improved.
The survey was conducted between April 7 and 27 of residents aged 18 and older on both landlines and cellphones. The survey’s mythology shows results would be accurate 19 times out of 20.
Council also accepted as information the Opportunity Lethbridge 2021 annual report.

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