SANDRA M STANWAY
Brooks Bulletin
The city-county joint services committee approved next year’s budget which is $389,000 and includes $29,000 in unspent funds. The city and county will each contribute $180,000.
In addition to the usual items, salaries, travel and supplies, $22,000 was again included for physician recruitment and retention which had been used to help attract doctors to the area.
A couple of years ago the province took over the responsibility to attract physicians to communities so the local funds are now budgeted for medical staff thank you gifts, Christmas baskets, conferences and Skills Days.
“If we do get a new physician we offer a rental subsidy for one year,” said Lisa Tiffin of economic development.
Also included are membership fees to organizations such as $450 to the local chamber of commerce, $21,975 for the two municipal fees to Palliser Economic Partnership (PEP) and $11,408 to the Canadian Badlands.
Should the city or county withdraw from any organization the funds will remain in the budget.
There is also funding for New Grow and $40,000 for a new business beautification program which is under development and will start in 2020 alternating with the New Grow program.
“We’ll have to come up with some parameters on the program. We’ll talk about it in the new year as to how that should look, whether it should be a grant or an interest-free loan or a combination,” said Tiffin.
The budget also includes $10,000 for a value chain assessment which looks at the supply of goods for businesses that are purchased out of the region to see if they can be provided locally.
The committee will also use $20,000 for a search engine optimization program. The $29,000 is unspent from last year for a workforce development strategy.
Related