The Moose Jaw Events Centre saw one of it's best first quarters financially to open 2024. 

The Moose Jaw Events Centre saw a net income of $856 for the first quarter, which is a huge improvement from a $134,800 loss. The total sales for food and beverage year-to-date was $684,181 from a profit of $260,780, according to the first quarter report to Moose Jaw City Council last week. 

“I’ve never seen this in my entire life here. A cost recover of 100.12 per cent in the first quarter. I’ve never seen that before and that’s good news,” said Coun. Heather Eby. 

“I’m certain it won’t be 100 per cent at the end of the year, but maybe it’ll be closer than it’s ever been.” 

Coun. Jamey Logan thought the best is yet to come for the Moose Jaw Events Centre financially. 

“(I’m) super happy to see the 100 per cent cost recovery and I believe that’s only including one Warrior playoff game as well. So, I’m anxious to see what the second quarter is going to look like,” Logan said. 

“There’s a couple of concerts thrown in, so they’re certainly trending in the right direction and that’s nice to see that perhaps this year will be in better shape than most and hats off to the team over there.” 

Moose Jaw City Council also got a look at the city’s first quarter financial situation last week. 

Total revenues for the first three months were reported at over $3.36 million or about five per cent of the annual budget. This is slightly ahead of 2023 when $2.976 million came in. 

Revenues from other levies was ahead of budget by about 40 per cent, mostly due to 15 Wing Fire Suppression Revenue because two quarters of revenue versus one quarter last year. 

There was no report for taxation as tax levies do not occur until June and the largest portion of contributions, grants and subsidies come from the provincial government and usually isn't received by the city until the second quarter. 

Expenditures are $14.185 million or 23 per cent of the annual budget. Expenditures are also slightly ahead of last year's $13.55 million. 

General government expenditures are at 29 per cent of the 2024 budget. In particular, several areas are ahead including financial service is at 34 per cent of the budget due to insurance allocation taking place in the first quarter versus the third quarter last year.  

Information technology is ahead of 2023 level by nearly $175,000 due to the timing of payments for software licenses. 

Human resources are at 33 per cent of its budget due to contributions for service and sick pay benefits as well as Worker's Compensation Surcharge. 

Public Works' expenditures are at $1.2 million in 2024 compared to $1.8 million in 2023. The largest decrease was under "other services and workshop." The workshop area is split into the workshop operations and fleet. Operation is on budget, but the fleet area is sitting at a loss of equipment of $134,000, which is an improvement from $600,000 last year. 

Parks and recreation remain on track to stay within budget with exceptions for third-party programming. 

Regular transit services is a 22 per cent of its budget. Vehicle maintenance continues to come at a high cost as it is about 34 per cent of the annual budget. Paratransit is seeing similar costs. But, there was good news according to Financial Services Director Brian Acker. 

“The good news with that is although our costs are going up, we do have two new transit buses coming in 2024 and as well we expect to have two paratransit buses,” Acker said. 

Landfill revenues also saw a dip in the first quarter. It was down about $110,000 from 2023, while expenditures are comparable to last year. 

“We don’t expect that to continue on being that we do expect to have significant revenue from the Buffalo Pound sludge that will be dumped. So, (we’re) just pointing out that right now at this point we are a little bit less in terms of revenue than we would have expected,” Acker said. 

There were some concerns about the table about tax arrears. A total of $3.8 million in tax arrears are still owing in the first quarter of 2024. That is up from just under $3 million during the same time period last year and $2.8 million in 2022.