Funding decisions impacting the future of the Lethbridge and District Agri-Food Hub and Trade Centre have been forwarded to city council for discussion.
City of Lethbridge administration made their presentation Wednesday addressing the findings of the Deloitte Canada report that was brought to the committee yesterday. Chief Financial Officer for the city Darrel Mathews says administration’s presentation takes a look at the funding requirements for Lethbridge and District Exhibition operations next year and the funding for capital projects that are part of the Agri-Food Hub and Trade Centre. He explains the the required operational cost is $4.1 million of tax requirement funding, which administration is proposing would be a 2.24 per cent increase on top of the 5.1 per cent next year. Earlier this month Matthews told mylethbridgenow.com the previously approved tax increase would not go up unless there was a mitigating circumstance and on Wednesday he explained this situation is a mitigating circumstance.
“The items that were coming through on November 13th and 14th, those items did not have a direct impact. The Lethbridge District Exhibition components and funding requirements that does have an impact coming forward,” Matthews says.
Administration was directed by the committee to explore alternative plans that will be brought forward to the next council meeting. Matthews explains the reason administration recommended the tax increase is because it had a minimized risk element.
“The other option, I will go to the far extreme is you differ the tax increase to 2027 and you fund it with one-time funding for 2025 and 2026, so one-time funding and a portion of our contingency. There is a risk element in doing that,” Matthews says. “If you use the contingency today and if another emergency comes down the road you don’t have the contingency anymore you have to raise taxes again in that regard. So it is always better to do an immediate tax increase.”
Matthews explains other risk factors that are taken into consideration is possible inflation and the rising costs.
Following Wednesday’s meeting Mayor Blaine Hyggen says he is a little frustrated because he understands people are struggling and have bills they have to pay for their families so he wants to ensure that every option is considered so this can move forward. Hyggen says the LDE is not a city department so there is the struggle and if there are tax increases to keep the facility open and this moving forward as administration has recommended it is out of councils control.
“To be very honest the building is incredible, I can’t see us shuttering a building like that. We need to move forward and it has been doing great since the previous board was removed and the new board was appointed,” Hyggen says. “I just want to do it the best possible way we can financially.”
Matthews echoes the mayor’s sentiments regarding the positive changes that have been seen over the past year, from an uptake of events and a decrease in the forecasted deficit. However, even with the positives, he says the LDE is still in dire financial circumstances.
“So if the funding wasn’t there other options would have to be taken into consideration by the board and administration.”
The discussion will be brought forward during the December 10th meeting.
