PERIOD REPORT
DATE: September 11, 2019 Report No. FIN-19-015
TO: Laurie Hurst, Chief Administrative Officer
FROM: Ian Irvine, Director of Financial Services
SUBJECT:TITLE Financial Services and Information Technology Departments - 2019 Second Period Report
Body
The following is a report on the activities pertaining to the Financial Services and IT Departments from May 1, 2019 to August 31, 2019.
I. DIVISION ACHIEVEMENTS AND ACTIVITIES
1. Budgeting, Financial Reporting and Accounting Operations
• An opinion on the annual financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2018 was presented by the auditors and the statements were approved by Council in May.
• The Township’s Annual Report and Statement of Financial Information (SOFI) were approved by Council in June.
• 2019 Property tax statistics:
o Current property taxes collected as of July 2 - 91.0% (2018: 91.2%)
o Current property taxes collected as of August 31 - 93.4% (2018: 95.1%)
o Home owner grants claimed as of August 31 - 3,891 (2018: 3,849)
• 2019 Property tax deferment statistics:
o Total deferments - 514 (2018: 476)
o New applications - 74 (2018: 82)
o Total deferred taxes - $1,995,858 (2018: $1,712,990)
• Property tax notices were mailed in May and all outstanding reminder notices were processed and mailed in July.
• Properties with delinquent property taxes were identified for potential inclusion in the 2019 tax sale. The relevant title holders and mortgage companies were identified and staff continued to communicate with all parties in an attempt to avoid the need for a tax sale.
• An initial Payment In Lieu of Taxes (PILT) was received in June. The amount received represents the full amount requested in the Township’s application based on BC Assessment values. The Township does not anticipate receiving any additional payments during the year and an appeal is expected to be unnecessary.
2. Risk Management
• Coordinated with the skydiving team to ensure the necessary risk mitigation was in place in advance of the annual Buccaneer Days event.
• There are no significant or unusual liability insurance claims against the Township.
3. Information Technology
• Completed replacement of the Township’s firewall which will improve security and provide full redundancy for all internet connections.
• Fully deployed a new Citrix environment which included decommissioning of the old environment and improvements to the global antivirus protection.
• Completed a total of 421 internal staff support calls during the period which represents a 21% increase over the first period of 2019. This level of service was achieved in part due to the significant contributions of a new, temporary addition to the team.
II. COMMITTEES
• Preparation was completed for the review of Permissive Tax Exemptions by the Local Grant Committee. All applications received prior to the August 30 deadline were assembled for review by the Committee in early September.