Emily Plihal
Local Journalism
Initiative Reporter
Peace River administration has completed updates to the Reserve Policy, officially approved by town council on June 10.
Earlier this year, council directed administration to update its policy to better align with the Town’s current fund accounting format.
“Some of the reserves no longer fit with the present operating and capital budgets including the Water/Waste/Storm budgets where this category is to become self sustaining,” explains Mayor Elaine Manzer.
“Processes and programs change, and these reserves also align better with the rest of the financial record keeping systems budget and reporting lines,” she adds.
The Town switched accounting and budgeting process for operating transactions to tax supported and utility supported funds. According to Manzer, the utility funds were previously not being separately accounted for, creating risk of cross subsidization between taxpayers and utility customers.
“This allows the users of the utility systems to pay for the system with both a fixed amount and partly on the amount used,” says Manzer of the new system.
“The alignment with the financial recording keeping will help with the transparency of the finances.”
There are five funds within the Town’s general ledger, including Tax Supported General Fund, Water Fund, Wastewater Fund, Storm Sewer Fund, and Solid Waste Fund.
Changes completed to the reserve policy include the creation of dedicated Water, Wastewater, Storm Sewer, and Solid Waste reserves. These reserves will be funded by the accumulated surplus gathered from each fund’s performance.
Also, within tax-supported capital, there was a creation of separate reserves for Buildings and Engineered Structures, and Vehicles, Machinery and Equipment.
Mill Rate Stabilization Reserve was eliminated and a Disaster Recovery Program Reserve was created, council heard.