Diamond Valley passed its operating budget for the coming year with a zero per cent tax increase for property owners.
The Town’s 2024 budget was passed on Dec. 6 at $14.15 million, after the total was brought down from about $16 million that had been asked for in earlier drafts, Mayor Barry Crane said.
There are no major cuts to the Town’s operating budget, and it includes funding for five staff positions that were vacant or needed filling due to turnover, Crane said.
“We're building a stronger team, while keeping taxes at zero through one of the roughest inflationary periods in the last 30 years,” Crane said.
“The only reason we could do that is because of amalgamation,” he said. “The timing really worked out for us, in this particular instance.”
The towns of Black Diamond and Turner Valley amalgamated into the single municipality of Diamond Valley on Jan. 1 in a move that proponents said would increase efficiency and decrease costs for residents.
Crane said one year after amalgamation, the costs of operating the new Town are better understood.
“With one year of documented operations under an amalgamated town, we look to see exactly what our patterns are, as we move into our second year, and this will give us a great forecast for years to come.”
One unknown for future years is the cost of RCMP services in the community. Towns over 5,000 people use a different funding formula for those costs.
The Town has 24 months following amalgamation to come to an agreement with the RCMP for new fees and a contract, and discussions are expected to take place towards the end of 2024, interm CAO Todd Sharpe said.
Crane said the Town expects policing costs to rise, but it doesn’t know what amount of grant funding could be available.
“Those would be the increases that we will deal with on the next budget cycle,” he said.
During the same meeting, council approved the alignment of utility rates that are charged for water, wastewater and stormwater between the two former towns.
“We raised the Turner Valley rates to match the higher Black Diamond rates,” he said.
He estimated that the change would add about $20 per billing cycle to residents' utility rates in former Turner Valley.
Diamond Valley proposes moving to a full cost recovery billing model for utilities in the future that could see additional rate increases, but moved further discussion on that issue until February.
“What will be discussed is a three- to five-year phase in plan, potentially,” Crane said.
A town hall meeting was held last month, and several presentations were made regarding the alignment of the two utility rates.
The aligned utility rates come into effect on Jan. 1.