Council approved a budget amendment for a new Kelowna fire truck, but they’re not happy about it.
On Monday, Kelowna Fire Chief Jeff Carlisle went before Council to ask for an additional $50,000 to purchase a new fire truck.
According to city staff, the increase in the budget is due to the further devaluation of the Canadian dollar compared to the American dollar.
“None of us are happy with this. It’s a sad reality of the economic times we’re facing and quite honestly I don’t see any other option than to go ahead with it,” said Councillor Charlie Hodge.
“We really don’t have much of a choice at this point,” added Councillor Mohini Singh.
In terms of tackling these issues in the future, the City said they will be scrutinizing the economic forecast a little more closely. Moreover, staff said they will develop a financial strategy to help consider when the best time would be to buy U.S. dollars, mitigating any potential last minute costs.
Despite having a bit of a plan in place, staff reminded Council that predicting the exchange rate is a difficult task.
Seeing as Council approved the budget amendment, the original $730,000 price tag on the new fire truck will now be bumped up to $780,000.
City staff recommended that the fire truck be purchased with both Canadian and U.S. dollars. The proposed new fire truck was approved in the 2015 capital budget.
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