She said they actually started the budget process earlier this year, and had it almost ready. Then COVID-19 hit. They had to re-think it all. As Swanson explained, the uncertainty of it all made it difficult. The pandemic meant many parts of the community were shut down, and no one really knows what will happen. This hits the recreation budget, for one. Everyone is hoping the pool will start up. What will happen in the fall with the arena? They have to budget as normal as if everything will be open at some point.
They looked at the grants they give out and some will not receive theirs this year. The Turtle Mountain-Souris Plains Heritage Society received $2,768.75 in 2019, and will not be getting it this year. The library is having its budget cut by $23,000 in 2020.
As well, they were lucky to get some grants this year. They received over $300,000 in new grants, including $200,000 for water plant upgrades and new water meters. This accounts for a good portion of the increased income and spending this year.
 “It looks like we are spending more money, but we’re not spending more of your money.”
In the end, these and other changes allowed a change in the tax impact. Originally, council was looking to increase the municipal taxes 3.25%. However, they are only going to go up by 1.51%. This is also a reassessment year. In the urban residential, it went down 1.2%. It went up 12.6% in commercial and 2.7% in farm property. This would mean a home worth $100,000 in the urban part of the municipality, once the reassessment is taken into consideration, would pay $1,344.48 in 2020, down slightly from prior to reassessment.
Also on taxes, the municipality has decided to give an opportunity for those badly impacted by COVID-19 to defer their payments. Taxes are due in September, but there is an application form for those suffering to have their payments deferred until the end of December. Also, there are possible payment plans. The application form available online must be filled out at the end of August. This is for residential, commercial or farmland.
See chart for general breakdowns for revenue and expenses for 2020:
The municipality will also be collecting $2,654,358 for school taxes, most of which goes to Turtle Mountain School Division.
There are some serious priorities this year, these being roads and streets. Swanson said the moisture last fall that got into both the rural and urban roads froze and came up as frost boils.
 “We have a lot of work to do on the roads and the streets, without exception,” she said.
The municipality budgeted $128,000 for street work this year, and Swanson said it is likely this will go into repairing the biblical devastation of the frost boils rather than building new streets. They will have to wait until the frost is completely out of the ground before they dig them up and get to work on them. They will be getting some help from the crew that is currently working on the CP line.
There are frost boils on the rural roads as well. There is also an ongoing plan to rebuild the system. They have a third grader now, and have split into two crews – one for maintenance and one for road building. That allows more attention to be given to both in 2020. A lot is budgeted for the roadwork in the municipality. There is $100,000 for new construction, but also $379,600 in gravel, $15,000 in culverts. The transportation budget for the rural part of the municipality is $996,185.94 this year.
“Transportation is the biggest part of our budget and it should be. We’re doing the best we can to bring the roads back up to standard. Is it perfect? No, but I’ve talked to some people who have been on the roads we worked on last year, at the beginning of last year and they say they are better. It just takes a long time, there are a lot of miles of road.”
The utilities have been a challenge for a long time, with deficits being built up, but Swanson said they are getting on top of them. We are in the second year of a three-year increase – 15.7% in 2020. There are a pair of riders. One is a five-year rider and the other is two years. Since they did their water rate study in 2018, they have noticed other municipalities have raised their rates as well, so Boissevain-Morton is still in the middle.
As for debentures, the water plant will come off this year, and the grader will come off by 2022. This will be when they start borrowing for the new lagoon. The maturing debentures coming off would be nearly $200,000. The municipality is also starting to build up the reserves for future projects.
As for capital, the budget also includes $20,000 for sandblasting in the pool again, $75,000 for a skid steer and $57,000 for cell expansion of the landfill site.
The office might be closed right now, but Swanson said the staff have been working, both with the regular tasks and new duties during the duration. There has been some training, some work on preparing for virtual meetings, and getting some policy planning done.
Council did not make any motions on the budget on May 19. Instead, they wanted citizens to have a chance to get back to them. They were planning to run first reading at their May 21 meeting, with further motions to go on in three weeks time. They were given extra time for the budget due to coronavirus.