The year 2024 finished with a nice budget surplus for the United Counties of Prescott-Russell.
Both Gérald Gauthier, of the accounting firm MNP LLP, and Valérie Parisien, finance director for the United Counties of Prescott-Russell (UCPR), confirmed the budget surplus in their fiscal year-end reports to council April 23.
“As per our corporate policy the general surplus is transferred to the working capital reserve,” said Parisien, “and the public works surplus transferred to the linear assets reserve fund.”
The UCPR finished 2024 with about $2.7 million of unused funds remaining from its annual budget. Parisien explained that the surplus resulted from a variety of factors including some capital projects planned for last year either still unfinished or not begun, also some lower costs than originally anticipated for several projects, and lower operating expenses during the year than was expected in the budget allocations.
Out of the final surplus amount from 2024, about $1.6 million is committed towards completion of projects planned for the previous year along with funds put towards repairs and maintenance needs of the public works department.
