Experts warn ­Sherbrooke needs to stabilize budget

By Gordon Lambie

On Monday night Sherbrooke’s city council heard from Université de Sherbrooke professor Mario Lavallée, hired by the city in a consultative capacity based on his expertise in financial management, and Nathalie Lapierre, Director of the city’s finance division, that its budget needs to be better managed in the face of growing debts and deficits. “The goal of the presentation was to present a concept we call a structurally balanced and sustainable budget,” Lapierre told The Record, explaining that such a budget takes into account costs past, present, and future. “It is a budget with a more long-term vision.” The finance division director noted that a partial analysis of the city’s current material assets (not including roads) indicates that there is more than $97 million in general maintenance work that should have been done ­already to keep buildings, vehicles, and other city properties in good shape.

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