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The final approval of the 2024 budget was delayed until the last meeting of the year so administration can return with those changes and give more time to hear from the Alberta government about funding.

"There’s obviously significant loss in municipal revenue and the potential for a significant shift in tax burden from properties that were destroyed to properties that remained."

"Whenever there’s a plant upset or an outage as occurred during the wildfire, wastewater flows will overflow into what was the old lagoon, and because it’s unlined, [it] will seep into the ground and potentially enter the river."

"We did apply for something specific, but if there are new technologies that meet the same intent or different ways of meeting the same intent, that would be fine."

The Council Remuneration Committee recommended that comparator municipalities have a population between 8,000 and 12,000 with an average assessment base ranging between 80 and 120 per cent of Hinton’s assessment base.

An initial RFP for three battery-electric buses was issued on July 11 with a closing date of Aug. 16. The budgeted amount for the purchase is $2.25 million with the federal grant covering $1.8 million.

Requests were generally modest and similar to last year’s funding amounts in recognition of the municipality’s strained finances following the wildfire.

The financing program aims to reduce barriers for property owners to install energy-efficient and renewable energy upgrades to their homes. The participating municipality finances the upgrade, and the owner pays the cost back through property taxes.

A 100-unit cap was initially proposed, but council raised it to 130 to accommodate existing operators.

During the wildfire-related delays to the recreation facility renovations and subsequent cleanup, the pool suffered damage to the basin coating while being pressure washed, causing a delay of two-to-three weeks.