The City of Red Deer released their recommended 2018 Operating Budget this morning.

Their focus is investing in areas where citizens have voiced the highest concerns, namely in community safety, putting aside money to hire 4 new RCMP officers, two municipal employees, and increased funding for rough sleeper camp debris clean up.

City Manager Craig Curtis explains some of the ways they were able to free up money for those hires, without a huge tax increase.

“Where we have cut back it’s generally through increased revenue from some of our environmental initiatives, such as the $500,000 saving that we’ve had from our LED light installation, as well as savings on our transit operations by going to natural gas.”

Along with additional RCMP officers, more money will be put aside for dealing with what they call rough sleeper camps, which are essentially homeless camps set up in city parks.

“We’ve actually been using resources in our parks and Peace Officers to actually evacuate those camps and clean them up. At present that’s a serious problem in the community, and we’ve recommended initially $200,000 a year to address this particular problem.”

They have requested a 2% increase in the municipal portion of the property tax bill, which includes the one per cent for capital for amenities and growth.

This translates into roughly $2.59 million, which will be a starting point when council debates the budget early next year.

Based on this budget, a home valued at 325 thousand dollars would see an approximate increase of $42.14.

Citizens are asked to provide their feedback on the Operating Budget process. You can email legislativeservices@reddeer.ca, in writing at City Hall, the Collicutt Centre, Recreation Centre, Red Deer Public Library Downtown branch, Timberlands branch, and the G.H. Dawe Community Centre branch.

Copies of the budget will be available at those locations starting December 14th, and you can find all of the budget details online at the City of Red Deer’s website.