Bruce County council heard the results of an audit for 2023.
The audit was completed by BDO Canada and showed that the financial statements from last year showed a surplus of $2,719,143.
BDO Partner Traci Smith told council that the audit presented was “a very clean audit. There [were] no adjustments that we suggest during the audit. There are no unadjusted differences in the financial statements.”
The 2023 audited financial statements include the implementation of two new accounting standards regarding Asset Retirement Obligations and Financial Instruments.
When council had questions surrounding debts, Smith explained that while budgeted debts were unavoidable, they did not indicate any trouble ahead.
“The net debt will go up a little bit every year because of the new asset retirement obligation,” she said. “You want to make sure that any signficant changes you’ve accounted for in your budgeting – for instance, the new paramedic station – you’re going to finance that over time, so that is going to significantly increase your net debt in the year you make those expenses.”
The asset retirement obligation refers to any property such as a gravel pit or a project with underground tanks that would require environmental clean-up once the site has reached the end of its service life.