LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON
Councillors passed Fort Simpson's operations and maintenance for 2016 and a five-year capital plan that focuses on recreation on Jan. 4 but not everyone was happy about a $1.2 million surplus carried over from last year.

Mayor Darlene Sibbeston said Fort Simpson will be focusing on recreation opportunities in the coming years. That includes a budget for maintenance to the current recreation facility as well as a brand-new fitness facility. - April Hudson/NNSL photo

Senior administrative officer Beth Jumbo told councillors although a surplus appears good, it indicates the village did not do much in 2015.

"It looks like a good thing when you have a surplus like that but it's also a bad thing," she said.

"We literally didn't do anything."

Key among the capital projects, which will total $4.3 million in 2016, is $747,000 budgeted for a new fitness centre, $1 million budgeted for water distribution infrastructure, $300,000 for a new heating system in the recreation centre and $250,000 set aside for metal hauling.

On the operations and maintenance side, the village collected a wishlist from its departments and added several items into the budget.

Those include an increase in hours for the bylaw officer, a trainee position at the water treatment plant, $17,000 in training for administrative staff to learn the village's municipal software program and an extra $40,000 to legal services under the lands and planning department.

"For the bottom line, I can say that we have an overall surplus of $1.2 million from last year," said Jumbo.

That doesn't include projected expenditures for December of $20,000 as well as the heating bill for the recreation centre, which usually hits $60,000. Heating is billed annually in February.

The 2016 operations and maintenance budget includes nearly $1 million toward the recreation centre. That covers wages and salaries, training for staff and $40,000 for contracted services. An additional $40,000 is budgeted for maintenance and renovation. Power, heating, water and sewer are expected to cost a combined $294,000.

During an interview on Dec. 29, Mayor Darlene Sibbeston said she was glad to see the village prioritize recreation, which was something she and many newly elected councillors ran on.

"When we all ran, (youth initiatives) were a huge concern for a lot of us. We're going to be putting more money toward recreation. We're going to look at doing that fitness centre, and ... our recreation co-ordinator has submitted a proposal for doing the second portion of the ski hill," she said.

"Rather than being reactive, we want to be proactive, so we're also going to do a lot of preventative maintenance and things that have been (put off)."

Although the capital budget includes money for a new fitness centre, funding for that has not yet been secured.

Over 2016 and 2017, the amount budgeted for the structure is almost $1.5 million.

Sibbeston said she hopes to make the ski hill a community initiative.

"We need the entire community involved for that to be realized," she said.

The budget process included three budget meetings over the past two months, where councillors were able to discuss line items and bring forward ideas to include.

"Basically, everything we suggested at our budget meetings is in 2016, with a little bit of left over money ... to carry into next year," Sibbeston said.

The budget still needs to be approved by the territorial Department of Municipal and Community Affairs.