Amended borrowing bylaw approved

Posted on September 30, 2024 by Sunny South News

By Nikki Jamieson
Sunny South News

An amended borrowing bylaw was approved by Coaldale town council.

Borrowing Bylaw 899-B-09-24 Amended, Economic Development – Rail Spur was presented during council’s regular Sept. 16 meeting. The amendment was requested for Borrowing Bylaw 884-B-12-23, which was passed during council’s regular Jan. 8, 2024 meeting.

Kyle Beauchamp, chief financial officer for the town, said that the original bylaw had used the “generic template we use for all our borrowing bylaws”.

“The debt application for this is slightly unique,” said Beauchamp. “We did go to market to fund and cost out this type of structure. Our traditional lender, the Alberta Treasury Board, was not the most suitable or cost-effective option for the Town of Coaldale.”

Following the original bylaw’s passing, town administration had explored other borrowing options with other lenders, and found that ATB Financial “was the best fit for this”, through a line of credit structure, followed by a transition to a term loan.

Council would need to approve this method, as well as approve ATB Financial as the authorized lender, and for that to happen, the borrowing bylaw would need to be amended. Beauchamp said that “clerical amendments” would need to be made, largely regarding replacing the Alberta Treasury Board with ATB Financial

While usually a bylaw amendment would need to undergo the same process it was passed, including advertising standards, according to section 63 of the Municipal Government Act (MGA), “A council of a municipality may, by bylaw, revise any of its bylaws or any one or more provisions of them in accordance with this section”, and, according to part 2g, may “make changes, without materially affecting the bylaw in principle or substance”.

In the report to council, was noted that no comments were received by the town from the public during the process for the initial bylaw.

Council unanimously passed all three reading of Economic Development – Rail Spur Borrowing Bylaw 899-B-09-24 Amended.