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ENTERPRISE
The Hamlet of Enterprise has approved its 2012-2013 budget, although councillors did not pass it unanimously or without some critical comment.

Council passed the budget on March 5 in two parts - one for capital expenditures of $540,000 and the other for operation and maintenance spending of $1.12 million.

Each section of the budget passed by a vote of 4-1 with the opposition coming from Coun. Tammy Neal.

She objected to some capital funding being used for operations and maintenance of a contracted trucked water delivery and sewage removal service.

"I don't agree with it," said Neal, who participated in the meeting by telephone.

She added capital funding should be saved, because the hamlet doesn't know how long it will receive it. "We'll have O&M, but we may not have capital," she said.

Neal compared Enterprise with other communities using all their capital funding for projects. "They are building up their own community, they're not just surviving."

Mayor Mike St. Amour, who only votes in case of ties, also questioned the funding transfer.

"When our stockpile is depleted, where do we go?" he wondered.

Peter Groenen, the hamlet's senior administrative officer, said $34,000 that would have normally been set aside for the eventual purchase of a water truck in the capital budget has been applied to operations and maintenance for contracted water and sewage trucks.

It is the first year such funding has been taken out of the capital budget.

Groenen said the hamlet has told the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs that Enterprise is not getting enough funding to cover the cost of buying water from Hay River and having it trucked 38 kilometres.

Coun. John Leskiw II also had concerns about the capital part of the budget.

"The capital budget is lacking foresight," he said, noting no money is being put aside for some long-term aspirations in Enterprise, such as a nursing station or a school for early grades.

Some of the highlights in the budget - covering April 1, 2012, to March 31, 2013 - are continuing a water conservation program that offers incentives to people to switch to water-efficient washing machines, toilets and shower heads; making the recreation co-ordinator position full-time; a drainage study and repairs to drainage infrastructure; money set aside for a replacement or new fire truck; and money set aside to begin development of a trail to the community's fossil pits.

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