Prince Rupert City Council members have approved the 2019 Annual Report, the final step towards approval coming with Monday's Council session, with Council hearing no comments or observations from the public related to the annual review of City operations.
The Annual publication was introduced to the community on June 8th, with the City's Financial Officer Corinne Bomben providing for a brief overview at that night's City Council session, opening up a two week community engagement period for comment from the public.
With the community engagement requirements complete, the City Council members received and approved the report for 2019.
As part of the discussion towards the report, Councillor Nick Adey made an enquiry about the annual roll out of financial information known as the Statement of Financial Information, documents like these from 2019 that are normally released around the same period of time as the Annual Report.
On Monday night, Ms. Bomben observed that the deadline for publication of the SOFI information for 2020 had been extended by the province until the end of August, leaving interested residents to wait through the summer for the financial listings of council and staff salaries, as well as the list of major purchases that the City made in 2019.
"The Statement of Financial Information which is commonly referred to as the SOFI, the deadline has been extended this year due to COVID to August 30th so we still have a couple of more months" -- CFO Corinne Bomben on the SOFI publication for 2020
To bring the Annual Report Discussion to an end, Mayor Brain highlighted the importance he places towards the annual document, noting how many of the answers to questions that the community asks through the year can be found in the Report.
"When folks ask us, you know, about the details of the City's business, the finances, what's going on with what department. The annual report is actually the catch all, of all of the things that the city does. And a lot of times when people ask questions I refer them to the Annual Report and certain sections, so that they can get the answers that they are looking for. So the Annual Report really does have many of the answers that people in the community are looking for and we encourage residents to read it because it gives the highlights, the progress and also the future budgeting and what we anticipate coming over the next five years as well"-- Mayor Lee Brain
The discussion on the Annual Report can be found from the City's Video Archive starting at the 14 minute mark.
You can review the full 2019 Annual Report here.
More notes on Monday's City Council Session can be reviewed here, while a wider overview of past Council Discussion themes can be explored here.
The annual report gives a lot of information but not much about the finances concerning Watson Island and Legacy Corporation. There are a few details buried in the back pages such as that last year the City spent $1.4 million on Watson Island.
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