Langley City receives clean financial bill of health. Overall expenditures under budget though some exceptions.

Annually, Langley City prepares year-end financial statements that must be independenty audited. Kristine Simpson from BDO Canada LLP is Langley City’s independent auditor, and at Monday’s Council meeting, she gave the 2021 year-end financial statements a clean bill of health.

Langley City’s budgeted $53.1 million in revenue for 2021, but actually received $59.7 million in revenue. The City didn’t budget to receive revenue from the casino in 2021, but it received $4 million due to its reopening. The City also received higher than budgeted revenue due to increased development activity, including developer cost charges that must be allocated to specific projects.

Overall, expenses were under budget though some individual items were over budget.

The City’s legal fees were $232,000 over budget “due to increased assistance with labour matters.”

RCMP contract policing costs in 2021 were $402,000 over budget due to RCMP members’ first collective agreement, which included a significant pay bump. This increase was offset by $424,000 in RCMP detachment savings due to staff vacancies and other operational savings.

Overall maintenance costs for roads, water mains, and sewer lines were about $267,000 higher than budgeted. $34,000 of this was due to the flooding in the fall. Some of these costs were offset by reduced labour costs.

Security costs were $38,000 over budget. Costs related to vandalism & homelessness were $54,000 over budget. The City also went over budget by $45,000 to beef up last year’s Christmas displays downtown.

Due to receiving more revenue than budgeted, and overall expenses being under budget, the City transferred an additional $7.6 million to reserve accounts in 2021. These reserve accounts are used to fund future capital projects such as renewing parks, roads, and the water and sewer system.

The following shows the City’s overall revenue and expenses:

Langley City’s overall revenue and expenses. Select table to enlarge.

For more information, please read the complete “Consolidated Financial Statements of City of Langley.”

As a housekeeping matter, Council gave first, second and third to a bylaw to align the 2021-2025 Financial Plan with the consolidated financial statements.