Operating Funding Surplus/(Deficit) Review - Quarter 4 Financial Update (2016)

Water and Wastewater

Water and Wastewater Services surplus of $1,949 (2.45 per cent of budget) is due to a combination of savings from: personnel vacancies in water maintenance and administrative roles; a reduction/deferral of consulting services due to staff resources being fully utilized on other projects at this time with limited capacity for additional consulting assignments; higher than anticipated water sales; and adjustment for inventory on hand at the end of the year. Offsetting these savings are higher than budgeted costs for: electricity, haulage and lagoon remediation, program specific training and lab sampling costs related to testing required in the Decew reservoir.

It is recommended that the funding surplus of $1,361 and $588 for water and wastewater be transferred to the Water Capital and Wastewater Stabilization reserves respectively.

Operating Funding Surplus (in the thousands)	$1,949
% of total budget	2.45%
% of rate revenue	-1.79%

Water and Wastewater Consolidated Statement of Operations

Waste Management

Waste Management Services surplus of $4,337 (8.85 per cent of budget) is primarily due to: an increase in the Waste Diversion Ontario funding received for the Blue Box Program; an increase in tipping fee revenue due to higher volumes received at the landfills; higher than budgeted recycling sales; lower than anticipated organic tonnes being delivered to Walker Industries; collection contract escalations and fuel prices being lower than budgeted.

The sustainable savings identified have been reflected in the 2017 budget.

It is recommended that the funding surplus of $4,337 for waste management be transferred to the Waste Management Stabilization Reserve and the Landfill Liability Reserve.

Operating Funding Surplus (in the thousands)	$4,337
% of total budget	8.85%
% of rate revenue	-12.28%

Waste Management Consolidated Statement of Operations

Levy

Regional Departments and General Government (RD&GG) has a surplus of $2,006 (0.29 per cent of budget) primarily due to investment income being higher than budgeted, supplementary tax revenue, compensation due to employee vacancies primarily in transportation, winter control and Green Shield health benefit surplus. These are offset by tax write offs, an unbudgeted change in the estimate of legal claims pending at the end of 2016 and costs associated to the previous administration in the termination of employees.

This surplus is offset by a deficit in Agencies & Boards of $2,407 primarily due to compensation costs in Niagara Regional Police Service (NRPS).

It is recommended that Niagara Regional Housing's (NRH) funding surplus before indirect allocations of $732 be transferred to the NRH reserves, NRPS's deficit before indirect allocations of $2,961 be transferred from the NRPS reserves and the remaining surplus of $1,828 be transferred to the Taxpayer Relief Reserve in alignment with the surplus/deficit policy. For more information please refer to CSD 14-2017.

RD&GG	$2,006
Niagara Regional Police	(2,781)
Court Services	(250)
Niagara Regional Housing	624
NPCA	-
Operating Funding Surplus (in the thousands)	$(401)
% of total budget	-0.06%
% of levy revenue	-0.12%

Levy Consolidated Statement of Operations