It was a bit of both worlds for Bashaw’s municipal employees, as in ‘you win some and lose some’.
Town workers were handed a 2019 gift of an average 2.3 per cent cost of living increase at council’s meeting on Dec. 20. Meanwhile at the same meeting, those same employees saw significant changes to their sick leave benefits — including all of their accumulated sick day wiped off the books.
RELATED: Bashaw council removes indefinite carry over on sick days
CAO Theresa Fuller explained that council passed a motion across the board wage increase following an in-camera session. Because the increase is an average, the exact amount each employee will receive will vary.
“As well, with the change to the sick leave benefit policy, the sick time accumulated by employees no longer exists and no additional compensation is being granted,” she stated.
There are two employees though — neither of which can be named due to privacy issues — that have personal employment contracts with the town, which means they may be able to negotiate on this situation within their contract.
Fuller noted that council approved two office staff will now each be working three days per week.
“Right now, the increased administrative demands from items such as succession planning and development of mandatory three-year operating and five-year capital plans required some extra staffing in order to complete these in a timely fashion.”
Property taxes
With the end of 2018 came the deadline for residents to pay their property tax bill for the year, without incurring a substantial penalty.
Fuller explained that any outstanding amounts were hit with a 12 per cent penalty once the calendar switched, though residents and businesses do have an opportunity to avoid those via a pair of available payment plans.
The first is through the monthly instalment plan — where taxes can be spread out over 12 equal payments and automatically paid through a financial institution. Signing up can be done from January to July 31 and, if no payments are missed, no penalties will be imposed.
The other plan is the incentive to pre-pay property taxes, which provides a credit of 1.5 per cent toward the current year’s amount. However, only payments made during the month of January are eligible for this plan and payments are limited to the tax figure for the previous year.
For more information on these plans or to participate, stop in at the town office or call them at (780) 372-3911.
jordie.dwyer@ponokanews.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter