Budget and Finances

Financial Planning is responsible for providing financial services for the City including:

• The City’s annual Five-Year Financial Plan;
• The collection and management of all City revenues including property taxes billing and collection, annual residential utility (water, sewer, garbage/green waste) charges and metered utility billings; and
• Oversees the City’s internal audit program

Municipalities must annually prepare a five-year financial plan and adopt tax rates in accordance with the Community Charter. The five-year requirement encourages city councils to consider the long-term impact of current decisions. For example, for a proposed new service, councils must consider the impact of providing the service for years to come. When undertaking a capital project, they must consider the annual operating and maintenance costs and not only the initial capital cost.

Financial Reporting is intended to provide reliable and accurate financial information on the state and health of the City’s finances to statement readers. Financial Statements provide a meaningful period summary of the sources, allocation and consumption of economic resources, how the activities affected net debt, how activities were financed and how cash requirements were met. Financial Reporting is responsible for the statutory reporting requirements of the City including:

• The City’s year-end Financial Statements and published Annual Report;
• Internal financial reporting;
• Payroll including the accurate and timely preparation of employee pay in accordance with Federal and Provincial legislation, various collective agreements and City policies; and,
• The Treasury function, which manages City investments.

Thriving entities, public or private, need functioning assets that are in good repair to generate ongoing revenues and deliver uninterrupted services. To ensure the City of Port Moody maintains its current service levels for future generations, we must develop proper asset management planning and renewal strategies. Just as a homeowner needs to maintain and eventually replace their roof, so too must the City maintain and eventually replace its roads, water system, sewer system, parks, and civic buildings. Therefore, it is best practice for a community to develop a formal Asset Management plan to guide infrastructure investments as well as the ongoing maintenance and replacement of existing assets to ensure they are properly managed over the long term.

The City of Port Moody's Long Term Strategic Financial Framework outlines a series of financial management principles that will help guide the City towards a financially sustainable future. The plan aims to ensure that Port Moody is well managed, affordable, and sustainable over the long term.

Financial management principles

We have identified the following principles to help guide future decision-making around finances. Each of them work together to provide a broad framework for managing the City's overall finances. Our revenue-generating principles include:

• property taxes and user fees
• reserves
• debt
• grants
• development finance

Our cost principles include:

• asset renewal
• new capital projects
• service delivery

We consider each of these items when planning for financial sustainability.