Budget 2023: slight increase to Litchfield’s mill rate, plans for new fire hall

Budget 2023: slight increase to Litchfield’s mill rate, plans for new fire hall

As part of its coverage of budget season throughout the Pontiac region CHIP 101.9 spoke with Litchfield Mayor Colleen Larivière about what was on the agenda for her municipality.

Revenue

The mill rate for the municipality increased slightly, from 61 cents per $100 evaluation to 63. The municipality appropriated $236,004 of surplus to balance the budget this year.

One of the largest increases on the revenue side was transfers, more than doubling from $512,347 in 2022 to $1,327,064 in 2023. Larivière explained that the funding came from a variety of different grants, but mainly from the remainder of their gas tax revenues, which they had to spend this year. The funding is allocated in 5 year increments, and she said that between 2019 to 2023 Litchfield received $820,000. She said that this year’s allocation would go towards road improvements as well as renovations to their municipal garage.

In addition to the gas tax, they also received $75,000 through the provincial PRABAM program, which will go towards a new roof on the municipal garage. She said that they had also applied to the federal New Horizons for Seniors program to improve accessibility at the halte, which houses the splash pad and a park.

Expenses

Larivière estimated that the municipality’s shares to the MRC increased by around $40,000 this year, which she attributed to the large increase in home sale prices. Due to the large amount of grant funding going into municipal infrastructure, the expense side of the budget also saw large increases in the investing activities category, jumping from $155,000 in 2022 to $1,015,495 in 2023.

Larivière said that the big project that they are currently working on is a joint venture with the Municipality of Campbell’s Bay to build a new fire hall, which is planned to be located next to Litchfield’s municipal garage. She said that they applied for funding about three months ago and will likely know if they’re approved for the grant, which would cover 90% of the cost of the building, in around a month.

Litchfield’s budget summary for 2023 can be found here: Litchfield 2023