CALEB NICKERSON
CAMPBELL’S BAY
Nov. 28, 2018
The Council of Mayors held their annual budget meeting on Nov. 28 at the MRC Pontiac office in Campbell’s Bay.
The Equity sat down with MRC accountant Annie Vaillancourt and Director General Bernard Roy following the meeting to go over the highlights.
There was a slight increase in the 2019 budget, from $6,179,661 to $6,541,129, which Vaillancourt attributed to a large, multi-year forestry grant, the Programme d’aménagement durable des forêts (PADF).

“It wasn’t in our 2018 budget because we knew that it was coming to an end and we weren’t sure if it would be renewed or not,” she explained.
MRC Territory Director Régent Dugas explained that the fund finances a variety of projects involved with the promotion and management of forestry in the region. He presented a rundown of the projects at the previous meeting in October.
The majority of the MRC’s revenue comes from municipal shares, which are calculated by property evaluations and increased to $3,065,000 in 2019 from $2,950,000 in 2018.
Human resource expenses increased slightly, with the MRC hiring a new engineer as well as replacing its economic development director and communications director.
Vaillancourt said that having an engineer in-house would allow the MRC to get more out of the money allotted to the PPJ trail, which is $125,000 each from the MRC and the MTQ.
“Now that we have our engineer it’s going to be a lot easier to manage and get things done in a timely manner because she’ll be able to manage the projects,” she said, noting that they will be able to better plan for things like culvert repairs and resurfacing.
For 2019, $120,850 was appropriated from the accumulated surplus to balance the budget.
“We often will end the year with a surplus, or stay very close to what we budgeted,” Vaillancourt said. “We have an accumulated surplus, so that allows us to appropriate and stay balanced. If we ever have any extra, unexpected expenses throughout the year they can pass a resolution to use money from the surplus.”