Canada/$689,000 surplus for the City of Chandler

The City of Chandler declares a municipal surplus of $689,142, a first in 20 years.

The mayor of Chandler, Gilles Daraîche, attributes this surplus to good account management by municipal authorities.

Every city needs a cushion to function. Unexpected things happen. The City of Chandler doesn't have a cushion. There was practically nothing, and I think that to function properly, a city needs to have some money set aside," says Gilles Daraîche.

In the mayor's opinion, it's been several years since the city has managed to rake in a surplus like this.

We're talking more than 20 years ago, when the city had revenues from the former Gaspésia plant, amounting to $1.2 million in municipal taxes, flowing into its coffers. It was still a very significant amount," adds Gilles Daraîche.

In 2022, the City of Chandler reported a deficit of $479,000. City of Chandler General Manager Roch Giroux explains that a few management changes were made to generate these surpluses.

We did things differently. For example, we sold some buildings and land. This obviously added to our revenues," says Roch Giroux.

He adds that the Town also borrowed from the working capital and used funds from the quarry and sandpit reserve to pay for some work.

In addition, certain salaries were not paid due to the absence of certain employees. In short, it's a combination of things.

Roch Giroux also mentions that this winter's milder weather helped reduce the snow removal bill.

Winter was less difficult than expected. January and February were very mild. We had a winter jolt in March, when there were three or four storms in a row.But even so, there were benefits, as January and February were very mild in terms of snow flurries.

Source: ici.radio-canada.ca/