The mayor of Arran-Elderslie is not pleased with some of the results of Bruce County council's early financial results for 2015.
Paul Eagleson describes six-figure deficits posted by some of the departments within the county as "quite startling" and "extremely unacceptable", singling out shortfalls of $225,000 at Brucelea Haven long term care home and $155,000 by the county's paramedic service.
The draft documents show the county posted an overall surplus of $878,000, but Eagleson says that's propped up mainly by the highways budget, which came in well under spending limits because of this winter's late arrival.
"If you add those two deficits up and we didn't have a light winter, we wouldn't be having a tax stabilization reserve fund, we'd be in the hole," says Eagleson. "It's the weather that saved that money that's going to give us the opportunity to offset those deficits, but those deficits can't go on."
Eagleson says he's satisfied that county staff have already started putting measures in place to correct the departmental deficits, pointing out wages were a big reason for the overspending, adding that area can be controlled.
The Bruce County Public Library also posted a deficit of $102,000, which will be addressed through the library board.
