2021: the money,
in context.
The short version, the original numbers and what they do not tell us.
Revenue before capital transfers plus capital transfers.
Statement of operations ↗Includes depreciation. Not a total of all cash payments.
Statement of operations ↗The report calls this “excess revenues.” Not freely available cash.
Annual result ↗Three things worth knowing
The surplus has two ingredients
$10,562,187 before capital transfers, plus $5,811,259 in capital funding recognized as revenue, produces the $16,373,446 annual surplus. Recognition is not necessarily the date money arrived.
Operations, printed page 6 ↗Cash rose while debt fell
Cash increased by $9,870,187. Long-term debt decreased by $2,280,572 to $26,742,176. Capital-lease obligations are separately reported, so this debt figure is not every liability.
Position, printed page 5 ↗More cash is not all free cash
Deferred revenue rose to $18,643,212, and the cash note identifies restricted project money. Cash on hand alone cannot tell us what is available for new priorities.
Cash note, printed page 15 ↗Separate the ingredients
Do not add asset purchases to accrual expenses as a new spending total. Budget approvals, recognized funding, capital purchases and actual contractor payments must stay distinct.
The comparison inside this report
Both columns come from the posted 2021 report. The 2020 comparative is not a separate research review of that year. Differences are arithmetic and not inflation-adjusted.
| Measure | 2020 comparative | 2021 actual | Change | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue before capital transfers | $50,794,452 | $56,541,255 | +$5,746,803 | PDF page 7 ↗ |
| Capital transfers | $7,320,632 | $5,811,259 | −$1,509,373 | PDF page 7 ↗ |
| Expenses, including depreciation | $40,712,628 | $45,979,068 | +$5,266,440 | PDF page 7 ↗ |
| Annual surplus (reported as excess revenues) | $17,402,456 | $16,373,446 | −$1,029,010 | PDF page 7 ↗ |
| Year-end cash and equivalents | $62,172,887 | $72,043,074 | +$9,870,187 | PDF page 6 ↗ |
| Year-end long-term debt | $29,022,748 | $26,742,176 | −$2,280,572 | PDF page 6 ↗ |
| Year-end net financial assets | $22,070,426 | $29,494,284 | +$7,423,858 | PDF page 6 ↗ |
| Capital purchases on cash-flow statement | $13,529,370 | $15,795,954 | +$2,266,584 | PDF page 9 ↗ |
From operations to the bank balance
The cash-flow statement reports $28,049,931 from operations, less $15,795,954 in capital purchases and $2,383,790 in debt and capital-lease repayments. Together these explain the $9,870,187 cash increase. Cash flow, printed page 8 ↗.
Deferred revenue rose from $9,192,476 to $18,643,212. These are year-end liabilities, not an extra revenue amount to add to the surplus. Each agreement needs checking before attributing the increase to a specific project.
The cash note classifies $21,356,665 as reserve-fund cash. It also describes performance bonds held in trust and restricted capital funding. These categories must not be added again to total cash or treated as interchangeable with all accounting reserve balances. Cash classifications ↗.
Check the next report, too
The eight headline measures shown above match the 2021 comparative figures in the 2022 report reviewed here. No change was found in those selected measures. This does not establish that every schedule or every later reporting vintage is unchanged.
2022 comparative position ↗; 2022 comparative operations ↗; 2022 comparative cash flow ↗.
The housing-funding restatement described on the 2022 desk applies to 2022. Do not carry it back into these earlier years without supporting records.
A signed fair-presentation opinion
Lester Landau’s auditor report gives an unmodified fair-presentation opinion under Canadian public-sector accounting standards. Its closing page is signed and dated April 1, 2022.
The opinion covers material financial presentation. It does not certify that every project delivered good value or that internal controls were independently found effective.
The financial-position page has Mayor and CAO signatures with handwritten July 20, 2022 dates. Those signatures do not replace checking the council adoption motion.