It won’t be official until the mill rate by-law is passed, but it looks as if Slave Lake taxpayers will face a 5. 3 per cent hike in property taxes this year. In exchange they’ll see no reduction in service levels, plus minor improvements here and there, plus infrastructure upgrades and the beginning (hopefully) of a huge civic construction project.
The budget at the start of the Feb. 5 meeting was slightly different than the one that survived the ensuing debate. For one thing, the first version called for a six per cent tax hike. Council and administration managed to negotiate off seven tenths of a point.
It could have been more. Mayor Karina Pillay-Kinnee put two capital items on the table for discussion, asking if the town really needed them. One was a management tool called a ‘smart board’, which would apparently reduce the amount of time it takes administration to review and compare notes of important meetings – especially budget meetings. The time saving would be significant, finance director Julia Seppola assured council.
The other item was a tractor with ice cleaning and flooding attachments, for use on the town’s outdoor skating rinks. The mayor asked her colleagues to consider whether this $50,000 item was one of those ‘nice-to-haves’, as opposed to something essential.
The smart board died in a 3 – 3 vote, but the tractor survived by a 4 – 2 score (one councillor was absent).
A majority of councillors were swayed by the argument that in times of heavy snow, the existing equipment for clearing the rinks is inadequate. Users consequently have to wait too long for good ice. A three-day job would become one day with the new equipment, Osmond told The Leader.
The saving from the smart board cancellation was quite small (about $5,000). The bigger bite out of the originally-proposed tax increase came from a built-in surplus of $30,000 that council decided to do away with. That was good for about half a percentage point.

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