Budget Requirements 

The Alberta Municipal Government Act states that each council must adopt operating and capital budgets for each calendar year by January 1 of that calendar year. 

A council may adopt an interim operating budget for part of a calendar year but the interim operating budget for a part of a calendar year ceases to have any effect when the operating budget for that calendar year is adopted.

An operating budget must include the estimated amount of each of the following expenditures and transfers:

• the amount needed to provide for the council’s policies and programs;
• the amount needed to pay the debt obligations in respect of borrowings made to acquire, construct, remove or improve capital property;
• the amount needed to meet the requisitions or other amounts that the municipality is required to pay under an enactment;
  
  

A capital budget must include the estimated amount for the following

• the amount needed to acquire, construct, remove or improve capital property;
• the anticipated sources and amounts of money to pay the costs referred to in clause (a)
• the amount to be transferred from the operating budget.

Priority Based Budgeting

The Municipality of Jasper is introducing a priority-based budgeting process for 2023. In a priority-based approach, Council identifies its strategic priorities, which become the foundation for a collaborative, evidence-based process to rank programs and services according to how well they align with the priorities. Funding is then allocated in accordance with the ranking. 

See the Municipality of Jasper’s current and past budget documents here.

Financial Reporting Requirements

The Alberta Municipal Government Act states that each each municipality must prepare annual financial statements of the municipality for the immediately preceding year in accordance with: 

• Canadian generally accepted accounting principles for municipal governments, which are the standards approved by the Public Sector Accounting Board included in the CPA Canada Public Sector Accounting Handbook, and
• any modification of the principles or any supplementary accounting standards or principles established by the Minister by regulation.  

The municipality’s financial statements must include the municipality’s debt limit, and the amount of the municipality’s debt as defined in the regulations under section 271. Each municipality must make its financial statements, or a summary of them, and the auditor’s report of the financial statements available to the public in the manner the council considers appropriate by May 1 of the year following the year for which the financial statements have been prepared.

See the Municipality of Jasper’s current and past audited financial statements here.