SACKVILLE, N.B. — Sackville’s new capital budget has been approved for 2020 – but not without some hesitation from two councillors, who questioned the “need” for at least three of the projects proposed for the coming year.
Councillors Bruce Phinney and Shawn Mesheau attempted to bring last-minute changes to the budget before last week’s vote, bringing forward a motion to eliminate the specific projects totaling about $144,000 and spend that money elsewhere.
“A lot of things on this budget are wants, not needs,” said Phinney.
Phinney was referring to the $80,000 allocated for a dog park, $55,000 for improvements to trails and bridges and the Lund extension in the Waterfowl Park, and $9,000 for pickle ball court resurfacing.
Phinney, who said he felt it would not be “fiscally responsible” to approve these capital items, had also expressed his discontent over the proposed projects at council’s discussion meeting earlier this month.
“I see some things I’m not particularly fond of doing right now or even okaying,” he said.
Phinney did acknowledge that each capital item will come forward to council in the new year for approval, so there’s still an opportunity for second thoughts on those projects.
“But I don’t want people out in the public thinking that I’m in agreement with these here things that are put on this budget at the present time.”
The motion to amend the budget, however, was shot down by the rest of council.
Deputy Mayor Ron Aiken said there has been a lot of effort put into the drafting of the budget over the past several months and making eleventh-hour changes now would be a step backwards.
“We had a whole series of meetings earlier in the fall assigning priorities to various things,” he said. “We looked at response from the public about priorities. This list was developed at considerable time by staff.”
Aiken said “It’s a budget, it’s not a set of invoices or tenders,” and there would be opportunity to approve or disprove each of the projects as they come forward.
Coun. Michael Tower agreed. He said for instance, while it seems obvious that the majority of councillors are not in favour of the $80,000 dog park, they will have a chance to make their arguments when it comes to the table in the new year.
Some of the bigger ticket items included among the 2020 capital projects approved last week, which total nearly $2 million, include a new excavator, road upgrades, and a new generator to power the Tantramar civic centre.
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