Charlottetown councillors want more time to review audited financials
CBC
Audited statements show a $3.6 million surplus for the City of Charlottetown for the fiscal year that ended in March, but some councillors want to take a closer look at the report.
The audit was performed by external accounting firm MRSB, and managing partner Michelle Burge presented it at Monday night's council meeting. Coun. Bob Doiron said he wasn't comfortable with the process where the report is presented and councillors are asked to comment on it almost immediately.
"It seems that every time for the last eight years we're given the statements five minutes before," Doiron told CBC News after the meeting.
"We're asked to vote on them and we don't have time to discuss them or get any answers for us."
Coun. Mitch Tweel echoed that.
"We need to do our due diligence and we need to go into that with a fine-toothed comb," he said.
"I'm sure each page has at least five questions that you could ask."
The audited statements are the final report on the budget for that year, outlining what the city's revenues and expenditures actually were.
Burge outlined several highlights.
The surplus was down from $6.3M the previous fiscal, and she said there were several reasons for that,
A higher cost for snow removal was one. The $3.4 million spent in 2021-22 was 36 per cent higher than the $2.5 million from the year before. Wages were up $2.4 million. In addition, more capital projects recently led to higher amortization.
The city's net debt has increased by $4 million, Burge said, up to $104.6 million.
Despite that, Burge said the city is in a good financial position, once the city's non-financial assets are taken into account. They increased to $300 million from $284 million the year prior, and $262 million the year before that.
In recent years, the document has been more than 35 pages long.
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