The budgeting process starts annually with a staff-level departmental review, where front-line staff are consulted by managers about current departmental needs based on operational requirements, existing organizational plans and other feedback from the community. Next, a management review is undertaken where these needs are reviewed through the lens of prioritizing them against the organizational perspective, how they relate to progressing the UNA Strategic Plan 2023-25, and feedback received from the community through community engagement initiatives. A draft of the budgets is then developed and presented to the UNA Finance & Audit Committee for review.

Following these three stages of review, the draft budgets, supported by recommendation by the UNA Finance & Audit Committee, are reviewed and considered at the Board level before being approved for public consultation, where residents are invited to submit their feedback on the drafts. All feedback received is presented to the UNA Finance & Audit Committee, where changes are fully considered before the final draft budgets return to the full UNA Board for final consideration and approval.

The process and timeline for developing the annual budgets are established at the outset of the process and included in several reports in public sessions of UNA Board meetings. The contents of the reports and the minutes of the meetings are available for the public on the UNA website.

When the operating budget is being developed, several past years of actual data are reviewed, as well as budgeted amounts. Reasons why actual amounts differed from budgeted amounts are considered in preparing the current operating budget.

Strategic Plans are driven by the UNA Directors, the elected representatives of residents. The Strategic Plan is reviewed every few years and is the outcome of extensive planning sessions, preparation, and discussion. The core purpose of the UNA Strategic Plans is to address the ongoing and changing needs of UNA residents. Strategic Plans are driven by the UNA Directors, the elected representatives of residents. The priorities underpin the service expectations for the UNA and the annual budgeting process.

The UNA also engages residents and stakeholders in multiple ways on an ongoing basis. An example of a recent and major community consultation that drove the 2024 staff work plan was the UNA Recreation Review conducted in the spring of 2023. The Recreation Review identified multiple resident groups and demographics and conducted focus groups with multiple language support. Other ways we collect information and feedback include surveys related to UNA services (e.g., parking services and recreation programs) and community engagement (e.g., the Community Engagement Advisory Committee survey from Spring 2022).

Ongoing feedback, information collection and community engagements are an important part of the daily work of the UNA and underpin the annual budget process aligning resources with service needs and expectations.

The revenue that the UNA receives from UBC is based on the UBC services levy and the UBC general municipal services levy (the GMSL). The services levy is paid by owners of residential property in the neighbourhoods. The GMSL is paid by UBC Properties Trust and by other leaseholders in respect of rental and commercial buildings in the neighbourhoods. These service levy amounts, and hence the UNA’s revenue, have increased over the years as more buildings are constructed. (There are other reasons as well for the increase.) Part of the UNA’s budgeting process is to allocate the increasing revenue to allow us to scale up and, at the same time, maintain the quality of our service to the growing population.

The UNA also funds new projects, programs, and services to meet our growing community needs, using available financial and service data. For example, the UNA’s Recreation team tracks various metrics: the renewal and purchase of UNA parking passes; community-wide programs; community-wide events; field bookings; birthday parties; social gathering opportunities; volunteer-led programming opportunities; and youth programs. Since 2021, we have measured an annual growth in the number of projects across all areas of 12%. In addition, program areas like group fitness, program drop-ins, community-based programs, and parking passes have grown by 15%.

Under the Neighbours’ Agreement 2020 between the UNA and UBC, the UNA is responsible for delivering specific levels of landscaping services to the neighbourhoods. Landscaping includes not only the maintenance of plants, but also the maintenance of common areas, garbage collection, cleaning, the maintenance of trees, and more.

The budgeted amount for landscaping for 2024/25 is $1.5 million, which is about 3-1/2 times the actual amount of landscaping costs for 2022/23. However, because of a change that occurred on April 1, 2023, this is not a valid comparison.

Prior to April 1, 2023, UBC Properties Trust (UBCPT) managed the engagement and payment of landscaping and maintenance contractors on behalf of the UNA. UBCPT billed its costs to the UNA together with a management fee, but provided a partial credit that reduced the amounts payable by the UNA. This arrangement ceased on April 1, 2023. Since then, the UNA has engaged the contractors directly and incurred the full cost. To replace the credit, UBCPT agreed to provide annual financial support to the UNA in the form of cash payments. These payments are shown in the operating budget as “Common Area Maintenance Support (UBCPT).” To compare landscaping costs before and after the change, it is necessary to subtract the UBCPT payments. For 2024/25, the payments will be $690,000, giving net landscaping costs of $771,000. While this is still a significant increase over the actual costs for 2022/23, it can be explained, in part, by the inclusion of a tree maintenance study and a substantial increase in irrigation maintenance and water costs.

The UNA is committed to continue improving its landscaping practices. In 2023, the UNA created a Landscape Management Plan that provides a road map to better manage our public spaces by implementing maintenance practices that are consistent, cost-effective, and sustainable. One current example of an initiative that moves this plan forward is a pilot project that will help evolve our landscaping approach to one that increases the resilience of our common areas to the impacts of climate change and requires less maintenance in the long term.

As of October 2024, the UNA has 25 full-time employees and 33 part-time employees. Salary and wage information is confidential. Staff compensation complies with the UNA Compensation Policy. All UNA employee salaries fall well within their respective salary bands commensurate with their skills and experience. UNA wage rates and salaries are reviewed regularly, and the salary bands established are based on Vancouver market rates. Information regarding management salaries is included as a note in the annual financial statements, as required by law.