Brandon City Council received their third overview of the proposed 2024 capital plan Monday, with City administration maintaining a needs-based focus to balance long-term sustainability with affordability for Brandon residents. City council members are tasked with asking tough questions of the City’s administration to inform their amendments at the budget deliberation phase.
Monday’s pre-budget session was an overview of community grant requests. The City of Brandon provides grants/funding for several initiatives including libraries, museums, athletics, tourism, performing arts, and multi-cultural activities.
Grant requests make up five per cent of the general revenue fund including $4.4 million in multi-year agreements, $410,000 in discretionary agreements has already been approved by City Council, and just under $260,000 in new, additional requests that have been made to City Council.
Grants and other funding agreements are an operating expense, which come from general revenues funded by tax dollars. Discretionary grants are reviewed by the grant review committee whenever possible, and then passed by a council motion. Council also currently receives grant requests outside the grant review committee and can make motions to allocate funding.
Multi-year agreements include the Keystone Centre, the Riverbank Inc., Westman Regional Library, and Brandon Downtown Development Corporation, to name a few. Recent requests to City Council for consideration come from the Brandon Downtown Biz, Brandon Downtown Development Corporations, the Riverbank, and the Westman Multicultural Festival.
The Brandon Sun reports not every group that submitted funding requests last September may get the money they want. There were 38 requests from non-profits, and the city’s grants review committee has denied funding for 11 of them. Councillors will make final decisions this weekend.
Council also met on Wednesday, January 24, 2024 when they received a confidential staffing update from City Administration.
Budget deliberations formally begin at 8:30 a.m. on Friday, February 2nd and conclude on Saturday, February 3, 2024. Residents can also follow the presentations and deliberations on the City of Brandon’s YouTube Channel @CityofBrandonMB. Westman Communications Group TV (WCGtv) will also be live streaming this event on channel 12 or online at westmancom.com/personal/wcgtv/watch-live.
All proposed budget documents can be viewed on the City of Brandon website at brandon.ca/budget/proposed-2024-budget.
City Council welcomes comments or feedback on the proposed 2024 budget, which can be emailed to budget@brandon.ca.
