Property owners do not need to fear any increase in their property taxes to cover the deficit. The UCPR will use funds from its working capital reserve to cover the deficit. (File photo)
The United Counties of Prescott and Russell ended up with a deficit budget for 2025 but it isn’t a surprise or a disaster and won’t mean an extra expense for taxpayers.
“It’s unusual and it’s due to exceptional circumstances,” said Valerie Parisien financial director for the United Counties of Prescott and Russell (UCPR), during an interview following the April 22 UCPR council session.
Parisien spent about half an hour explaining to the eight mayors on UCPR council how the 2025 budget plan approved last year ended up with a $2.2 million deficit instead of a $4.8 million surplus as predicted. Most of the blame goes to the delayed opening of the new Prescott and Russell Residence long-term care and retirement facility and higher-than-expected winter road maintenance costs for the UCPR public works department because of road salt shortages.
The new Prescott and Russell Residence was supposed to open last year but delays resulted in getting the final occupancy permit approved for the facility. The new Residence is designed to accommodate 224 tenants, 78 more than the old Residence.
“A large portion of our (provincial) funding envelope for the Residence is driven by the number of beds that we do have,” Parisien told UCPR council. “So we were expecting to move in in January (2025). We budgeted accordingly and, of course, we haven’t moved in, so that affected our (budget) results this year with important revenue losses. However, they (losses) were countered by some (other) surpluses.”
Parisien’s report showed that $1,633,509 in combined surpluses from the year-end budgets for the emergency services, social services, and planning and forestry departments, and the UCPR’s taxation department offset some of the $3,873,866 in combined deficits from the general government and public works departments and the Prescott-Russell Residence. The PR Residence accounted for about two-thirds of the deficit at $2,725,664. The public works deficit share was $1,144,286, and general government $3,936.
Part of the reason for the public works department’s deficit was the increased expense for winter road maintenance due to the increased demand for road salt for snow removal. Companies that supply road salt were getting more demands for extra deliveries of salt than their available inventory could handle so they began raising the price for delivering extra road salt supplies.
There are also a number of public works and service projects included in the UCPR 2025 budget that did not go ahead as planned or are unfinished. Parisien said the funding allocations for those unfinished projects are put into specific reserves to help finance completion of those project this year as part of the overall 2026 budget.
The UCPR almost always finishes each year of operations with a budget surplus, either small or large. That surplus is either added to the working capital reserve fund or other reserve funds or may be used to help reduce any possible big tax increase in the next annual budget. Parisien noted that the 2025 budget deficit was not a surprise to her department because it anticipated the revenue shortfall impact of the delayed opening of the Prescott and Russell Residence.
“It’s unusual, but we were expecting it,” she said, citing the anticipated deficits for the Residence and the public works department.
The UCPR finance department will cover the 2025 budget deficit using funds drawn from the working capital reserve. Parisien said that the working capital reserve exists to help the UCPR deal with special or unexpected financial needs like the 2025 deficit.
Parisien also confirmed that the 2025 budget deficit will not affect the property tax rates that were approved as part of the 2026 budget. Homeowners and other property owners do not need to fear any surprise increases in their property tax bills to cover the deficit.
