Ever stop to think about your local government and wonder "What is that costing us?"

Of course you do, you're a taxpayer and you should!

The District of Kitimat's budget process runs through the fall and winter, and it's a long process to figure out how the District will allocate funds.

Here's the process Kitimat typically follows when it comes to working out its budget:

Community Grants

One of the earliest parts of the whole process is that Council receives presentations from community groups - for example, the Kitimat Public Library or Kitimat Arts for Youth, just to name a couple - where they request community grants. Council will decide whether to accept these "in principle", which just means they okay the request to be part of the full budget deliberation.

Right now the meeting date for these presentations is November 14.

Early Capital Approval

Through the budget process there are also requests for early approval of capital projects from departments in the District of Kitimat. If we need to do special work to the swimming pool, just as an example, we may need time to source products and order it. Waiting until the final budget is approved may mean not getting needed materials within the year.

Otherwise the budget is brought to Council on multiple occasions for discussion and deliberation.

Finishing the budget

The budget is eventually finalized by the adoption of a new Five-Year Financial Plan, Tax Rates Bylaw, and the year's Residential Flat Tax Amendment Bylaw.

All this discussion takes place at public Council meetings.

Information about our budget is online at www.kitimat.ca/budget.